Eliminate sageliness, throw away knowledge,
And the people will benefit a hundredfold.
-Lao Tzu, in the Tao Te Ching
Technology is pushed forward by the unveiling of the natural order (logos) whenever it can find a medium in which it can grow. But the growth of technology also reflects the specific nature of that medium, and different layers of technology reflect the earlier order that came before it.
Our own technology grows on the medium of human beings and it is thus reflective of our mob mentality and our instincts. Moreover, the growth of this technology usurps instincts and actions that, at one time, might have been adaptive but now are made maladaptive within very complex technology. Unfortunately, this means that many human actions, although seemingly good on the surface, are now also used by technology for its own sake, and that long-term use of human good often goes against the well-being of all biological life.
For instance, learning and collecting information during the hunter-gatherer stage was adaptive. And we enjoy learning. But, that enjoyment of learning and the instinct to gather information has led to the creation of modern universities, which mainly serve the system. Indeed, the primary purpose of the university is to stamp out mindless cogs for corporations.
And art, which is that mystical and creative force within us, has been usurped to provide endless material for algorithms online to further consumerism, which is one of the current mechanisms of the technological system to further itself. Although we still have the urge to create, the environment in which we can create art has been increasingly restricted to digital realms that discourage the sharing of human experience and encourage superficial production.
Even healthcare has been modified by the system to serve the system. Of course, human beings are social creatures and in small tribes, we had the natural instinct to care for other members of the tribe. Indigenous populations had shamans and knowledge of naturalistic medicine that eased the worst of pains.
But now, healthcare serves the system more than it serves us. Of course, it can also help individuals. But it also pushes dangerous technologies such as genetic engineering, which is likely to be used to adapt people to increasingly artificial conditions created by technology. And let’s not forget that too much advanced medicine isn’t a good thing either in the long run, because it only encourages overpopulation, thereby making the planet more unlivable for all organisms.
That’s the great paradox and what makes technology especially confusing: good, compassion, and natural human expression are weaponized into tools to further an exceptionally violent system that also kills biological life at an unprecedented pace. Merely by following our instincts to help people and create new things, we also participate in the destruction of life.
This complex and bizarre situation has only arisen because technology has evolved into a very complex organism in its own right that is slowly absorbing us into mere parts into its whole. And in this process, the needs of biological life are secondary to the needs of the technological organism.
Thus, we must learn to make unintuitive choices if we are to fight this next organizational stage of technology. Such unintuitive choices include things like reducing innovation. That doesn’t mean reducing our creative force, but redirecting it so that it does not further the growth of technology. It also means eliminating research into genetic engineering in healthcare, even if such research could cure rare diseases. Remember, the promise of curing rare diseases is just the dangling of bait by technology to push itself into the next stage of evolution.
In the end, we have to become aware of how technology takes our natural goodness and turns it into a weapon for its own advancement, and we must stop this process. If we don’t, we will be completely swallowed by technology and there will be no going back.
Glad you made the points in this piece.
> technology has evolved into a very complex organism in its own right that is slowly absorbing us into mere parts into its whole. And in this process, the needs of biological life are secondary to the needs of the technological organism.
This makes Technology sound like a parasite: the host (humanity, Earth) is maintained only so long as the parasite desires, then discarded. Humanity will probably not remain a useful host once the supetintelligent machine superspecies can launch into the cosmos.
> It also means eliminating research into genetic engineering in healthcare, even if such research could cure rare diseases. Remember, the promise of curing rare diseases is just the dangling of bait by technology to push itself into the next stage of evolution.
Suppose that Tech's servants discover a way to transplant heads (or brains or minds or personalities), and extend human lifespan by magnitudes; there is no plausible scenario where this life-extending capability is applied to the present 8B human population, to keep the species alive in a healthy and natural form. It is far more likely that a human mind (or more) would be kept as a novelty analogue 'pet' for the machine superspecies, and I think this *one* use of people (as digital slaves) is unlikely to appeal to Technology - and it does not console me for the death of all evolved Earthly life.