#technology as magic

[thefroglab]

Medical "Calibrator" Teardown - from mitxela

[1920smobboss]

CURRENT AREA OF INTEREST: worldbuilding a post-apocalyptic solarpunk mad max-style roadtrip adventure, where technology is considered magic, and wizards cast spells as code.

TAG: road trip ideas

[thefroglab]

the design I'm thinking of for the funny device that turns off TVs and maybe interacts with other things

[buyercrimtheory]

“If technology includes both non-material techniques and material technology and given that technologies are becoming increasingly coordinated, then it’s not an exaggeration to refer to technology as a system. Technology is an open system in that it interacts with its two environments—nature and human society—but it is not open in that it does not possess genuine feedback. What finally allows technology to become a system is the widespread use of the computer. The computer allows each technology to become a source of information for the coordination of the various technologies. Technology is a system, then, at the level of information. This means, however, that each subsystem loses some of its flexibility, for its courses of action must be adjusted to the needs of the other subsystems. The mutual interaction and mutual dependency of subsystems made possible by the computer is the technological system. In large urban areas, for example, the various technological subsystems such as communication, transportation, law enforcement, and commerce become more dependent upon one another for the smooth operation of the overall urban system.

Although the technological system is an open system, it is more or less autonomous in relation to its human environment. The problem is that the technological system allows for no effective feedback, that is, self-regulation. Feedback means that a system (such as an ecological system) has the ability to correct the problem at its source. For instance, if the technological system possessed feedback, then the use of the automobile, a major cause of air pollution, would be eliminated or severely curtailed. Instead, we attempt to discover ways of countering the negative effects of the automobile on the environment. Only humans, however, can provide feedback for the technological system. But because of our supreme faith in technology and because of our delusion that as technology’s creators we are its masters, we do not perceive the need to provide such feedback. As a consequence, the technological system is more or less autonomous, that is, independent of moral control.”

— Technology as Magic