Postman Chapter Two{ From Tools to Technocracy in Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman

From Tools to Technocracy in

Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology

by Neil Postman

His argument, simple;

his question.

pp. 21-39

24 ¶

Marx “hand-loom gives feudal lord"

But which technology gave us a technocrat ?

connecting technological conditions to symbolic life Symbols of power and transformation

C.S. Pierce 19^thc. = Railway Age

dangers that lie ahead are seen more clearly with a taxon of three ages:

Tools pre-and16^th cent hands & eyes
Technocracy 17-18^th cent machinery & mechanism
Technopoly 20^th cent electronic automation

22-23

spears and cooking utensils – water mills and coal and horsepower – wheeled plow

mechanical clock --

“tools did not attach the dignity and integrity of the culture into which they were introduced.”

dictated the invention of tools and the limited uses to which they were (purposes) put.”

evidence

Innocent II condemned the use of the crossbow when in 12^th century it was preferred in Europe.

∆

the character of a tool using culture is not defined by the quantity of available technologies (the way tools fit together to accomplish tasks).

“tool-using cultures may be surprisingly sophisticated.”

Biblical admonition against graven images – idols -- idolatry

“relationship in a given culture between tools and the belief system or ideology.”

“a high degree of integration between its tools and its worldview (Euro-Medieval)

Theology formed the controlling ideology

“tools have a way of intruding” stirrups—cavalry—land-holding => Feudalism

Transformation of the mechanical clock

Grinding mills – prostitution, matches and sexual habits of an African tribe.”

If the introduction of matches changed sexual acts related to privacy (going to a neighbor’s hut to get the fire starting coals) – the rifle is of enormous consequence to accepted modes of behavior.

27-28.

“In a technocracy, tools play a central role in the thought –world of a culture.”

Technocracy -- roots of which lie in Medieval Europe where “tools” began “attack the culture.”

Tradition, mores, myth, politics, ritual and religion” all fight -- succumb

Three great inventions: clock – typography – telescope – some devices are more important than most others.

Galileo, Milton, Kepler, etc.

Galileo’s, Kepler’s, or Copernicus' intentions were not to disarm their culture

29-30

May 24, 1543 death of Copernicus.

“a fool who went against Holy Writ” Martin Luther wrote of Nicholas Copernicus.

Kepler held a similar view to Nicholas Copernicus conception of the solar system

Kepler took the first significant step toward measuring time and it unintentionally, but inevitably, led to technocracy

Kepler was Lutheran—a man of sincere religious conviction in spite of excommunication from the Church

“Galileo did not invent the telescope.” also was of extreme religious convictions

transformed it “into an instrument of science”

G. disqualified theologians from being judges of nature based on scripture alone

32-33

Galileo’s heresy trial of 1633 – telescope, printing, and vernacular language (me) was his great undoing – he had no permission to “tell” people what tools were available and did!

1642 death and birth G – Newton

Newton lit the fuse of the Copernican, Keplerian & Galilean explosives; rocked Europe

Newton – “his faith in scripture being unshaken.” Calc 2d Coming 2060

“Although he saw the universes as mechanistic”

“give me matter and motion” and “I will construct the world.” I.N.

34-35

“All clung to the theology of their age.”

“a late sixteenth century passion for exactitude”

October 23, 4004 BC as the day God “created the Heavens and the Earth.”

“…laid the foundation for the emergence of technocracies”

Francis Bacon born in 1561, “first saw pure and serene the connection”

“…between science and the improvement of the human condition.”

35-36

Bacon was no real scientist and a poor investigator – but a brilliant publicist

Progress & Power was the name of his structure that promoted the utilitarian view of knowledge

Bacon

Experimental science was not but – Novum Organum was his great success.

“observe the force and effect and consequences of discoveries” [inventions].

“Places technological development at the center of the reader’s attention” (Progress & Power)

182 aphorisms & it is in this work that “he denounces the famous four idols”

Idols deceit comes from

Cave deluded by nature (shadows & mirages)

Tribe deluded by heredity (ethnic prejudice)

Marketplace deluded by words (testimonials, advertising)

Theatre deluded by dogma -- philosophers (Aristotle)

“Read Bacon today” “be constantly surprised at his modernity.”

Called for “a College of Inventors” in The Advancement of Learning”

Postman’s concluding remarks:

“impoverished and powerless peasants” – too poor to think

√

C. P. Snow, --in The Two Cultures– believed correctly that:

“the industrial revolution of the 19^th century was the only hope for the poor”

√

In spite of the correctness of

Thomas Carlyle who said “true Deity became mechanism” the vast majority

“would not have traded their earthly existence for life in a godly-integrated tool using culture.”

38-39

“The western world had become a technocracy.”

Ω Postman’s last remark:

Say neither in their way

“It is deadly magic and accursed

Nor “It is blest,” only “ It is here.”

John Brown’s Body, Stephen Vincent Benet

Postman's book's key parts:

Tools to Technocracy

From Technocracy to Technopoly

An improbable world

Broken Defenses

Scientism

Thesis

Page 3 of 3

	Tulips as tools?
	Tools of Toil: what to read.
	Tools are historical building blocks of technology.
Technology can be understood if tools have three facets.
Tools used in both Music and Architecture led to mechanization and automation.
Tools and the study of technology require us to reflect on the power of instruments,