Invention & Luddhism

"Children of Invention"
by Morton Winston

Technology creates new opportunities

for human flourishing and new ways of
life, which in turn create new social and
ethical problems (“children of
invention”)

 Technological Revolutions
From hunter-gatherer societies requiring
only simple portable technologies for

Shelter
Hunting
Gathering
Cooking
Transportation
Defense
Agricultural Revolutions
Allowed settlement of communities
Emergence of morality, law, religion, records, mathematics, astronomy
class structures, patriarchy
Advantages:
More food, so greater population density
Greater population density allowed for coordinated efforts and
specialized skills
No need for portability
Disadvantages:
More work to maintain higher, more complex standard of living
Industrial Revolution
Steam engine, then gasoline-driven combustion engine
More specialized division of labor and of knowledge —
each worker needed fewer skills
Less expensive goods, so increased standard of living
Infrastructure for transportation
 Luddites
The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation
of English textile workers in the 19th century who
formed a radical faction which destroyed textile
machinery.
The group are believed to have taken their name
from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver. They protested
against manufacturers who used machines in what
they called "a fraudulent and deceitful manner" to
get around standard labor practices.

Luddites feared that the time spent learning the

skills of their craft would go to waste, as machines Ned Ludd
would replace their role in the industry
Luddites: Other Views
Opposition may not have been to technological
change, but to the free market; luddites wanted
to protect their skills and livelihoods

NOW: “luddite” and “luddism” refer to anyone

who opposes industrial technology, or
technology more generally

E.g. “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski, including

bomb sent to Yale computer scientist David
Gelernter due to his antitechnology ideology Theodore Kaczynski

 Kaczynski: 3 Possibilities
1.

1. “The human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of
such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical
choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. As society and the
problems that fact it become more and more complex and machines
become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make
more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made
decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. …
… Eventually, a stage may be reached at which the decisions
necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human
beings will be incapable of making them intelligently.”

 Kaczynski: 3 Possibilities
2

A tiny elite will eliminate the rest of humanity.

 Kaczynski: 3 Possibilities
3

A tiny elite will engineer a purposeless and therefore

harmless humanity, like domesticated animals.
Ray Kurzweil: The New
Luddite Challenge
New jobs are on a higher level and increasingly
involved with education
Need a viable alternative to the nightmare
envisioned by luddites such as Kaczynski
Can’t drop technology: ”there is too little nature
left to return to”
Education will reach a human limit, but will be
human competence will be extended by merging
with the technology Ray Kurzweil;
Knowledge Revolutions
Better record keeping and communication
Flexible, programmable tools allow more customized
short production runs, so supply can more accurately
follow demand
Better scheduling and inventory control provides basis
for geographically distributed production systems
(globalization)
Increased need for specialized education
Knowledge Revolutions
 Technology and Science

Traditional View
Science = pure, value-free pursuit of knowledge
Technology = matter of arts and crafts
Modern/ Enlightenment View
Empirical investigation as a means to knowledge, aided by technology
Development of technology aided by scientific education
Science = systematic empirical inquiry
Technology = production of functional objects and systems
 Technology and Beauty

Improved standards of living can include more leisure time, better access
to recreation and pleasant experiences
Greater ease of performing tasks itself is a type of beauty
 Technology and Morality

With power comes responsibility, and a new range of choices about how
we live our lives
Immediate questions raised by biotechnology

4 Technological and Ethical Concerns:

1. Whether and how new technologies should be used (esp. medical)
2. Aggregate responsibility (e.g. pollution, depletion of resources)
3. Distributive justice: certain groups alone may be advantaged
4. Changing relationship to nature and other animals
Essence of Technology

A. Causality E. Enframing

B. Bringing Forth F. Destining

C. Modern Technology G. The Danger

D. The Standing-reserve H. The Saving Power

Essence of Technology

A. Causality Technology brings about change

causally
The cause is what is responsible
for the effect, and the effect is
indebted to the cause
Essence of Technology
The bringing forth which underlies
causality is a bringing out of
concealment
This revealing is what the Greeks
call truth
B. Bringing Forth
This is seen in the way the Greeks
understood techne, which
encompasses not only craft, but
other acts of the mind, and poetry
Essence of Technology
Both primitive crafts and modern
technology are revealing
But the revealing of modern
technology is not a bringing-forth,
but a challenging-forth
It challenges nature, by
extracting something from it and
C. Modern Technology
transforming it, storing it up,
distributing it, etc.
Essence of Technology
Modern technology takes all of
nature to stand in reserve for its
exploitation
Man is challenged to do this, and
as such he becomes part of the
standing reserve
Man becomes the instrument of
technology, to be exploited in the
D. The Standing-reserve
ordering of nature
Essence of Technology
It is not man that orders nature
through technology, but a more
basic process of revealing
The challenge of this revealing is E. Enframing
called “enframing”
In enframing, the actual is
revealed as a standing-reserve
This is “historically” prior to the
development of science
Enframing is the essence of
technology
Essence of Technology
Men are sent upon the way of
revealing the actual as a
standing-reserve
So enframing, and hence
technology, is a “destining” F. Destining
The destining of man to reveal
nature carries with it the danger
of misconstrual
Essence of Technology
Man is in danger of becoming
merely part of the standing-
reserve
He may think that the ordering of
the world through technology is
the fundamental mode of
revealing
G. The Danger
So the real threat of technology
comes from its essence, not its
activities or products
Essence of Technology
The poet Hölderlin writes that the
saving power grows where
danger is
The saving would allow a
bringing-forth that is not a
challenging-forth
Both technology and bringing-
forth grow out of “granting,”
which allows revealing
H. The Saving Power
 The Four Causes

A. Causa materialis

B. Causa formalis

C. Causa efficiens

D. Causa finalis
Til the next lesson....