Wired And Worried?

from the we-are? dept

I was lucky enough to see Thomas Friedman on his "recent trip to... Silicon Valley" that he talks about in his latest column. He's a very impressive thinker who has a ton of very smart things to say on the Middle East and globalization - areas in which he's specialized. However, he might not want to go too far beyond what he knows, because he begins to get careless in his thinking. His latest NY Times Op-Ed piece talks about how Silicon Valley regrets the role we've played in building technology that can be used by terrorists. While he comes up with some anecdotal evidence, and names a few "big" names to support his argument that we never should have stopped the Clipper Chip, he seems to miss the point. The fact is that the technology is out there, and people are going to continue to create new technologies all the time. It is simply a tool - and that tool can be (and always has had the ability to be) used for both good and bad purposes. Anyone looking to blame (or hold back) the technology is going to find that not only can it not be done - it probably causes more problems in the long run. Technology is just a tool.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    troy, 28 May 2002 @ 7:14am

    Technology has an inherent value.

    After becoming acquainted with authors such as Jerry Mander and Marshall McLuhan, it's hard for me to swallow the notion that "technology is only a tool, it's up to humans and society as to how it's used." In In The Absence of the Sacred, Mander gives an eloquent argument that all technology has an inherent bias and should be very carefully considered before being deployed on a large scale.

    Without going on, a couple examples of this: Nuclear Technology. Nuclear technology may inherently steer us from a democratic society towards an autocratic society. That Nuclear technology, eg. nuclear power, is so complex, expensive, dangerous, and requires strict control of all operations, it is necessary that governments must control it. There are no small-scale community based reactors, and there won't ever be. Furthermore, the waste created by nuclear technology remains in place for hundreds of years (at least), meaning that a government or other sort of "technical elite" will need to remain in control of it, if only to maintain the after-effects.

    These aren't my ideas, but as a tech enthusiast, I found the ideas in Mander's book to be very powerful. It's a few years old, but still very relevant, and I would highly recommend it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 28 May 2002 @ 8:27am

      Re: Technology has an inherent value.

      Interesting. I've now ordered In the Absence of Sacred, but from the brief reviews I've read of it, I doubt I'll agree with much of it. I'll still read it, though. While I do believe that we live in a society that is dominated by dangerous short-term thinking, I don't blame the technology for that.

      I even have problems with the nuclear power example, as I don't see the logical progression from government control of nuclear reactors leading to an autocratic state.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.