Ursula K. Le Guin on "technology"
"Technology is the active human interface with the material world.
But the word is consistently misused to mean only the enormously complex and specialised technologies of the past few decades, supported by massive exploitation both of natural and human resources.
This is not an acceptable use of the word. "Technology" and "hi tech" are not synonymous, and a technology that isn't "hi," isn't necessarily "low" in any meaningful sense.
We have been so desensitized by a hundred and fifty years of ceaselessly expanding technical prowess that we think nothing less complex and showy than a computer or a jet bomber deserves to be called "technology " at all. As if linen were the same thing as flax — as if paper, ink, wheels, knives, clocks, chairs, aspirin pills, were natural objects, born with us like our teeth and fingers -- as if steel saucepans with copper bottoms and fleece vests spun from recycled glass grew on trees, and we just picked them when they were ripe..."
Ursula K. Le Guin on "technology"
@entreprecariat
Have you ever used a well-made Japanese knife? (Or also other well-made ones, but I think the Japanese ones are quite good, so...) A great piece of technology still being developed today with still open questions and challenges. And it replaces a LOT of seemingly higher tech kitchen utensils which in the end are only more complex but not better suited for the task and annoying to use and clean. I prefer chopping veg with a good knife over any kitchen gadget any time.
re: Ursula K. Le Guin on "technology"
@grob @entreprecariat my local user group had a talk on this exact point:
https://lsh.io/plugtalk/#38
The whole thing has bits adjacent to your observations here, although a lot of it needed the context of the audio to make it meaningful on multiple levels.
