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Can An Individual Still Resist The Spread of Technology? (chicagotribune.com)
schwit1 shares a column from the Chicago Tribune:
When cellphones first appeared, they gave people one more means of communication, which they could accept or reject. But before long, most of us began to feel naked and panicky anytime we left home without one. To do without a cellphone -- and soon, if not already, a smartphone -- means estranging oneself from normal society. We went from "you can have a portable communication device" to "you must have a portable communication device" practically overnight... Today most people are expected to be instantly reachable at all times. These devices have gone from servants to masters...
Few of us would be willing to give up modern shelter, food, clothing, medicine, entertainment or transportation. Most of us would say the trade-offs are more than worth it. But they happen whether they are worth it or not, and the individual has little power to resist. Technological innovation is a one-way street. Once you enter it, you are obligated to proceed, even if it leads someplace you would not have chosen to go.
The column argues "the iPhone X proves the Unabomber was right," citing this passage from the 1996 manifesto of the anti-technology terrorist. "Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, so that they can never again do without it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Not only do people become dependent as individuals on a new item of technology, but, even more, the system as a whole becomes dependent on it."
Few of us would be willing to give up modern shelter, food, clothing, medicine, entertainment or transportation. Most of us would say the trade-offs are more than worth it. But they happen whether they are worth it or not, and the individual has little power to resist. Technological innovation is a one-way street. Once you enter it, you are obligated to proceed, even if it leads someplace you would not have chosen to go.
The column argues "the iPhone X proves the Unabomber was right," citing this passage from the 1996 manifesto of the anti-technology terrorist. "Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, so that they can never again do without it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Not only do people become dependent as individuals on a new item of technology, but, even more, the system as a whole becomes dependent on it."
Not really true. I can't think of anything I can do with my phone that I can't do otherwise. While it's easy to pay bills with an app, I can still go into my bank or mail a cheque. I can still use a camera, even a film camera if I want to. I can still mail a letter rather than use email.
I actually don't use my cellphone much. It's all voice calls or SMS. Any use as a web browser is a last resort and perhaps twice weekly. The apps are jokes and I usually don't bother even opening any of them on the average week. I spent 20 years on call. I leave my cell phone hooked up to the charger before 8pm every night and I go upstairs. If it rings or buzzes, tough shit. If you want me, you have to know my wife's number, or my private e-mail address which few have.
In regards internet usage, I stop here every once in a while. I do pay attention to the facebook crowd, mostly family. I don't use Twitter (anti-free speech issue there, as well as not seeing any value added in using it). I read my fill of 'news' of different stripe and play a FPS or two, write some code, or read books, admittedly with a Kindle, but that's only because the wife was giving me agita about the dead tree type taking up too much room in the house.
I also don't watch TV. Full stop. Haven't since I was 12. I have a media server but it's mostly for the wife and kids. I'll watch South Park or Archer once in a while, but off the server, and therefore downloaded. I never use Netflix or any other streaming service, either.
If you told me tomorrow all the computers were going away, i'd be ok as long as I could get dead tree books. I'd regret it because then I couldn't even consider coding stuff. Otherwise, who cares. The internet is way overrated.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
not in any meaningful way. Individuals can't 'resist' any broad societal change on their own.
That said, the Unibomber's manifesto is just plain silly. The problem isn't dependence. It's tech being used to make our lives worse instead of better, usually at the behest of the ruling class. It's everything from tracking cookies that know exactly how much extra you'll pay for that bag of cat food or that box of diapers to armed autonomous drones. That's the part that's worth resisting. Not some nebulous assault on an idealized way of life pulled from something Thoreau wrote but systemic oppression of the sort that leads to the next 1000 year dark ages. And no, you can't resist that as individuals. It requires a concerted effort on the part of the working class. Unions, Democracy and powerful institutions that are carefully and continuously monitored.
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It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.
There's a fine line between something that's just really useful and something that you depend upon.
The smartphone has become such an essential part of everyday life, that whenever I leave the house and forget mine, I very much notice it. But - it rarely actually stops me from doing anything. It's just an unusual feeling because it became a habit. Now habits might be hard to break, but they are not yet dependencies.
I can imagine that teenagers who grow up without ever having lived without a smartphone depend more strongly on it. And some individuals certainly develop a dependency on the level of addiction. And yes, more and more of the world around us simply assumes that you have a smartphone. There is a lot of truth to it. But the real world is rarely as black and white as manifestos make it.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
No, this isn't a millennial view. This shows how far Slashdot has fallen. I remember Slashdot at its best, around 2000, and this is awful in comparison. There are still a few reasons to visit this site, even though the site sucks now. And yes, the management and editors are to blame for it.
This seems like an anti-tech story. Although there have always been concerns here about privacy and censorship, there was still an appreciation fow new technology. There were a lot more articles of interest to nerds instead of mainstream news. Are nerds really interested in multiple articles within a few hours of each other about how sites like Google and Facebook allowed advertisers to target racists? Such things are commonplace on Slashdot now, and that's why many nerds have left. Here are things Slashdot did have in the past:
1) Lots of articles about open source and Linux, especially when new versions of widely used software were released. Slashdot was committed enough to open source that they released the source to this site and hosted it on Sourceforge. Sadly, that code hasn't been updated in almost a decade, though it has been forked. Slashdot also posted a lot more content that would be of interest to programmers and developers.
