But these books had not been discussed by the committee, and no others were suggested. A high public official is describing plans for the creation of a national information super-highway. The speech is full of hi-tech words and mega this and that. Sober-looking public officials, corporate executives and technicians glance at each other and nod approvingly. Members of the press dutifully scribble notes.
TV cameras record the event.
I am neither for nor against leaf-blowers, computers, networks, or the information age for that matter. My target is fundamentalism, which is not something that happens just to religious zealots. We, leaf-blowers and computer jockeys alike, have tended to become technological fundamentalists, unwilling, perhaps unable, to question our basic assumptions about how our tools relate to our larger purposes and prospects. Scene One is an obvious case of technological overkill in which means and ends are not well calibrated. The deeper problem, noted by all critics of technology from Mary Shelley and Herman Melville on, is that industrial societies are long on means but short on ends.