From: Lev Lafayette <lev-AT-ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Totalitarianism is latent in technology
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 18:18:29 +1100 (AEDT)


> 
Hey Steve, nice thread you've started....

Totalitarianism as latent in technology? On the first level I'd say yes, from
a phenomenological perspective. Heidegger, and McLuhan afterwards, was very
aware that because technology amplifies perception in an instrumental way, it
also alters perception and thinking (Heidegger's 'enframing'). Human beings
cannot surpass that, because in order to do so they would have to be masters
of their own existence; something which technology itself disproves.

This is of course most appropriate for instrumental technologies. An extreme
disagreement between two people might even up with one or both with a bloody
nose. Add guns to the equation and injuries are probably going to be more
severe. Instrumental technologies amplify the effects of moral decisions as
well.

The question I'll pose is whether this sort of analysis remains true for 
communication technologies. Is it possible that in the act of mediation itself
that the possibility exists for *improved* moral decisions? Further, how do we
then differentiate between communication and information technologies?.

> steve.demos wrote that Paul Virilio wrote:
> 	"Totalitarianism is latent in technology. It was not merely
> 	Hitler or Mussolini who were totalitarian, or the Pharaohs as
> 	far as I am concerned. Totalitarianism is already present in
> 	the technical object."
> 

Solidarite,

-- 
Lev Lafayette. lev-AT-ariel.unimelb.edu.au http://ariel.unimelb.edu.au/~lev
* Electorate Officer for Neil Cole, MLA for Melbourne, Parliament of Victoria.
* Thesis in progress: 'A Social Theory of the Internet'. Ashworth Centre
for Social Theory, University of Melbourne.
* President of Mimesis, Inc. An association promoting roleplaying systems.


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