Technology and Philosophy

Technology and Philosophy

Technology, a vulgarization of science to cater to human senses has been the art of the preceding few centuries, and the revolution that began with the protestant ethic has been closely linked with the growth of capitalism. One must thus analyze what makes capitalism and technological growth incestuous siblings.
Before proceeding to analyze the relations of technological progress and capitalism, let us gain a historical insight. In the ancient quasi-peaceable societies, technological progress was very much a practicality of the individual. One tried to improve one’s tools to enhance one’s productivity, and since the emphasis was neither on conspicuous production (like pre-modern England), neither on conspicuous consumption (like Western societies in the post-modern era); technology was not the gauge of progress or social hierarchy. As society, ‘evolved’ (if we may say so), into feudalism, technology took a back seat. More emphasis was on the spiritual aspects, and anything practical and material was looked upon with much disgust. Progress into the Renaissance age was a significant landmark for technology and engineering. Science, or natural philosophy, made strides, and these were the stepping-stones to the growth of technology.
What fuelled the industrial revolution were a curious medley of secular rational scientific principles and the fervent ‘Work is Worship’ culture of the Calvinists and Protestants. As wealth became concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, due to colonialism, the huge investments required for large technological projects were available and the enhanced labour arbitrage and slavery of capitalism ensured cheap labour. This made the transition to an industrial society possible. With the increase in the wealth of the middle class, the demand for goods arose, and soon the prosperous European societies had been saturated, new markets were needed to sell goods and obtain raw materials. Thus colonialism meant not only the drain of wealth through depletion of natural resources of the colony but also by selling goods manufactured in parent countries in their colonies. In the twentieth century, two wars were fought, greatly increasing the market for some types of goods. Later, advertising was sought to help companies sell their products- products which people did not need, but wanted through manipulative marketing practices. This trend was also seen in the developing in the last few years of the twentieth century where a powerful upper class had emerged by the process of neo-liberalization and neo-colonialism.
Throughout we observe technology was used as a tool, to improve the lives of some and destroy the lives of others. According to me, this was due to a lack of ethical and philosophical basis, which is not surprising as the growth of technology is closely linked to growth of capitalism, which has no moral basis as such. Thus humankind must work on developing a philosophy for technology, which has been a neglected area. But in addition to being theoretically strong, it must also be practical as technology itself is very practical in nature. I have attempted to do so here.
For this let us see the relation of technology with the other great spheres of human development, art and science, both of which fall into the broad ambit of philosophy. Technology acts as an enabler. It helps us make progress in art and science. True human development lies in abstraction, reducing reality to mere equations and expressions, and in interpreting them in way which enhances our existential reality and consciousness. Technology helps us to externally reach a state of mind, which helps us to think about ideas. For example, a computer helps reduce manual labour and improves communication, which ensures we waste less time in productive labour, and lets us spend more time in deep thought. Thus technology in itself is not progress, but its role as an enabler is important. Technology is dependent on art and science, and vice versa, but not in the same way. Art and science act as intellectual parents to technology, but technology is merely an instrument to do the mean work. This relation must be acknowledged. When we forget this, technology becomes a headless monster and leads to self-destruction. Secondly, technology, being the enabler that it is, must not be restrictive or restricted. If so, it fails to reach a part of the masses, and humanity loses out on a section of ideas forever.
In conclusion, I would say the relation of technology with humans must be much like the three laws of robotics, with technology developing a conscience of its own, but not a consciousness.