March 31, 2017

Richard Sclove on technology and social reform




"Technology is not the cause of social ills, but it contributes to all of them. To continue to neglect technologies' broad social dimensions virtually guarantees that we will remain ineffectual in addressing our deepest social problems and sources of personal malaise. It will not do, moreover, to imagine that other kinds of social reforms — be they conservative or radical — must precede significant reform in the technological domain, such that we must 'First transform society, then tackle technology.' That refrain overlooks ways that existing technologies help constitute the present social order and so constrain social transformation. Until technological concerns are fully integrated into programs of social transformation, such programs will be stunted or abortive."
                                                  Richard Sclove*









*From Democracy and Technology 





Edward Abbey on the ideology of growth





"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."

                                                               Edward Abbey








March 14, 2017

"There is no such thing as 'restrained progress.'"





"There is no such thing as 'restrained progress.' You are hearing many voices today that object to an 'unrestricted technology.' A restricted technology is a contradiction in terms."

                                                              – Ayn Rand