technological advances

"If there is technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery, in impoverishment" said Michael Harrington in "The Other America"(1962). There is no doubt that technology has grown significantly in the last few decades since the development of the personal computers and the Internet. Some theorists have praised the future of technology as having the potential to free mankind from all constraints while others including novelist Aldous Huxley and …

…being striped of the characteristics of individuality and purposefulness we are drawn to become computer like and hence less human. Fortunately, it is possible to envision alternative technological strategies and designs that, while still fulfilling vital economic and social needs, can also help sustain democratic community, civic engagement, and social justice. Thus the point is not to reject all technology outright, but rather to become more discriminating in how we design, choose, and use technologies.