Technology and Its Discontents

Book excerpt: We are defined by the tools and technologies we use. They shape our identity. They feed and shelter us. But they also threaten our very existence. What separates us from all other animals is primarily the plethora of tools and technologies we created for our well-being and for our very survival. They are the source of our admirable success as a species; and they are the source of our most terrifying problems. Sometimes, they are the only solution to the very problems they created. That puts us in a race against ourselves, a race among technologies, a race between the good they do and the misery they cause, often the same technology doing both at different times and under different conditions. This has been the human condition from the beginning of our species, and it will likely be the human condition at the end. Although we appear helpless, being dragged along a road carved by our own creations, there are some things we can do to minimize the risk to ourselves, without giving up all the advantages of a myriad of technologies we created. We may not be able to eliminate the basic paradox of human existence, but we may somewhat reduce the suffering. This book is about the beauty and the misery of our technological human society, offering some modest remedies for the misery, while praising the beauty.