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Technology An excerpt from The Last Americans by Jared Diamond. The article appears in the June 2003, Harpers Another popular misconception is that we can trust in technology to solve our problems. Whatever environmental problem you name, you can also name some hoped for technological solution under discussion. Some of us have faith that we shall solve our dependence on fossil fuels by developing new technologies for hydrogen engines, wind energy, or solar energy. Some of us have faith that new technologies will succeed in cleaning up the toxic materials in our air, water, soil,and foods without the horrendous cleanup expenses that we now incur. Those with such faith assume that the new technologies will ultimately succeed, but in fact some of them may succeed and others may not. They assume that the new technological changes will actually take five to thirty years to develop and implement--if they catch on at all. Most of all, those with faith assume that new technology won't cause any new problems. In fact, technology merely constitutes increased power, which produces changes that can be either for the better or for the worse. All of our current environmental problems are unanticipated harmful consequences of our existing technology. There is no basis for believing that technology will miraculously stop causing new and unanticipated problems while it is solving the problems that it previously produced. |