Re: SOC: Anti-tech propaganda

From: estropico > (estropico@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Oct 06 2000 - 03:04:33 MDT


Well, that might as well be titled "the anti-extropian, anti-transhumanist
manifesto"! I especially like the Orwellian "negativity is positive"...
let's face it: these people are *our enemies* and they are pushing their
memes deeper and deeper into the green movement, which in turn grows more
luddist by the day... The fact that a lot of people within the green
movement are well-intentioned, does not change the fact that they are
dangerous and viscerally opposed to the concepts of extropy and
transhumanism (rather, they would be if they ever heard of them!). An
emerging (?) mass extropian movement would need to attract the non-fanatical
greens to a form of environmentalism that does not leave progress out of the
equation. At the same time, it would need to come to terms with the fact
that a significant part of the green movement is, in its present form, lost
to our cause and should be interacted with in an antagonistic and high
profile way. That is not going to change their mind, by the way, but would
give our alternative (to theirs) world-view a higher profile - which is
increasingly needed...

>From: GBurch1@aol.com
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.com
>Subject: SOC: Anti-tech propaganda
>Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 14:58:53 EDT
>
>Here's something from one of the radical green lists I monitor:
>
> >Attitudes to protect you against the one-sided information onslaught:
>
> >1. Since most of what we are told about new technology comes from its
> >proponents, be deeply skeptical of all claims.
> >
> >2. Assume all technology "guilty until proven innocent."
> >
> >3. Eschew the idea that technology is neutral or "value free." Every
> >technology has inherent and identifiable social, political, and
>environmental
> >consequences.
> >
> >4. The fact that technology has a natural flash and appeal is
>meaningless.
> >Negative attributes are slow to emerge.
> >
> >5. Never judge a technology by the way it benefits you personally. Seek
>a
> >holistic view of its impacts. The operative question is not whether it
> >benefits
> >you, but who benefits most? And to what end?
> >
> >6. Keep in mind that an individual technology is only one piece of a
>larger
> >web of technologies, "megatechnology." The operative question here is how
>the
> >individual technology fits the larger one.
> >
> >7. Make distinctions between technologies that primarily serve the
> >individual or the small community (e.g., solar energy) and those that
> >operate on a scale
> >outside of community control (e.g., nuclear energy). The latter kind is
> >the major
> >problem of the day.
> >
> >8. When it is argued that the benefits of the technological lifeway are
> >worthwhile despite harmful outcomes, recall that Lewis Mumford referred
>to
> >these
> >alleged benefits as "bribery." Cite the figures about crime, suicide,
> >alienation,
> >drug abuse, as well as environmental and cultural degredation.
> >
> >9. Do not accept the homily that "once the genie is out of the bottle
>you
> >cannot put it back," or that rejecting a technology is impossible. Such
> >attitudes
> >induce passivity and confirm victimization.
> >
> >10. In thinking about technology within the present climate of
>technological
> >worship, emphasize the negative. This brings balance. Negativity is
>positive.
> >
> >--Jerry Mander
> >Author of "In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and
>the
> >Survival of the Indian Nations

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