The wisdom in “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder” also applies to “Technology is in the experience of the recipient.” Arthur C. Clark maintained that “Technology is indistinguishable from magic.” R. Buckminster Fuller’s position was that “Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons”. Albert Einstein said that “Technology has exceeded our humanity.” Generation X and Y express their opinion through the words “Technology is cool.” Like beauty, technology has as many meanings as there are lives on this earth.
This diversity in meaning has existed forever for every thing that has improved human life. While many early scriptures presented “Fire” as a representation of the Almighty or as a gift from the Almighty to mankind, mankind values fire for the heat it provides and the creativity it has unleashed. Over the years, we have figured out how to use fire for comfort, for increasing our food supply by cooking before eating, for keeping predators at bay and even for disposing all traces of what we dislike and like. Fire was a hot technology many eons ago but is not on our technology radar today because its benefits are widely available and as a result, our creative attention has shifted away from fire.
Life, however, poses different challenges in different parts of the world. In much of the developed world, electricity has almost gained the status of a human right. In the developing and rural world where electricity is a rare and uncertain commodity but whose potential to improve life is accepted, creative minds are focused on electrification technologies. In a similar vein, as technologies that defined the manufacturing age loose attention of minds in the West, they are front-and-center in local creative minds in China and India because of their potential to improve local lives through industrialization.
2 comments:
I hope it isn’t splitting hairs, but what Clarke actually said was, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." To shorten it to "Technology is magic" seems to deny that basic tools (e.g., garden shovel, claw hammer, etc.) are themselves technologies, however well and widely understood they may be.
However, your overall point is certainly spot on -- definitions of technology are shifting, quickly and asymmetrically, the whole world over. It is humbling to consider how many people might struggle to even grasp some of the things we may take completely for granted.
M. E. Mendrygal
mendrygal@mac.com
While technology may have the potential to improve life, 'tech transfers' often create more problems than solutions. This is particularly true when ‘progress’ only means wider distribution and use of inherently wasteful technologies.
Rather than simply accelerating the consumption of our planet’s resources, Developed Nations need to make offsetting investments in a search for eco-friendly ways to bring plentiful energy and inexpensive technology to Less Well Developed Nations. Helping the less fortunate will require significant capital and, born of an enlightened self-interest, the willingness to spend it. But the entire planet would benefit.
M. E. Mendrygal
mendrygal@mac.com
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