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Technology encompasses a lot of things. Depending on who you ask, technology ranges from material and evident—phones, solar panels, spear throwers, chewed sticks that enter anthills easier—to more abstract and debatable—writing, laws, myths, economies, or language in general. But however it’s defined, technology indisputably shapes our behaviors, our economies, our cultures, our language, our identities. It requires materials from the living world and labor from the human world, and often costs us more than we realize.
One of those costs is how technology empowers our exploitative and exhausting economic system. Technology informs and empowers capitalism and capitalism returns the favor for technology. Are we happier now that we can buy a $10 toaster or 55-inch smart-TV, or are we burdened with excessive cheap appliances that are less reliable and more replaceable (that is, easier to throw “away”) than ever? Technology, especially since the industrial revolution, creates uncontrollable positive feedback loops that drive increasing energy consumption, societal changes, and demand for more technology still. The more advanced and intensive our technology becomes, the more separated we become from local, diverse, relational economies. The effects of technology compound and entangle themselves so deeply in culture that people can’t imagine living without that technology.
None of us alone can solve the techno-capitalist predicament, but it’s sure important to talk about. As Plato would probably tell you, it’s worth a critical conversation on Zoom or two. So join us next week as we dive more into the world of tech, capitalism, and all that other stuff!
Recommended resources for this EcoGathering: