COMP 49 A2
Five Things We Need to Know
About Technological Change
Danny Silver
JSOCS, Acadia University
Neil Postman
• Delivered this talk in 1998 to a gathering of
theologians and religious leaders in Denver, Colorado
• An American author, media theorist and cultural
critic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Postman
• He is speaking to concerns regarding “faith” in the
new millennium
• Presents a fear of technology creating false absolutes
• But notes that this always existed
• https://www.student.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~cs492/papers/neil-postman--fivethings.html
The Five Things
1. Culture always pays a price for technology.
2. There are always winners and losers in a
technological change.
3. Every technology embodies a philosophy, an
epistemological, political or social prejudice
4. Technological change is not additive, it is ecological.
5. Technology becomes mythic - seen as part of the
natural order of things.
First
•
•
•
•
Technological change is always a trade-off
It giveth and it taketh away
We always pay a price for technology
The greater the technology, the greater the
price
• Think of a technology - its pros / its cons ??
Second
• That there are always winners and losers from a new
technology
• Technological advantages are never distributed
evenly
• The winners always try to persuade the losers that
they are really also winners
• The printing press enabled the masses, but hurt the
church
• Other examples … ?
Third
• Ebedded in every technology is a powerful idea - an
epistemological, political or social prejudice.
• Sometimes that bias is greatly to our advantage;
sometimes it is not:
– The printing press annihilated the oral tradition
– Telegraphy annihilated space
– The computer is affecting our communities
• “The Medium is the Message” Marshall McLuhan
– To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail
– Every technology has a prejudice
Fourth
• Technological change is not additive; it is ecological
• Consequences are always vast, often unpredictable
and largely irreversible
• Capitalists seen as radical culture changers: Bell,
Ford, Edison, Goldwyn, Berners-Lee
• Is tech. change too important to be left entirely in
the hands of Bill Gates?
• Consider the impact of ICT on politics (think Obama)
Fifth
• Technology tends to become mythic perceived as part of the natural order of
things - eg. The alphabet was invented – it is
not natural
• Always dangerous because it is then accepted
as is, and not easily susceptible to
modification or control.
• Tends to control more of our lives than is good
for us - eg. the hours of the day TV is on