Message-ID: <m0vCsAK-00054xC@arcc.or.ke> Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 21:55:00 EAT From: Ndungu Kahihu <mailto:ndungu@ARCC.OR.KE> Subject: APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY, VALUES et. al. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Dear Friends,Forgive me for Jumping into the debate so late, but it is so intresting that I feel I have to contribute somehow. As one of those from the "relatively technology free" third world, I think all this debate about the value (or lack of it) of technology is mere "anti semantics", as some one said. Otherwise what is technology but an expression of the human urge to create and this way take controll of his/her anassured destiny? Simiraly I believe the debate about the "animate" and "inanimate" nature of things is yet onther manifestation of our strage urge to simplify an otherwise (to us) complex reality. Thus we always attempt to describe our lives in the simplest linear framework possible, in this case a dual construct - good versus bad, animate versus inanimate, technology versus lack of it, and so on.
If we were brave enough to admit it, the truth is likely to be, technology, values, good or bad, are all in our minds. They are neither good nor bad unless we chose to make them so. Perharps we are loth to admit this truth from the fear of its implications. After all if we are responsible for such a basic life construct, then it follows that we are capable of doing and being much, much more than we have been so far. And if we were to follow such a form of thought, who is to say, or know, where it will all lead.
best wishes to all,
Ndungu Email: <mailto:ndungu@arcc.or.ke>