2) More general tech articles about the releases of new hardware and closed source software.
3) A few posts about scientific advances, many of which were in the science section rather than on the front page.
4) Your rights online did raise concerns about piracy, TSA, surveillance, censorship, the ability to film the police, and privacy. However, there were a lot of articles about things like DeCSS, software patents, and often how they affected open source software.
5) Lots of articles about hobbyist DIY projects. If someone completed a cool software or electronics project, they'd create a webpage showing how they did it, and would submit it here. These were very cool because readers could duplicate the projects or even improve upon them. I really liked seeing how creative people were and the ideas they came up with.
6) There were a lot more articles about topics of interest to nerds like Star Trek, Star Wars, comic books, and stuff like that. They didn't really involve tech, but they appealed to nerds and we're of interest to nerds like Rob Mala who ran this site.
7) Ask Slashdot questions were often very useful because this site had a lot of very intelligent and experienced people who could answer challenging tech questions.
8) Slashdot posted lots of articles about video games and new releases. There were also articles about retro gaming.
9) There was a lot of user-submitted content including book reviews, features (editorials written by users), and questions submitted by Slashdot readers for intervews with prominent people. There are occasionally interviews still, but these were much more frequent in the past.
10) Malda and some of the other editors hosted what was effectively a podcast, long before that term was coined. It was called Geeks in Space.
11) Jon Katz was basically Slashdot's paid troll. He wrote editorials and almost always got flamed for them. He lost his job due to cutting costs a bit and wasn't replaced.
Many of these things are long gone. Slashdot wasn't a mainstream tech news site or a place for paranoid lunatics. It was a news site for nerds, and many of the topics that appealed directly to nerds are long gone. Even the focus on open source appealed to nerds because having access to the source allowed them to tinker with the code and do some really interesting things. Slashdot appealed to nerds and hobbyists, and most of that content is long gone. If the editors want the nerds to come back, they should post more of that content or go out and look for it online. Solicit that type of content, along with features and book reviews. Cut out most of the articles designed to generate political discussion, because we don't need several articles within the span of a day or two that are effectively about the same thing.
Bring back news for nerds!
There are certain tecnologies that are so compelling that it would be absurd to avoid them - the use of fire, cooking, clothes, knives etc, but the mobile phone doesn't even come close. I think the people who keep coming up with this sort of hype, have something they want to sell, and I have no confidence in what they have to tell us.
From the linked column, claiming that Kaczynski was right because:
"He cites the automobile, which offered every person the freedom to travel farther and faster than before. But as cars became more numerous, they became a necessity, requiring great expense, bigger roads and more regulations. Cities were designed for the convenience of drivers, not pedestrians. For most people, driving is no longer optional."
Like every other technology, the automobile caught on as it became apparent that it was not just slightly better than the old way of doing things, but much better (The "Peter Drucker principle"). This is the lock-in claimed by the column, rather than some magic power that tech has to enslave us.
Suppose that when the automobile was introduced we had made a conscious decision as a society to reject it? We might then have developed railroading to some Japan-like ultimate limit, with every American living in high-rise apartments in cities of 40 million, and nothing in the countryside but large-scale farming and mass train travel to National Parks. Kaczynski would have complained just as much about having to live in a "regimented" society of this kind, "where we never have intimate contact with nature."
At any given time we live the way we want to live, given the tools available.
what is normal society?
I mean if you are trying to live like a celebrity and think that that is a normal lifestyle then sure you wont be able to live with out technology.
If you enjoy a quiet life with a small trusted group of friends then no you don't, just like you dont need the technology to meet new people either. Most social groups have routine times in which they meet to conduct their activities as human being are quite often creatures of habit. for example: fitness classes, sporting events, lectures, classes, etc. these things happen on a regular basis.
The larger problem is that people really need to re-evaluate their "needs" and wants.
Do you really need a taxi? last time i checked, most metropolitan areas had a form of transit system, and there are generally buses that will get you between the different cities/towns etc.
as far as people being expected to be reachable at all points in time, well simply it is up to an individual to manage those expectations. I make sure that people know well in advance that i am not reachable at all points in time and that there really is no emergency that requires me to be on call 24/7. seriously, no reason at all, and once people start to get it then they will either respect your wishes or not talk to you any more but do you really need those people to be talking to you. People who expect you to be available 100% of the time 24/7 have an air of desperation and co-dependency about them, they are the ones that require constant hand-holding and encouragement to even do the simplest of things. they are the ones who have rejected a normal society, one where people are individuals working together to achieve a greater good. they are the narcissists who expect the world to be all about them, and truthfully they are the ones who have bought what was sold to them by people willing to control them. After-all once you take away the individualism and reinstall it with codependency then those people will always be dependent on the ruling class.
Just set your phone to "vibrate" or "silent" and only accept calls when you like. If it is important, people will text or leave a message. From my experience, this does cause no problems. And if you want some hours of complete peace, leave your phone at home.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.