Is Neo-Amish-ism Even Possible?

After mulling over our readings for this week, one line kept coming back to me: "It's not just how we use the technology that concerns us. We're also concerned about what kind of people we become when we use it" (185). Yup.

It appears as though the current powers that be are trying to use technology to uphold the status quo. They "become a threat to liberty as well as dignity when they give one person or group power to constrain the behavior of others (188). Well, in some ways, is this not already happening? We have put so much of our lives online and are giving power to corporation to profile us (ads, etc.). Freedom of Information is being restricted--web publications can be censored by government (see my Mermaid post...). The control of knowledge/power is being manipulated in new ways because of technology. And, we accept regulations etc, as part of normal thinking & behavior (189).

I am less worried with people treating others as machines than I am simply people not knowing how to interact with other people, period. I despise when people continually text others while I am having a conversation with them. And some of these people think it's no big deal--just multi-tasking, or new social protocols. Bullshit. It's rude, plain and simple. If "our artifacts [are] in the information age, but our biology is still prehistoric" (192), then we have a problem. Evolution takes time. Our biology simply can't catch up that quick--and neither, then, will our mental/social skills.

And, those who don't have access then end up farther divided from "the rest of the world" unless we continue the old acts of colonization in new ways.

Though I am not particularly a proponent of colonization, could that not be what humanity needs to make its next evolutionary leap (that is, OLPC on some level)? If we continue to act as separate beings based on place and culture, we will never move forward. Culture changes as it gains more knowledge; to keep knowledge in "Western" hands is to keep power in Western hands. But to "force" it on others is to colonize. What kind of people do they become when using it? What kind of people do we become by "making" them use it?

Basically, we are in the middle of a pretty profound paradigm shift. Sadly, that means, eventually, some people are going to get left behind, and some cultures may "die." And yet, this happens to other species all the time. Humans are a species, and are not immune to the laws of evolution. To preserve ourselves--and our cultures--there needs to be some level of adaptation. Though, I am certainly scared of the direction this could take, and worry for the future of those who choose to not partake of technology. I feel like that could open them up to what I will call "techgenocide."