Technophilia

Discussion

How Technophilia leads us astray

George Tsakraklides:

"Technophilia is partly the result of hundreds of years of propaganda by the Unhappiness Machine since the industrial revolution: because it is better to offer people expensive solutions, than to show them how they can solve their problems. Doctors give us pills instead of helping us change our lifestyle. Food companies serve us overprocessed foods instead of helping us overcome obesity. And electronics manufacturers make sure their products never last more than a couple of years. Our industrial complex ensures that the technologies it invents keep producing new problems of their own, so that technology itself can get to keep its job: to keep on inventing new technologies. Rather than undoing its crimes, this civilisation always prefers to invent technologies which temporarily repair them, forgetting each time that technologies always introduce new problems into the mix. Humanity has spent thousands of years continuously inventing new technologies to solve the problems that the previous technologies caused. This vicious cycle has put technology in charge of the future of humanity, rather than the other way round. Therefore, the aspiration that technology would “save us” was tragically misguided, given that technology ultimately only cares about itself. A species which considers this self-destructive process as “progress” surely does not deserve to progress down the evolutionary journey. It has already amputated itself.

Many argue that the problem is not technology itself, but how it is used. But as long as the use of technology is dictated by those in charge of manufacturing it, marketing and updating it, it will always have a negative contribution to society and the planet. This parasitic economic system prefers to involve thousands of people and dozens of industry sectors globally to make just one product, rather than make it and sell it locally by the producer themselves.

The problem with minimalism and degrowth is that they are based on simplicity: they don’t fit within the monstrously complex economic machine which drives the relentless production of one harmful technology after another. Those who advocate that we can make technology “ethical” really need to check their notes. Because this requires a complete restructuring of human technophilic consciousness as well as who produces, owns and profits from technology. The only way we can implement degrowth is if we demolish convoluted value chains, eliminate all middlemen, and democratize profit so that the only ventures which thrive are the ones which benefit society and the planet as a whole – not the ones destroying it.

But unfortunately there is also an evolutionary basis behind technophilia. As a life form, we have evolved to thrive only through construction, destruction, exploitation and the generation of waste. Human consciousness only understands doing and has little concept for undoing or stopping altogether, and part of this has to do with our RELD brain. We talk about energy transition when it should be energy use reduction. We talk about family and prosperity when it should be population decrease. We talk about jobs and growth when it should be a steady-state economy. We talk about protecting nature when we should simply leave it alone. We always do, never undo. This obsession with doing rather than leaving things alone is the classic cognitive and behavioural bias behind technophilia.

Technophilia preys upon a key characteristic of the human brain: we are hyperactive, hyper-thinking beings who look down upon the cessation of any of our activities, while being too proud to simply “undo” our errors as this would be a shameful admission of defeat. Instead, if we invent a new technology that promises to “repair” things, we are saviours and geniuses. The stigma which humans ascribe to deconstructive and recessive solutions is largely responsible for the worsening situation this civilisation has trapped itself in.

Sustainability movements have failed because they constantly fall prey to technophilia and profit. They have repeatedly been bought out by capitalism, which only enforces a maximalistic bias towards growth. The global cleptocratic corporatocracy has repositioned itself very effectively as a “green” industry who “gets things done”, when in fact, if they knew anything about sustainability at all, they should have been working to get things undone. On LinkedIn you will find hundreds of thousands of “professionals” who dare to put “eco warrior” in their job title when in fact they are corporate fraudsters selling carbon credits and other “green services”. Equally, there are hundreds of thousands of highly paid job advertisements for environment and sustainability positions. With all these jobs out there, you would think we are doing something right, yet curiously, the planet is heading faster and faster towards Armageddon. These jobs are in fact THE REASON, most of them being full-time greenwashing positions helping global capital conceal its crimes and carry on. It is easy to see what they advocate: they talk about an energy transition when it should be energy reduction. They talk about family and prosperity when it should be population decrease. They talk about jobs and growth when it should be rapid economic contraction. They talk about protecting nature when it should be about simply leaving it alone.

The more we focus on technophilic solutions, the further we will fail as long as these solutions are funded by their own profits, supported by technologies that come with their own problems, and promise the oxymoron of population growth and prosperity for all."

(https://georgetsakraklides.substack.com/p/technophilia-the-mental-illness-behind)