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From: colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: technology in literature
Message-ID: <854@gloria.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 10:44:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: gloria.854
Posted: Tue Jun 18 10:44:12 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 23-Jun-85 08:26:49 EDT
References: <840@gloria.UUCP> <370018@acf4.UUCP>
Organization: SUNY-Buffalo Computer Sci.
Lines: 42

> It seems to me that the main drawbacks attributed to technology, in
> lierature and in general, are actually the problems generated by
> those who use technology for "evil" purposes, and frequently blame the
> resulting problems on technology.
> 
> 						Mike Sykora

I can't let this one go by.  It's right over the plate.

	"In accepting an honorary degree from the University of
Notre Dame a few years ago, General David Sarnoff made this
statement: 'We are too prone to make technological instruments the
scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them.  The products of
modern science are not in themselves good or bad; it is the way they
are used that determines their value.' That is the voice of the
current somnambulism.  Suppose we were to say, 'Apple pie is in
itself neither good nor bad; it is the way it is used that
determines its value.' Or, 'The smallpox virus is in itself neither
good nor bad; it is the way it is used that determines its value.'
Again, 'Firearms are in themselves neither good nor bad; it is the
way they are used that determines their value.' That is, if the
slugs reach the right people firearms are good.  If the TV tube
fires the right ammunition at the right people it is good.  I am not
being perverse.  There is simply nothing in the Sarnoff statement
that will bear scrutiny, for it ignores the nature of the medium, of
any and all media, in the true Narcissus style of one hypnotized by
the amputation and extension of his own being in a new technical
form.

	"General Sarnoff went on to explain his attitude to the
technology of print, saying that it was true that print caused much
trash to circulate, but it had also disseminated the Bible and the
thoughts of seers and philosophers.  It has never occurred to
General Sarnoff that any technology could do anything but _add_
itself on to what we already are."

	H. M. McLuhan, _Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man_ (1964)

Has it occurred to _you?_
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel