MIT271: Technology
& Human Values
March 26, 2002:
Intentions
— Options and Revenge

Administration
 Tests back Thursday
 REMINDER: Exam
 10-12
 Sunday April 28
 Natural Science 7
 Study Questions available last class

Related Upcoming Courses
 Summer Intersession:
Geography105A: Conservation and
Development
 Summer Day:
Philosophy 020: Introduction to Philosophy
(with me)
 Fall 2002:
 Philosophy 245 Media Ethics
 MIT2?? Images and Persuasion in Science
 MIT2?? Objectivity

Virginia Postrel

Redefining the political landscape after the Cold War
 The old left-right distinction often fails to hold
 With new technological issues in politics, the conflict is more between statists , who may be right or left, and dynamists; and among different types of stasist

Types of stasist
 Reactionaries : value stability, reverse change

 cultural vitality (religious, environmental) e.g. Unabomber, Strong
 Technocrats : value control, plan change

 traditional ideals of the good life e.g. Dyson, Gelernter

The One Best Way
 The technocratic notion of progress
 A western expectation: uniform, comprehensive institutions guided by experts
 Debates focus on deciding for every new development how it is to be implemented — competing technocratic schemes

Edward Tenner:
Revenge Theory
 Technologies and their sustaining bureaucracies have some troubling sides
 “The point is understanding choices.” [emphasis mine]

Repeating
 Easier/faster chores may have to be done more often, or require additional chores
 e.g. household appliances, computerized revision, repetitive stress disorders

Recomplicating
 Elaborate systems required to sustain new technology make it hard to understand
 Especially the simplifying abilities of computers

Recongesting
 System becomes slower and less comfortable
 E.g. private cars offering apparent speed

Regenerating
 Solution revives or amplifies problem
 E.g. pest control

Rearranging
 Problem merely shifted
 E.g. air-conditioning, disaster control

Question
 Can technocratic stasis be justified by concerns about revenge effects?