Web of Dependency: The Thin New Line

[marmar]

Published on Saturday, September 18, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Web of Dependency: The Thin New Line

by Randall Amster


In just a few short years, it has become increasingly apparent that humankind is fast approaching a technological tipping point. Particularly in the West – the First World , the Developed Nations, or whatever self-consciously superlative designation you prefer – a thoroughgoing dependence on “high technology” for life-sustaining essentials is evident in all spheres of modern society. The hardware of our lives, from food and energy to transportation and shelter, is entirely bound up with the workings of a highly mechanized and digitized global economy. And no less so, the software of our existence – communications, community, entertainment, education, media, politics, and the like – is equally entwined within that same technocratic system.

This is not a lamentation, just an observation. To describe this state of affairs as a fait accompli or to conspiratorially suggest an orchestrated inevitability misses the larger point that it merely constitutes what is at this point in history. The utter dependency of our collective lives on the intricate workings of a hypertechnical web makes the perpetuation and evolution of that network a survival strategy for a significant portion of the species. Simply put, we need it. And in that, we come to realize the double-edged meaning of “the web” as something that simultaneously interconnects and ensnares. Our habituation to this web traps us even as it brings us together.

Consider the implications from the perspective of a typical modern life. First and foremost, our entire financial being – and with it the capacity to procure everything else – exists almost exclusively due to a computer’s ability to recognize and recall our bona fides to transact. More and more of our work activities and labor energies are expended on digitally-based tasks that likewise rely upon computerized repositories and retrieval mechanisms of which we are scarcely knowledgeable. A substantial portion of our political, educational, and healthcare opportunities are similarly enmeshed in remote databases and personal delivery devices. And increasingly, our social interactions are coming to be dependent upon equivalent circuits of electronic exchange.

What would transpire if this web suddenly was to disappear? I’m not inclined to view humankind through a Hobbesian lens of aggression and ruthlessness. We might find surprising ways to reconnect to people and place that stave off the worst forms of behavioral descent, and even open up new pathways for sustainable and just living arrangements both among ourselves and with the balance of nature. There may be enough farmers, builders, teachers, and artists among us with old-school skills sufficient to sustain communities, if not cultures, on some level. Perhaps there yet remains an atavistic thread of time-tested humanity still within us that devolves upon the basic ways that the species survived for the overwhelming majority of our existence. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/18

[Demeter]

1. There are many tipping points, but technology dependence isn't one of them

Greed would be my first ranked choice.