1) The two extremes in attitude toward technology:
Techno-critic-----------------------------------------------------------Technophile
2) The recuperation of the Techno-critic position:
"A critic of literature of examines a work... seeking a deeper appreciation.... In a similar way critics of music, theater, and the arts have a valuable, well established role.... Criticism of technology, however, is not yet afforded the same glad welcome" (Winner 1986 p. xi).
Winner (and similar analyses from Dick Sclove, Leo Marx, etc.) brilliantly and unapologetically defend the label of Techno-critic. They are right; one should not apologize for an extreme position so valuable and well-supported. But why can't we do the same for the equally disparaged and misunderstood label of "technophile"?
3) The pathologizing and moral condemnation of the Technophile position:
"There is no single... negative term for a kind of technology that rouses prurient interest, demeans the powerless, eroticizes domination, or offends along a moral dimension. We could all think of technologies that fit this bill, such as the short hoe recently outlawed for migrant field workers, nuclear energy, or the fat American car; tools of torture, or weapon systems; chemical technologies for the exciting and often eroticized domination and control of nature. Many do describe such technologies as pornographic" (Hacker 1988 p. 214).
4) Why is it that the Techno-critic position can be recouped as thoughtful critique, but Technophilia must remain a grievous sin? STS includes
a. A Christian (and anti-Semetic?) legacy: the fall from the garden is redeemed by the rejection of the programmatic authority of the Synagogue by Jesus.
b. Romantic organicism: what's natural is better than what's artificial. 1960s counter-culture, Deep Ecology, the "holism" critique, etc.
c. Realism: representations and abstractions are susceptible to errors and manipulation. e.g. "direct democracy" and the "face-to-face community" promoted by the SDS in the 1960s. Roots in Rousseau's "Noble Savage."
d. Relations between these religious and sexual concepts. e.g. "unnatural sex" is that which was not ordained by God.
Example--Mimetic theory of indigenous cultures: "In contrast to the transcendent world of Judeo-Christian religion... [Native American culture] precludes separation. ...Communication is direct and immediate. The objectivity that is dependent on distancing has not yet arisen" (Merchant 1989 p. 48).
5) There are many
ways of recouping technophilia for radical purposes; e.g. lets look
at three anti-racist uses of technology for some specific counter examples.
A) Zoot-suit wars: oppositional
use of material exuberance during WWII austerity
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"The pachuco is the prey
of society, but instead of hiding he adorns himself to attract the hunter's
attention. Persecution redeems him and breaks his solitude: his salvation
depends on him becoming part of the very society he appears to deny" (Paz
1967 p. 9).
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Paz's lyrical description comes very close to reducing the zoot-suit to mere self-destructive martyrdom. He is comfortable with the political use of the indigenous heritage of Mexico, but perplexed by the zoot-suit -- that is no surprise, since its affirmation of the artificial is in direct conflict with any notion of "natural" heritage (either Indian or Spanish). The zoot-suit offers a stylistic expression of technophilia; it places one's identity in the self construction of materials at hand rather than any natural roots of the past. |
B) Low-riders: the phat American car. An archetype for Appropriating Technology
C) AfroFuturists
Many years ago, Garret A. Morgan, the inventor of the system of
signals that
controls the flow of movement through the urban landscape that we just
call
"traffic signals" posited that light and movement, code and control, were
just
parts of how the urban landscape spoke its words of existence to itself
- just
as in cybernetics where controls systems coordinate data in a flow of
information there's a parable that would highlight some of the issues I'm
talking
about. Today, the new streets are on-line, the new places of code configure
identity in a way that highlights how far technology has outstripped the
social
machinery of an American reality predicated on an industrial revolution
many
centuries ago.
--Quotation from Paul Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
African Americans and IT: possibilities for rethinking history
6) Coda: contrasts in
design
Ye Olde Compost Pile: Techno-critic energy conservation |
Technophile energy conservation:
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