Western
Civilization has had a centuries' long romance with technology and
has often worshipped it
as the "savior of mankind". Alternately, anti-utopians, ever since Shelly conjured
up Frankenstein, have depicted it as the destroyer of humankind and human values. Technology
is power and, as such, can serve many purposes. Whereas an earlier vision
of the
computer predicted an Orwellian "big brother" utilizing a centralized computer
system to control society, the advent of the personal computer has turned this
power pyramid on its head. Increasing
thousands of people have a computer on their desk with as much capability at their
fingertips as once was housed in an expensive and complicated mainframe. Obviously,
the decentralization of power is no guarantee that the people will make good or
wise use of it.
-
Norman Coombs, Liberation Technology,
1992. |