Technopoly - Critique

This article submitted by Björn Adolfsson & Maria Eklind on 4/23/97.

Topic:

Thoughts:

Postman is a refreshing voice in a debate dominated by
technophiles such as Bill Gates and Nicholas Negroponte.
He underlines the ideological implicaitons of technology,
what technology does to our minds. He points out the invisible
technologies which influence our thinking. He poses the
questions, but is not too eager to point out the solutions.
He raises objections to when technology is clamping into
moral domains. He is a moralist, when being a moralist is
the worst thing to be.
A lot has happened since Postman wrote the book in '92. The
computer technology he mentions is merely calculating, and
not the least interactive. With this he is sometimes a bit
paternalistic, presuming that the users are victims of
technology, and that they cannot handle it. How could he
predict what would happen?
Reading Postman, however, is often elevating, sometimes a bit
boring, but never indifferent.

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