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A review by mburnamfink
The Techno-Human Condition by Daniel Sarewitz, Braden R. Allenby
4.0
Disclosure time: Sarewitz and Allenby are two of my favorite professors, and I generally believe that they're very smart. That said...
The Techno-Human Condition starts by examining transhumanism, the belief that human being can and should improve their bodies using technology, and the common arguments for and against it. Allenby and Sarewitz soon drop the idea, as both sides hold flawed and simplistic views about technology and its ability to solve problems. They advance a theory of Level I, II, and III technologies. Level I technologies imply a simple cause-and-effect relationship: cars allow you to get from Point A to B easily. Level II, technosocial systems, have more complex effects: many cars create traffic and a lack of parking. Level III, Earth systems, are almost unknowable in their implications: cars redesign cities and ways of life, create foreign entanglements in pursuit of gas, and change the composition of the atmosphere with unknown effects.
Coping with Level III technological conditions is the aim of the book. Allenby and Sarewitz propose flexibility and options above all else. Since the effects of technology are prima facia unknowable, we must be ready to change direction at any moment, not to forestall debate, and to always be prepared to reflexively examine our values. This is an ambitious program, and its ambition and ambiguity weakens its real-world relevance--people with simple solutions will always implement their plans faster than those with more complex ideas. But it also might be the only way to survival.
The Techno-Human Condition starts by examining transhumanism, the belief that human being can and should improve their bodies using technology, and the common arguments for and against it. Allenby and Sarewitz soon drop the idea, as both sides hold flawed and simplistic views about technology and its ability to solve problems. They advance a theory of Level I, II, and III technologies. Level I technologies imply a simple cause-and-effect relationship: cars allow you to get from Point A to B easily. Level II, technosocial systems, have more complex effects: many cars create traffic and a lack of parking. Level III, Earth systems, are almost unknowable in their implications: cars redesign cities and ways of life, create foreign entanglements in pursuit of gas, and change the composition of the atmosphere with unknown effects.
Coping with Level III technological conditions is the aim of the book. Allenby and Sarewitz propose flexibility and options above all else. Since the effects of technology are prima facia unknowable, we must be ready to change direction at any moment, not to forestall debate, and to always be prepared to reflexively examine our values. This is an ambitious program, and its ambition and ambiguity weakens its real-world relevance--people with simple solutions will always implement their plans faster than those with more complex ideas. But it also might be the only way to survival.