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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   34124 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 29, 2024

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That it is impossible to live without the solutions in the world we have created, and that these solutions require an Empire to maintain, which means we are addicted to structures of control.

I still don't see an issue with this. Controlling nature and human behavior are good things.

There are specific examples of technologies that do not have this problem and empower the individual instead of enslaving him to large organizations.

What are some good technologies and bad technologies, in your view?

Have you ever asked yourself seriously why you prefer one over the other instead of assuming without inquiry that they are equivalent?

In other cases my personal feeling goes the other way. A lot of right-wingers think people only pretend to like modern art for clout but I am an unironic modern art enjoyer. I think this is much cooler and more pleasant to look at that anything Da Vinci, or Caravaggio ever produced.

How familiar are you with Kant and the categorical imperative?

I know the wikipedia definition.

I think this is much cooler

You're not alone in that, turns out some italian right wingers did as well and adapted Metzinger's style specifically. It's not really a right vs left thing.

But you're dodging the question, why do you like it? Aesthetics is specifically informative to this conversation.

Personally I see good art as a reflection and exploration of the human condition. So I'm not surprised that you would find art that explores your relationship to technology as more impactful when you live in a technological society. But what that exploration tells us is the whole question.

Controlling nature and human behavior are good things.

Pick up that can.

I disagree on the same grounds as Burroughs.

What are some good technologies and bad technologies, in your view?

Let me answer with Ted's words here:

208. We distinguish between two kinds of technology, which we will call small-scale technology and organization-dependent technology. Small-scale technology is technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance. Organization-dependent technology is technology that depends on large-scale social organization. We are aware of no significant cases of regression in small-scale technology. But organization-dependent technology DOES regress when the social organization on which it depends breaks down. Example: When the Roman Empire fell apart the Romans’ small-scale technology survived because any clever village craftsman could build, for instance, a water wheel, any skilled smith could make steel by Roman methods, and so forth. But the Romans’ organization-dependent technology DID regress. Their aqueducts fell into disrepair and were never rebuilt. Their techniques of road construction were lost. The Roman system of urban sanitation was forgotten, so that not until rather recent times did the sanitation of European cities equal that of ancient Rome.

209. The reason why technology has seemed always to progress is that, until perhaps a century or two before the Industrial Revolution, most technology was small-scale technology. But most of the technology developed since the Industrial Revolution is organization-dependent technology. Take the refrigerator for example. Without factory-made parts or the facilities of a post-industrial machine shop it would be virtually impossible for a handful of local craftsmen to build a refrigerator. If by some miracle they did succeed in building one it would be useless to them without a reliable source of electric power. So they would have to dam a stream and build a generator. Generators require large amounts of copper wire. Imagine trying to make that wire without modern machinery. And where would they get a gas suitable for refrigeration? It would be much easier to build an icehouse or preserve food by drying or pickling, as was done before the invention of the refrigerator.

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