Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.93.961007095435.27051B-100000@seas.marine.usf.edu> Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 10:07:06 -0400 From: Sean McElligott <mailto:seanmce@SEAS.MARINE.USF.EDU> Subject: Re: Appropriate Technology To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Hello All,I would like to jump into the fray with a suggestion about the 'goodness' and 'badness' of technology. My view is that an inanimate object cannot be alone be taken as good or bad, but when viewed within a context it becomes one of those. For example, much of the touted 'technological' advance were built with a purpose in mind, with a specific goal, and it is those goals which I believe need to be re-examined. If all of the energy in developing technology is going torwards profit maximization and not sustanability there are going to be a number of negative effects from the creation of that technology. A land mine is a technology which was sepecifically invented for harm and conquering and was built with that intention and can therfore in no way be called good, but when you get into computers it gets a little more hazy. Computers though were not built with the intention of improving the lot of as many people as possible(because they are inaccesible to the majority of people), but rather to maximize productivity and speed. If all of the energy that was devoted to the rapid creation of computers was devoted to some other technological advance with a more "human face" I would bet that we wouldn't be having many of the problems that are plaguing the planet today.
Peace, Sean Harper's Index, October 1989: Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250