The current stage in the development of human civilization is closely related to the use of technology. There are hardly any industries today that have not yet found the use of technology to automate, optimize, or simplify professional tasks. Such widespread use of such tools could not help but cause philosophical and historical studies to determine the relationship between technology, state, and human. Thus, one of the primary ideological authors who studied the technocratic foundations is considered to be the American writer Neil Postman. The fundamental thesis of his writings is that technology contributes to the development of human communities but that it is so fleeting and rapid that many of the irreversible changes go unnoticed. This essay describes the fundamental principles of technocracy according to Neil Postman’s teachings.
The primary tool of humans was not technology as it is known. Instead of smartphones and computers, individuals of antiquity used stones, sticks, and ropes to create. According to Postman (2011), cultures that used tools were characterized by two functional features. On the one hand, such societies could use tools for applied tasks, whether calculating windmills or obtaining hydropower. Technology also had an applied meaning on a less extensive level: kitchen utensils, tools for hunting, and other manual labor also served the function of solving concrete, urgent tasks. On the other hand, the use of implements may have been symbolic of addressing issues related to philosophy, religion, politics, or art.
It is noteworthy that the development of technology can be associated with declining a community’s cultural traditions. More specifically, the emergence of technological solutions to simplify tasks eventually leads to losing the phenomena and processes they replaced. For example, oral speech becomes less critical with the advent of writing, and writing by hand ceases to be relevant with the proliferation of typewriters. Similar metamorphosis occurs with cultural sovereignty: the beginning of unified tools erases cultural differences and changes the profile of the community (Postman, 2011; Anderson & Rainie, 2018). At the same time, new cultural formations emerge and develop, which means that civilization inevitably changes over time. Such changes are especially evident in the religion-technology paradigm, where society’s religious and moral foundations decline due to scientific progress. According to Postman, religion and faith begin to be perceived as weak and inhibitors of the progressive movement stimulated by technology (Postman, 2011). The more factories, factories, and engineering plants opened, the more discoveries humans made about the universe, and the weaker faith became. Consequently, technology was seriously damaging the moral and religious traditions of cultures.
Postman’s thoughts on the actual legal case come to mind in this context. Specifically, Postman compares the substitution of technology for religion to the Monkey Trial, in which an American teacher was accused of teaching Darwinist teachings in the first half of the last century (Postman, 2011; HE, 2019). In this case, there was a severe conflict between the Christian religion, which could still hold the position of strong and authoritative faith, and scientific progress, expressed in a reluctance to teach the hypotheses of divine creation as the fundamental teachings of biology. Although, in reality, the defendant lost, it was a landmark case demonstrating religion’s decline. Postman appreciated the case’s significance, confirming that the weakening of creationism ultimately led to a reduction in morality.
However, tool-using cultures are not yet technocratic in the typical term interpretation. Unlike such cultures, technocracies do not seek to become part of it but attack and radically transform it (Postman, 2011). Thus, technology becomes the central core of the entire mental activity of a theocratic culture, replacing the elements previously present there, be it religion, mythology, or art. Among the characteristics of a technocratic society, the inherent urge to invent to improve the quality of life stands out. Consequently, in this form of governance, the key players in the system, be it enterprise or state, are experts with extensive experience in technology (Kenton, 2021). They can be engineers, programmers, scientists, or any other industry professionals.
However, despite weakening religion’s institutions, technocracy is not a contradiction for the cultural core of communities. Unlike technopoly, viewed as a totalitarian technocracy, the effect of technocracy is offset by the presence of a cultural layer in society, be it art or religion (Postman, 2011). Precisely because a technocratic society is not a society devoid of emotions and feelings but seeks to use technology in everything, this approach has not destroyed the think the world of pre-existing cultures. At the same time, the world of technocracy was too new and unformed to replace traditional community worldviews completely. However, there can be no eternal balance between the two metaphysical forms, so, according to Postman, as progress develops, one side — technology or tradition — will have to disappear (Postman, 2011). The supremacy of technocracy over the traditional worldview will consequently lead to the disappearance of the cultural core.
Thus, technopoly becomes the next step in the development of civilizations, according to Postman. The essential thesis of such a society boils down to the absolute superiority of computer thinking — or, in other words, technology — over flawed and two-dimensional human thinking. The influence of the ideas of the famous American engineer Frederick Taylor is evident in this statement. In particular, Taylor believed that management can be applied to any form of labor activity and that specific driving forces contribute to the productivity of this management. This refers to the training requirements, the distribution of labor and responsibility, the apparent rationale for each decision, and the optimization of all production. In this sense, there is a noticeable shift from subjectivism and intuitivism toward objectivism and non-emotionalism, which Postman also writes about. In this sense, one can point out that the needs of people will cease to be as important as the machines used in production.
Another of Postman’s theses is noteworthy, according to which technopoly has found the means to survive in the face of American civilization. More specifically, the U.S. has become a demonstration of a technopolitical world in which technology is central. There are several reasons why Postman identified the U.S. as a suitable soil for technopoly adaptation (Kakutani, 1992). First, it has to do with the immigrant nature of the culture. There is a code of novelty in the history of the place itself since the country has recently emerged from the control of the colonies and is ready to develop new resources. Second, the American mentality does not tend to recognize limitations and instead deifies progress and change. Third, U.S. history includes many prominent entrepreneurs and inventors who have significantly contributed to global technological progress. Finally, Americans tend to trust comfort and exalt laziness, which is known to be realized through searching for technological substitutes. Thus, instead of going to the store, people use food delivery.
Ultimately, technological progress is inevitable and moves at a rapid pace. These metamorphoses, according to Postman, are closely related to the replacement of the cultural values of civilizations. Tool-driven cultures are being replaced by technocracies and technopolies that weaken communities’ moral and religious attitudes of communities. However, the unique American culture was one of the first to reach the stage of technopoly, in which technology has a centering effect and seeks to attack the culture, not just integrate into it, but essentially become it.
References
Anderson, J. & Rainie, L. (2018). The negatives of digital life. PRC.
HE. (2019). Scopes trial. History. Web.
Kakutani, M. (1991). Books of the times; technology’s erosion of culture. NY Times. Web.
Kenton, W. (2021). Technocracy. Investopedia.
Postman, N. (2011). Technopoly: The surrender of culture to technology. Vintage.