On Technology as the Solution

I wrote this in response to a note from a friend about the provocative social commentary film Zeitgeist: Addendum [link]. Is technology the answer? No, and yes.

There is much talk of what the problems are, and what we need to solve them. I love Thich Nhat Hanh’s perspective on awareness of a problem. He compares mindfulness of one’s suffering, or problem, to a mother comforting a crying child. It only takes a few minutes of a mother cradling a child to figure out what the problem is and then provide what is needed: love, attention, milk…. And as the closing scene with Krishnamurti says: “To understand, is to transform what is.” I hope our societal discourse can likewise focus compassionately and diligently on our problems.

And once we do have our focus squarely on what the problem is, what will we decide about what we need in order to solve that problem and, just as importantly, how to go about it? The how is what I feel moved to talk about.

Technology is often cited as the solution. At first I recoiled from this; can the answer to our deep human problems really be found in a material invention? But then I reconsidered the meaning of technology. Is not sitting in a sharing circle on a Wednesday night, say, a form of (social) technology (designed to increase participation and group interaction) just as much as using a spoon to eat soup is? Well then, perhaps technology is the part of the solution.

If you take a step back and look at the culture we live in today many of us have it relatively pretty well off (I at least, feel quite blessed and privileged). And many forms of technology have enabled this. But if someone like Obama can be in power and society’s many problems will still be very far from being solved (as we know, on some level, will be the case) then we realize, to paraphrase a friend, that it is not putting the right people in power that must be our focus, but putting the right power in people.

Zeitgeist rightly points out that politicians are basically limited to creating laws, and allotting money. It further claims that societies problems have historically been solved by “technicians”, not politicians. I agree that many of our problems today can be classified as “design” problems — but these are social structure design problems, not machine design problems!

The narrator in zeitgeist claims we currently have the existing resources and the technology to distribute those resources so that every single human being on the planet can have their basic needs met (not to mention other forms of life). If so, then why hasnt this been done? They reason it is because we operate within a monetary system (capitalism), based on scarcity and competition, as opposed to what they call a resource system, or some system based on abundance, with an understandings of symbiosis (unity/interconnectedness) and emergence (change is the only constant/impermanence).
Perhaps this is a big part of it. But how do we move from what we have today to a system of abundance and trust? To cop a phrase from another friend: I dont know, but I trust We do.

Lets not limit our focus to external, material solutions such as high-tech transportation systems and sustainable energy harvesting (important as these are!), and not even to external social structures at the meso (groups), macro (nations) and mega levels (regions) (important as all of these are!) What if we look at the power that operates within each one of us? What kind of power am I employing right now, and on a daily basis? Threat power? Do I demand that something be done, implicitly threatening to withhold my love or praise if it’s not? Exchange power? Do I receive food only because I offer greenish paper in return? Or do I employ integrative power? Do I speak and act on the deepest truth i know? trusting that it will bring us closer together, align us with what know to be the interconnectedness of all life.

And when we are brought closer, then perhaps we can listen to each other — truly listen — and collaborate in creating the world we would all like to see — all of us. Because no one person, or group, or institution has the answer. Surely we must realize this by now. But thats the beauty of humanity, and of life on this planet: we inter-are.

So when we hear that technology is the answer, lets think of things like nonviolence, lets think of  gift economy (both employ integrative power) — and then lets think of whether or not each of our internal operating systems are upgraded to the most advanced social technology.