{"id":30745,"date":"2018-02-09T08:01:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T13:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30745"},"modified":"2018-02-09T08:10:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T13:10:14","slug":"technology-and-its-discontents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=30745","title":{"rendered":"Technology and Its Discontents"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"post-image\">\n<div class=\"fimg-wrapper fimg-cl\">\n<div class=\"featured-image\">\n<div class=\"fimg-inner\">\n<div class=\"vm-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vm-middle\">\n<h3 class=\"post-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.localfutures.org\/technology-and-its-discontents\/\">Technology and Its Discontents<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"backstretch\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.resilience.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/16535687768_af0b9b0711_o.jpg\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"post-content\">Tucked within the pages of the January issue of the\u00a0<em>Agriview<\/em>, a monthly farm publication published by the State of Vermont, was a short survey from the Department of Public Service (DPS). Described as an aid to the Department in drafting their \u201cTen Year Telecom Plan\u201d, the survey contains eight questions, the first seven of which are simple multiple-choice queries about current internet and cell phone service at the respondent\u2019s farm. The final question is the one that caught my eye:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cIn what ways could your agriculture business be improved with better access to cell signal or higher speed internet service?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Two things are immediately revealed by this question:<\/p>\n<p>(a) The DPS believes that the only possible outcome from faster and better telecommunication access is that things will be \u201cimproved\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>(b) If you disagree with the DPS on point (a), they don\u2019t want to hear about it.<\/p>\n<p>A cynic might conclude that the DPS is only looking for survey results that justify decisions they\u2019ve already made, and that\u2019s probably true. But the department\u2019s upbeat, one-dimensional outlook on technological change is actually the accepted norm in America. In his book\u00a0<em>In the Absence of the Sacred<\/em>, Jerry Mander points out that new technologies are usually introduced through \u201cbest-case scenarios\u201d: \u201cThe first waves of description are invariably optimistic, even utopian. This is because in capitalist societies early descriptions of new technologies come from their inventors and the people who stand to gain from their acceptance.\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.localfutures.org\/technology-and-its-discontents\/#_edn1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" name=\"_ednref\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have made an art of utopian hype. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of high-tech\u2019s most influential boosters, gave us such platitudes as \u201cpersonal computers have become the most empowering tool we\u2019ve ever created,\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.localfutures.org\/technology-and-its-discontents\/#_edn2\" name=\"_ednref\">[2]<\/a> and my favorite, \u201ctechnology is unlocking the innate compassion we have for our fellow human beings.\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.localfutures.org\/technology-and-its-discontents\/#_edn3\" name=\"_ednref\">[3]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technology and Its Discontents Tucked within the pages of the January issue of the\u00a0Agriview, a monthly farm publication published by the State of Vermont, was a short survey from the Department of Public Service (DPS). Described as an aid to the Department in drafting their \u201cTen Year Telecom Plan\u201d, the survey contains eight questions, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7711,1825,13365,786],"class_list":["post-30745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-local-futures","tag-progress","tag-steven-gorelick","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30747,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30745\/revisions\/30747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}