25 things that are part of the Answer - (3) Technology

Anyone who knows me well or reads my blog would not expect for me to have 'technology' to my list of 25 things that are part of the answer. I am known for being quite critical of our social obsession with technology and efficiency. But, as it is with most things, technology in and of itself is not inherently bad or good and carries with it both praise and condemnation. I'll start off by explaining what I mean when I say I am critical of technology to provide a context for a discussion on some beneficial principals it carries with it.

Technology carries with it a particular culture; a culture of expectation, of progress of efficiency. We are socialised into seeing technology as some sort of path towards an answer. It has been argued that the purpose of technology is ultimately efficiency, constantly refining itself to find a more efficient means to an end. Prior to the introduction of the the combine harvester to agriculture the process of separating the grain from the stalk took a long time and lots of man power, but with its invention it reduced the time and energy replacing the less efficient technology of hands, horses and carts. This culture has taught us that it is better to be more efficient than less efficient and many times the worker becomes both dependant on the technology and a servant to that technology. Take for instance a weaver in a modern mill. The average weaver works for the loom, but rarely works the loom. The weaver's job is to keep the machine running, stop it when it makes a mistake, fix the mistake and start the machine once again. Think of the comments we hear on a regular basis, 'what would we have do without mobile phones [or the internet].' My scepticism comes in when we hand over our selves to technology, where it becomes an end in itself and we no longer ask 'is this necessary?' The best example of this is the internet, which has vastly expanded the ways we can communicate and the speed by which can get in touch with far off places, it has also made knowledge more open and shared. However I think most of us would agree that the majority of content on the internet is crap.

That being said, technology has a special place in our lives and in our communities. it shows our persistent desire to improve and critique our methods and should never be dismissed simply for being new or on a 'slippery slope' to somewhere. Our interaction with technology can be very beneficial but should always be approached with critique. I openly recognise that many of the crafts and skills that I am so fond of were 'new technologies' for generations past and in many ways positive communities of learning and communing developed around these technologies and what is to say that the technologies of today wont have that or don't already. The principal that technology and its development brings to the world is the critical method of improving the way we do things. Just think if the vigour that scientists and inventors give to creating more efficient systems and methods was duplicated across society to vigourously reforming our politics, our schools, our economics... Although the world cannot be saved through technology we can learn a lot from it's methods as long as we don't become slaves to it.

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[Mark Davidson]

That's Armagh!