‘Electric Shock!: Technological Complexity and the Modern Lifestyle’ – Long Walks & A/P, Part 7
Channel: ramblinactivist
Date: 2022-07-23

Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism, Part 7:
‘Electric Shock!: Technological Complexity and the Modern Lifestyle’.
Hay Moon, 2022.

There is a myth, accepted across modern society without question: ‘Technology makes life better’.

It’s a proposition treated as a ‘rule’, when in fact it is a ‘function’: A certain level of technology certainly improves human lifestyle; but beyond a certain point technology creates a ‘trap’ – where growing complexity creates a higher risk to our well-being should those systems suddenly fail.

The issue driving technology today – from food quality to climate change – is that ‘safety’ is legally institutionalised as a risk/cost-benefit balance, where: The benefits are ‘privatised’ by the corporate actors involved, as profits and economic influence accrue from their questionable ‘innovations’; and the risks/costs are ‘socialised’ to the user/society who have to pick-up the costs of damage or repair when things go wrong.

Any ‘rational’ person could look at this, and see this ‘open secret’, and reasonably act to change their engagement with this system. Unfortunately, technology has become such an essential element of modern identity, and an addictive element of personal psychology, that for many any discussion of these realities is met with denial – in fact, a level of denial I perceive as greater than that of climate change.

The fact is, though, we’re not going to escape the ‘technological trap’ without accepting that any meaningful solution requires a radical change in lifestyle.

For the referenced text of this post, goto:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/lwap/posts/07/index.shtml

You can find more of these reviews in ‘A Book in Five Minutes’ here:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/lwap/index.shtml

Finally, it would really help to promote this work if you could follow, subscribe, or like my social media presence. In today’s digital analytics popularity contest, all that button-pressing means something in this messed-up world.

Chapters:
00:00 Opening titles.
00:51 Introduction.
01:56 ‘Better Living Through Technology’.
03:32 Technology's Climate Change Problem.
05:53 Please click ‘like’ and subscribe!
06:25 The Myth of Urban Civilisation.
08:42 1. National power grid
09:53 2. Regional/local power grid
10:45 3. Grid-connected renewable energy
11:09 4. Forced-air heating/cooling
11:40 5. Water supply
12:24 6. Sewerage system
13:02 7. Food storage & cooking
13:45 8. Telephone network
14:14 9. Smart devices
14:53 10. Wireless communications
15:28 11. Radio & TV broadcasts
16:28 Technology is making ‘advanced‘ societies less safe
19:21 End credits

#technology #collapse #heatwaves