This advertising is an interesting example of the chasm between how Silicon Valley companies and their customers understand the cultural meaning of their products. It is fascinating on its own terms, but then add the context that these companies are not just wealthy, but mobilizing their wealth to project political and social power. That's quite frightening.
Illich is an old friend, though I've not picked him up in decades. Borgmann is in the "not gotten there yet" pile, so hoping you'll be writing about him sometime.
I am very curious why you chose to articulate βI am not a techno-pessimist?β
It feels from the outside that you may be asking the very same question, as many of us are who think broadly, βCan his possibly be why we are here on earth,β and suspecting that technology may be deeply reactionary and detrimental to human-ness. So why are you resisting?
I find that antipathy toward tech these days is considered too radical, like being antenatal or wondering whether an incestuous relationship post-menopause is actually a bad thing. Our culture wants and depends on tech so much that to deny it is to risk being thought a pastoral romantic or someone simping for the βNoble Savage.β
I want to give you permission to be not ok with tech. Not that this permission has value from me, but that it has value from the human perspective. Being a deep thinker means being willing to go beneath the shibboleths, and tech is the greatest one of our age.
This advertising is an interesting example of the chasm between how Silicon Valley companies and their customers understand the cultural meaning of their products. It is fascinating on its own terms, but then add the context that these companies are not just wealthy, but mobilizing their wealth to project political and social power. That's quite frightening.
Illich is an old friend, though I've not picked him up in decades. Borgmann is in the "not gotten there yet" pile, so hoping you'll be writing about him sometime.
I am very curious why you chose to articulate βI am not a techno-pessimist?β
It feels from the outside that you may be asking the very same question, as many of us are who think broadly, βCan his possibly be why we are here on earth,β and suspecting that technology may be deeply reactionary and detrimental to human-ness. So why are you resisting?
I find that antipathy toward tech these days is considered too radical, like being antenatal or wondering whether an incestuous relationship post-menopause is actually a bad thing. Our culture wants and depends on tech so much that to deny it is to risk being thought a pastoral romantic or someone simping for the βNoble Savage.β
I want to give you permission to be not ok with tech. Not that this permission has value from me, but that it has value from the human perspective. Being a deep thinker means being willing to go beneath the shibboleths, and tech is the greatest one of our age.
Free your mind, you are so close.