Philosophical Reflections on Technology and Society
Rainier A. Ibana
Ateneo de Manila University
Introduction:
Philosophical reflections on technology and society would necessarily entail a discussion on the role of human beings who are both the masters and slaves of social and technological systems. While technologies and societies were initially constructed in order to extend the power and scope of human actions and interactions with the environment and their fellow human beings, they have also become dominant features of human life to the extent that humans have become inescapably entangled in its complexities.
Information and Communication Technologies
Information and communication technologies, for example, have demonstrated their revolutionary potentials in expanding the scope of the human being’s freedom and rationality since the advent of the French revolution which was mediated by the printing press and likewise vividly depicted by the current uprisings in the Arab world which were engendered by the internet and mobilized through cellular phones. Our own people power uprisings in the Philippines have proven the power of information technologies in amplifying the nuances of social issues and its efficiency in mobilizing throngs of people around shared interests.
The power of communication and information technologies are further reinforced by their self-validating logic which makes repression impossible because such attempts to curtail communicative acts can all the more inflame the passion of its agitated actors and turn the repression into an object of discourse. Radio and Television programs can show such repressions instantaneously from any part of the world.
It is therefore to the advantage of those who advocate for common goods such as decent housing and clean water that their adversaries cannot step out of the circle of communicative discourse because doing so would spell the triumph of the latter's interlocutors by default. Those who attempt to manage and cut off communicative discourse do so at their own expense by becoming the conversation piece among informal forms of communication such as humour and rumor.
The compelling requirements of participation in communicative reason, however, has actually caused the lives and health of our young people today who have become addicted to gaming programs in internet cafes at the expense of their physical emotional well-being. We are witnessing today the devolution of the human race from its upright position to that of haunch backs whose fingers and hands are dangled and poised to tap on computer terminals. There is even a popular u-tube story that depicts a boyfriend who holds and caresses his beloved’s hand on the dinner table as if he were manipulating and tapping a computer mouse.
Technological innovations
Although technologies are meant to harness the power of the natural environment to serve human ends, the limitations of technological innovations can be delineated when human survival is already at stake as in the case of the anthropogenic contributions to global warming and climate change. Pollutants are particularly suspect of exceeding their limits to growth because they do not only threaten the life of human beings but also other fellow earthlings who have every right to exist within our shared environment. One could very well ask whether the over production and consumption of information and communication technologies are significantly contributing to the human being’s higher consumption of energy from the environment.
The fast-paced introduction of new products lines that harness the natural world beyond its carrying capacity while emitting wastes at the end of production systems at the expense of the cyclical patterns of nature’s capacity for regeneration serves as a warning to the limits of technological innovation. The sciences are telling us that there are intrinsic natural laws that must be considered in our efforts to harness the powers of nature.
When applied to food pyramids, for example, the second law of thermodynamics tells us that every time energy is transferred from one consumption level to the next, only ten percent is absorbed by the higher level of consumption while the rest of the energies obtained from the lower levels of production escapes to the environment in the form of heat.
Higher levels of technological innovations, even those well-meaning ones such as nuclear reactors, actually consume more energy to maintain than the amount of energy level that they wish to contain.
The mitigation of over consumption, moreover, requires not only a re-evaluation of our production and institutional systems but a reflection on the consumption and carbon footprint patterns of individual human beings as they go about with the affairs of everyday life. The current situation of our world requires that we should be at least become prudent, if not seriously cautious, about the impact of the decisions that we make in relation to the natural world.
Social systems:
Our shared responsibilities towards the environment, moreover, are differentiated by our positions within the social system. The technological divide between those who have access to advanced telecommunication technologies and those who do not is already well known. We must pay more attention, however, not only to the question of access to technologies since cheaper gadgets are now readily available to most of our population; we must rather be also circumspect about the relative effect of new technologies on the environment. The higher the technology ascends the ladder of the food pyramid, the larger its predatory field of consumption in the natural world, let alone the fast pace of technological obsolencense that are discarded as almost annual innovations are introduced to the market..
The distribution of energy consumption among our population also mirrors the structure of our social system. The Bicol region, for example, does support the voracious energy consumption of the people of Metro-Manila from the geothermal energy of Mt. Mayon whose transmission, system loss, and distribution costs are reflected in our monthly electric bills. Within the context of the second law of thermodynamics wherein energy is lost at each moment of energy transfer, it is important to realize that we are paying for something that we are not actually using since these items in our electric bill are paid as a consequence of an inefficient process of production. It would be an interesting research project to scrutinize each of these items in our electric bills, compare them with the bills by those who live in Metro-Manila, and to evaluate whether they conform to the norms of distributive justice.
The results of such a research project, I am afraid, could add credence to the consciousness of a Bicol Republic or at least justify the possibility of a Federal form of government that could stimulate economic growth in the country sides and thus mitigate the population and pollution problems of Metro-Manila.
Conclusions
Let me then conclude these reflections by specifying the kind of human beings that we must become if we are to reverse the catastrophic trajectories that are imbedded in our technological and social systems.
First, we must support the productive patterns of the natural world and heed her warnings whenever we are reaching the tipping points of her carrying and productive capacities. We cannot continue with our business as usual without re-evaluating our production and consumption patterns.
Finally, humans are called upon to make our distinctive contribution to a life that is lived closer to the ground. Preferential option for technologies that regenerate the earth such as the use of composting instead of chemical fertilizers and promoting biodiversity in our agricultural systems instead of mono-cropping could go a long way in conserving the energy requirements of our present and future generations.
These recommendations herald a new kind of human being who is more circumspect and caring about the natural and social environments.
rai
Ateneo de Naga University
October 14, 2011
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