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Philosopher David Skrbina, author of The Metaphysics of Technology, joins us to ponder the corona-technology interface.
Much of the world is looking for technological solutions to the coronavirus problem. But what if technology IS the problem? Even in the unlikely event that COVID-19 wasn’t made in a lab, its pandemic global transmission could only happen in an urban, densely-populated, hyper-connected hi-tech society. What’s more, the techno-solutions—building an Orwellian surveillance state where anyone who coughs gets tested and quarantined, injecting everyone with a possibly toxic vaccine, etc.—may do more harm than good, if human psycho-spiritual well-being is our highest value. So maybe it’s technology, not just coronavirus biological warfare technology, that needs to be contained…or even eradicated?
David Skrbina has taught at various universities, most recently U. of Michigan-Dearborn. He is featured in episodes 3 and 4 of the Netflix documentaryUnabomber: In His Own Words.
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Kevin – is it possible to add a variable speed playback functionality to your podcasts? E.g., 1.25x, 1.50x, etc… Many platforms including youtube has this and really is useful for listening efficiently. Thanks for your consideration!
Ahh… excellent point, if a bit disjointed.
The science fiction author Frank Herbert once commented that, past a certain point, increasing population density will radically decrease human freedom.
Think about people living in submarines, or on the international space station. Their every action is planned and logged. Their every drop of water or grain of rice, monitored and recorded and controlled. Not because they are socialists, but of necessity.
I saw this coming, but am still surprised that it happened so suddenly. With over ten billion people all living in a single petri dish, of course eventually human interactions and travel will have to be logged and restricted. Even as it already is for domestic animals.
What needs to be eradicated is the unholy desire for cheap labor at all costs of our elites, and the pressures to maximize population growth at all costs that has resulted from that. But hey, what do I know.
The Unz Review is responsible for podcast format here. So you would have to ask Ron. My podcasts also appear at Patreon and No Lies Radio, but I don’t think either has variable speed playback.
So your best bet might be to download the podcasts from Patreon and play them with a player that allows variable speed. https://www.patreon.com/DrKevinBarrett
You can always download any podcast and use your favorite player. Gomplayer has a nice speed adjustment feature, and I’m sure others do as well.
I am so excited about this new *podcast* about eradicating technology! I am also for the suggestion made by commenter dilettante: variable speeds would help. Hope Ron, with his incredible *software* ability, will implement it. That would just make this *website* even better. Thank God for the *internet* that allows us to stay connected even in isolation and fight evil Big Brother! Those guys that lived through the Black Death were not as fortunate, I can tell you that! Now, if you excuse me, I will listen to this guy’s very sensible arguments about eradicating technology. Hope my *computer* won’t crash while doing it…
You’ve cited a perfect illustration of Skrbina’s thesis that technology has independent volition of its own, beyond human control. If we really had a choice about whether or not to use internet technology to spread a “radical” message, we would undoubtedly choose to avoid the internet and spread the message by other, low-tech means. But there is no real alternative.
More examples: 1) I don’t carry a phone but soon will have to because there will be no other way to buy anything. I will have no choice. 2) If country A doesn’t go full Orwellian, country B will rule the world and force it on country A anyway. Neither country’s rulers have any choice. See: https://www.unz.com/wwebb/techno-tyranny-how-the-us-national-security-state-is-using-coronavirus-to-fulfill-an-orwellian-vision/
So it is technology itself, not “bad human choices” (there are no such choices, or virtually none) that is driving us toward absolute slavery and total dehumanization.
Well, I’m glad I’ve got the message without having even heard the podcast. Anyway, I think this is all a spin on words. We are all, in varying degrees, slaves of Nature, which is an impersonal force which does not care one iota about us. Being ‘slaves’ of technology, which is a human creation, is in fact an act of freedom.
Living in submission to God, in harmony with creation, is not slavery, it’s ecstasy; it’s what we were made for. Living in submission to other people is slavery. And living in submission to the impersonal technological machines created by other people is far worse than mere slavery.