Technology: good or bad (or neither)? Recently someone on a list I frequent wrote these absolutely astonishing words (and shared them with hundreds of other people via several quite amazing technologies) about airplanes used for war:

Their existence does not offend me, though I could argue that the technology (and technology in general) has done absolutely nothing for the quality of human life, the reduced suffering of the human race or the enlightenment of human beings. Quite the opposite.

I have asked him how he feels about the technologies of agriculture, and cloth-making, and brewing. I confess to being rabidly curious as to the answer. I'll try to remember to share the gist of it here. Really I feel as if sometimes I am an alien among my fellow men, when I hear things like this which I cannot easily comprehend. I wonder if they have the same relation to the 'benefits' of technology as I do to the 'services' of government - cold loathing, much of it self-directed for allowing myself to continue to be involved with such a despicable system, and a good dose of joy contemplating the future which will be much more free.

What a puzzle!
  ¶ 11:29 AM