Technology superstitions
David Ignatius quotes Elizabeth Kolbert from her New Yorker piece: "It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing."
The fact (and I think it is a fact) that most people believe technological sophistication somehow leads us to make wise decisions ought to make us wonder: why do people think that?
What connection is there between technological know-how and wisdom, or even basic prudence? Answer: none at all.
Comments
Nonsense. With technological know-how, you can get in out of the cold. People do lots of dumb things when their ears are frozen.
Posted by: Heidi | January 18, 2006 10:30 PM
Except your technological know-how that enables you to make a small, very warm room might be making it easier to ignore all the people outside the room as you couldn't when you didn't have the know-how, just the ability to rub the sticks and make a fire to which they could add their sticks.
Reminds me of an oft-quoted remark by a WWII general: "We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the sermon on the mount."
Posted by: PG | January 30, 2006 12:49 AM