Saturday, October 10, 2009

Neil!

"To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple." -Neil Postman

2 comments:

Krave said...

What would Neil say about blogging?

Ben said...

"to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture..."

To maintain both of those statements at once would not only be plain and simple, but actually contradictory. If technology is always a friend, then it cannot be neutral.

I haven't read Postman, but I wonder if he thinks there is *any* technology that can be neutral. For instance, lets look at the most simple machine ever made: a wheel. It certainly had the ability to change culture, but was the invention of the wheel a friend to culture (used to travel), a foe of culture (used to build pagan temples and fight wars), or neutral?