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Anti-Technology Sentiment: How Much Do I Hate It?
Let Me Count the Ways... Printable Version

by Aaron Kendall

A few times a week, I go to the gym to let off some steam, and I watch the TV monitors on the wall while I'm running to help pass the time. Sometimes, the news comes on, which makes it hard to run since I'm trying hard not to throw up while I'm watching the crap on the TV.

Anyway, a few weeks back, one of the news pieces was a bit on technology, and the theme of the piece was "Is technology moving too fast?"...which translates to something like "Don't you hate the idea of being so comfortable with the luxury of technology?" or "The Terminator: do you want him to show up for dinner at your house?". (You think that I'm kidding about the Terminator stuff, aren't you? Just wait.)

I already hate the piece since it's whole purpose is to push sensationalism...which means helping those people who love to doubt by providing them with more material that inspires fear and dread. But I'm stuck on a treadmill that points in only one direction...so I keep watching. The news piece starts adequately, asking a few scientists about their opinion on the subject. Of course, all of the scientists shown are against the speed of technology, because these kinds of news pieces would be ruined by the common sense of a scientist who recognizes and admires the good of his own profession.

Now, the interviews with the scientists aren't so bad, even though they're predicting the end of mankind with Nazi robots...but when it gets to the end, it just completely goes over the top. The reporter of the piece ends it by giving a few quotes (and his hypothesis about the upcoming apocalypse caused by our own PCs and washer-dryers), but he only comprises the audio portion of the conclusion. For the visual component of the piece's conclusion, several clips are shown from the movies The Terminator and The Matrix, where machines are collecting humans as batteries, or where they're blowing away people with machine-gun arms.

Can you fucking believe that?!? Personally, I think that they should have just gone all out and shown an episode of The Transformers or BattleTech while they were at it; nothing quite inspires fear like an evil Optimus Prime. Seriously, though, Pavlov himself couldn't have been more proud. Of course, I don't think that it quite worked as well as they had hoped, especially since I haven't noticed anyone yet referring to their kitchen appliances as "the enemy". (That's the problem though - journalists seem to think that people in general are just a bunch of freakin' morons, when it's actually the other way around.) The worst thing about the whole piece was that I remembered watching the same news piece a while back, even perhaps last year. It was then that I realized that not only was it a really freakin' slow day at the news office...but this news piece was a repeat ad!

So, I guess that you have to give it to those cynical assholes and pessimists: they have stuck by their ideas about technology. Oh, they're complete, stubborn fools for not admitting that they're wrong about technology, with all of the obvious examples of technological products that have prolonged and enhanced people's lives...but they're dedicated fools, to be sure. Their persistence doesn't really get me down, though; they get paid to come up with life-negating bullshit. What does depress me, though, is the lack of respect and love concerning the very idea of technology from everyday people. When you're a kid, you dream about getting a car (and, these days, probably also a cell phone - which doesn't really combine well with cars). When you get to college, you can't wait to get a great stereo system and/or a great PC. When you're older, the list of all the cool shit that you want gets even longer! Of course, everyone always wants this stuff, but they never step back and just appreciate the very idea of technology.

What am I talking about? All right, here's an example: there's no day in celebration of a scientist who's contributed something meaningful to our lives. No Edison day, no Ford day, no "guy who invented air conditioning" day...none of them are there. And how sad is that? I don't even know the name of the guy who invented air conditioning! That's how poorly people treat the idea of scientists. I should know his name by heart! His name should be all over the place! The man should be considered a freakin' saint! Instead, though, I know the names of St. Patrick and Jesus Christ, both of whom haven't done shit for me except providing a time for me to get drunk in the name of them.

Even though people don't give respect to scientists and the technology industry, they don't dislike them; that's apparent from just taking a look at Sony's financial report on the latest profits from sales of Playstation 2. However, if you take into account the general "sheep" mindset of people (which is either religious or misanthropic or both), it wouldn't be too hard to steer them in another direction. Get the Pope to condemn the Internet (which the old bastard has already done), get the leaders of communities to make speeches and release speculative data about Dreamcast putting cancer in kids' testicles/ovaries, and focus on news reports of technological mishaps in factories/homes...and you could start to shift the whole opinion of technology.

Of course, nothing quite that grand is going to happen. No, that's not the goal with anti-technology pieces. No, the whole point is to get you to not think about life in general or yourself too favorably. Most people won't admit their love of technology because in order to defend all that technology brings to your life, it would mean defending the one thing that most philosophy attacks: the love of your own life and yourself. With most people feeling guilty about being alive because of Adam & Eve and/or because we take up space on the planet where another endangered species of cockroach could live instead, it's no surprise that people haven't made an argument against anti-technology enthusiasts.

But that's what we need in order to stop all this anti-technology bullshit!

So, if you truly are a video gamer, car-enthusiast, stereo nut, chemistry buff, or techie freak, you've got to make a decision: either keep going on the same path that your parents handed down to you...or put down that Bible/Socialist manifesto, pick up that Gameboy, and head out to town in your '65 Mustang, smiling the whole time! You're gonna have to catch up, though...'cause I'm already in third gear. :)

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