Postman points to the banning of the crossbow as an example of a technology threatening a society. What he doesn't point out is that the crossbow was banned (by the Catholic Church) to protect the status quo of medieval society. (Consider the resources necessary to equip and train a mounted knight versus those necessary to equip and train a crossbowmen.) The crossbow affected the foundation of the feudal system by its very existence. Our society is being similarly changed by computer technology; the status quo will be shaken up much more than it already has.
Postman is also inaccurate in his definition of a tool-using society. A 'tool' is generally described as an implement for assisting mechanical operations. But in pre-computer days (remember those?!), typewriters and pencils were tools for writing and calculating. I submit that the computer has merely replaced a less effective set of tools. We are still a tool-using society; the difference is our tools are silicon instead of bronze.
Finally, I detect a note of anti-capitalism in Technopoly. Postman suggests putting legislative restraints on computer development; this after he complains that technologies have been introduced primarily for monetary gains. I won't argue that greed is a motivation for innovation, but Postman seems to forget that the society whose loss he is bemoaning was as strongly based on the ebb and flow of gold as today's is based on the ebb and flow of bits.
Jeff Hellen
jhellen@erols.com
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