As Derrick Jensen points out, this "culture as a whole and most of its members are insane." For my part, I continue to be surprised at the number of people who believe in infinite growth on a finite planet. I continue to be amazed at the number of people who believe a politician cares about them, and that their favorite politician will act in their best interests. I … [Read more...]
The Cotton Gin Paradox
It's not hard to see that, when cars get better gas mileage, people feel that they can afford to drive more. Or that consumers think they can afford a bigger refrigerator if it's Energy Star certified to use less electricity. Blame it on Jevons's Paradox that increasing the energy efficiency of machines doesn't necessarily decrease the total amount of energy people use, but … [Read more...]
Weekly Wisdom: EF Schumacher on technology and leisure
The primary task of technology, it would seem, is to lighten the burden of work man has to carry in order to stay alive and develop his potential. It is easy enough to see that technology fulfils this purpose when we watch any particular piece of machinery at work - a computer, for instance, can do in seconds what it would take clerks or even mathematicians a very long time. if … [Read more...]
Occupying science: technology for the 99 percent
Even to save the planet from climate change or to save the economy from the end of cheap oil, you can't stop the march of technological progress, we're often told. Whether it's the personal car, industrial farming or nuclear power, once the genie's out of the bottle, you just can't squeeze him back in. And anyway, we're also told, even the most dangerous technologies are … [Read more...]
#13: Putting technology in its place
Sure, we publish exclusively on the Inter-webs. We use Facebook and Twitter and we feel guilty for not doing more with Google+ yet. And we see that technology can be useful, within limits. But we also don't worship the golden calf of the techno-fix. This causes us no end of spats with our friends. For example, friends with mainstream environmental groups who promote the … [Read more...]