Re: Too much technology

felipefonseca — Mon, 28 May 2007 21:36:15 +0000

Just sent this email to the people involved with the panel I'd be joining in IETM plenary session "Technophobia vs Technophilia", this week in Montreal.

I think that following this kind of perspective I could be seen as leaning to technophilia, although assuming a critical position.

I'm part of a network here in Brasil - MetaReciclagem - that proposes a de-constructive approach to technology, meaning an almost intimate human-machine relationship. But that does not mean we are seduced by the so techno-fetishism that is unfortunately so common. We criticize exactly the programmed obsolescence of technologies - why shouldn't our equipment last longer if we knew how to do it, hack it, customize it? Coming from that, the more intimate we get to technology - free and open source software, freeing hardware and the such - likely more open are the possibilities.

I mean, I'm talking here of a kind of sensibility and a kind of perspective in which technology should not be seen as something apart from human culture. Technology is culture, technology is human. It's a matter of understanding technology in a broader sense - a toothbrush, an axe, the ability to control fire and language, are all examples of technology, of knowledge applied in order to make life easier.

One could spend some time talking about greek drama and the idea of machina - deus ex machina and all that stuff. In that sense, technology and the performing arts can always bring back the idea of ritualizing the use of applied knowledge. A flying belt or a sensor-arduino-pd-operated PC are all in the same level, as I see it.

Mutirão da Gambiarra - technophobia

Re: Too much technology