I urge people to take a clear-headed look at what is in front of them, and not to feel guilty if they reject something, and to be able to say, with a rational explanation, This is wrong, I will not myself buy into it … There are two moral judgments against computers. One is that computerization enables the large forces of our civilization to operate more swiftly and efficiently in their pernicious goals of making money and producing things … And secondly, in the course of using these, these forces are destroying nature with more speed and efficiency than ever before.
Predictor: Sale, Kirkpatrick
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, editor Kevin Kelly interviews Kirkpatrick Sale, the historian and author of “Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution,” in which he assails the Internet and computers as a danger to the planet. Kelly tells Sale, “The Luddites will be left behind,” and Sale replies: ”We can as individuals say, ‘This technology is wrong and harmful and we ought to act against it.’ That technology over there seems at the moment not to be wrong and harmful, so we can either use it or not as we wish. I urge people to take a clear-headed look at what is in front of them, and not to feel guilty if they reject something, and to be able to say, with a rational explanation, This is wrong, I will not myself buy into it … The Amish have said there are limits: There are certain things that we like, that seem to enhance our lives, and that do not do danger to our sense of family and community, and therefore we can use them; and there are others, quite clearly, that do harm. This is intelligent decision making. The Luddites were the same. The Luddites all worked with machinery, some with fairly complicated weaving machines in their cottages. They were not against machinery, but against ‘machinery hurtful to commonality,’ as one of their statements put it. They were not by any means against all technologies. In fact, something like the spinning jenny had come along in the 18th century and had been rather readily adopted … Quite apart from the environmental and medical evils associated with them being produced and used, there are two moral judgments against computers. One is that computerization enables the large forces of our civilization to operate more swiftly and efficiently in their pernicious goals of making money and producing things. And, however much individuals may feel that there are industrial benefits in their lives from the use of the computer (that is to say, things are easier, swifter), these are industrial virtues that may not be virtues in another morality. And secondly, in the course of using these, these forces are destroying nature with more speed and efficiency than ever before.”
Biography:Kirkpatrick Sale, an author and journalist, wrote a book titled “Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution” that made him a leader of the neo-Luddites of the 1990s. “Luddites” generally believe that technological advances are an endangerment to society. (Author/Editor/Journalist.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: General
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Interview with the Luddite: Kirkpatrick Sale is a Leader of the Neo-Luddites. Wire’s Kevin Kelly Wrote the Book on Neo-Biological Technology. Food Fight, Anyone?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.06/saleskelly_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney