BOOK REVIEW - Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

I was recently looking through my book shelves for books that can be put away in storage when I came across Technopoly by Neil Postman (1931-2003).  You may or may not be familur with his work.  One of his more popular books was Amusing Ourselves to Death.  Dr.Postman was a professor of media ecology at NYU and very interested in education which was the motivation behind Technopoly.  My  interest was peaked as I wondered how much of what he wrote 20 years ago was still the case today.  As I re-read his book one thought repeatedly entered my mind "this could have been written yesterday."  To his credit much of what he wrote still holds true today.

My first reading of the book was mostly out of questions that I had with technology's influence in modern day culture, to the point at which we seemingly have limited control over its influence in our lives. Before I go any further I realize that many of you reading this post know me and know that I have spent much of my career in a technological field.  However, the issues that Postman presents in Technopoly, namely the monopoly of power that technology has over our society, should be given some consideration by all of us.  We should ask the question do certain technologies benefit us?  To what degree are we benefited?  What are the dangers and to what degree does this technology harm?  These are standard questions that we usually ask of most things.

Below I have written a brief summation of each topic in the book.  My goal was simply to give you a taste of what Postman has to say.  Do I recommend this book?  Absolutely.

Chapter 1 The Judgment of Thamus
I have to admit, starting the book out with a section from Phaedrus by Plato truly warmed my classical heart.  In this story king Thamus rejected the invention of writing by the god Theuth (who was an inventor of many things).  Thamus first explains that the inventor isn't always the best person to determine the benefit or harm of the invention.  Thamus' second point was that writing would discourage memory since those who write will rely on their writings to bring things to remembrance.  Postman critiques Thamus' one sided thinking that writing will only be a burden believing that "every technology is both burden and a blessing; not either-or"(3-5).  New technology is subtle and quickly infiltrates a society without first explaining its benefits or harm and to whom will be benefited or harmed.  The impact of technological change is so significant that Postman refers to it as an ecological change (18) using television and its impact on American ecology as an example.  "New techologies alter the structure of our interests the things we think about.  They alter the character of our symbols: the things we think with.  And the alter the nature of community: the arena in which thoughts develop" (20).

Chapter 2 From Tools to Technocracy
Here Postman makes an observation between tool using technology and what he calls "technocracy".  The Postman explains is something like a tool where technology serves to solve practical problems.  In a "technocracy" technology plays a bigger role in the culture as it seeks to become the culture.  The main distinction between the two is that the latter attempts to attack the dignity or integrity of the existing culture (28).

Chapter 3 From Technocracy to Technopoly
In chapter 3 Postman offers a short industrial history in attempt to answer the question of when this shift to a technocracy came about in American culture.  What is important to understand in his discussion is with every new invention the culture became more and more dependent on manufacturers so that culturally we became a consumer of goods.  We were so identified with our new status that we no longer identified ourselves  as children of God (42).  As technocracy continued to grow "it diminished class, increased individualism, sped up time, collapsed distance, and fed the notion of progress as the new reality" (45).

For Postman Technopoly takes things one step further by "redefining what we mean by religion, by art, by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, so that our definitions fit its new requirements.  Technopoly, in other words, is totalitarian technocracy (48).  The observation that Postman makes is while Technocracy's influence was limited to its tool usage Technopoly totalized the whole of culture.  Where two world views co-existed under Technocracy and traditional views Technopoloy obliterates the traditional  and redefines what was normative.  "To every Old World belief, habit, or tradition there was and still is a technological alternative.  To prayer, the alternative is penicillin; to family roots, the alternative is mobility; to reading, the alternative is television; to restraint, the alternative is immediate gratification; to sin, the alternative is psychotherapy; to political ideology, the alternative is popular appeal established through scientific polling" (54).

Chapter 4 The Improbable World
 Just as the Middle Ages have been characterized as placing ultimate authority in religion, contemporary culture has placed ultimate authority in science.  Ultimate authority in science and a misappropriated use of progress usher's in a new problem that Postman describes as "information glut".  Information glut is not the absence of information but rather an overwhelming amount so much so that it is impossible to organize, prioritize, and genuinely understand leading to what Postman calls "information chaos."  "We proceed under the assumption that information is our friend, believing that cultures may suffer grievously from a lack of information which, of course, they do.  It is only now beginning to be understood that cultures may also suffer grievously from information glut, information without meaning, information without control mechanisms" (70).

Chapter 5 The Broken Defenses
"The god they (technopoly expersts) serve does not speak of righteousness or goodness or mercy or grace.  Their god speaks of efficiency, precision, objectivity"(90).  The broken defenses that Postman is speaking of are the controls that regulate "information glut".  Once these controls break down Postman describes a cultural condition where psychic tranquility and social purpose break down.  "Without defenses, people have no way of finding meaning in their experiences, lose their capacity to remember, and have difficulty imagining reasonable futures" (72).  

Chapter 6 Medical Technology
According to Postman the influence of technopoly  in medical technology misappropriates its aim as more emphasis is placed on the disease and not the patient.  Is this a better way of going?  Postman sites several key examples where the answer would be a definite "no."  So why do we continue practices that have the potential to do harm?  Postman explains that in a technopoly "there is no time or inclination to speak of technological debits" (108).  What matters most is perceived medial advancements.

Chapter 7 The Ideology of Machines: Computer Technology
This chapter was more conceptual making it more challenging to understand.  As I understand Postman technology is more and more becoming the authority while human points of references are becoming subordinated. Computers according to Postman are the technology of command and control and their expansion represents the loss of human subjectivity replaced by confidence in "technical calculations" (118). Needles to say Postman doesn't think that technology should be given free reign to go unchecked for the sake of technological advancements.