The Meaning of Technology
Albert Borgmann,
The World, I,
Aug 06, 2003
Arun-Kumar Tripathi picked this iten to run today, and though it's several years old, it still captures a common sentiment. And while I think that Albert Borgmann is right when he calls on people to restrain the influence of technology, I don't agree with the value system he proposes to adjudicate that moderation (and therein lies the dilemma). "Family values are neither commodities nor disembodied fragrances that make for a pleasant atmosphere," he writes, describing "a society centered on focal things in the private realm and on communal celebrations in the public." Well maybe, but what I see when I see this sort of picture is a retreat into our collective enclaves, a vision of walled communities, male-dominated hierarchal structures controlled by dogma and bloodlines. Borgmann's unfortunate choice of a musical example (read between the lines) displays the darker side of this ethos, one which technology, thankfully, allows us to transcend. What Borgmann doesn't get is that the community that is created online is a means to slip free from the bonds of family and community, a doorway to a larger world, the light outside the cave, a reality where we see there are other possibilities, other ways of being. Borgmann would have us give that up, and return to the shadows. Unacceptable.
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