In Technopoly, Postman argues that technology has become increasingly dominant in American culture. He contends that technology has not only changed what we do but how we think about ourselves and our world. According to Postman, we have become a “technopoly”—a society in which technology is revered above all else. This worship of technology has led us to surrender our culture to it; we no longer control technology, it controls us.
Neil Postman’s book is a scathing critique of what the author sees as our society’s ever-increasing reliance on technology. Postman arguest that this reliance is not only detrimental to our social and cultural values but is also eroding the very foundation of our democracy. In support of his claims, Postman marshals a wide array of evidence ranging from studies on human behavior to historical analysis.
Technopoly vs. Democracy
A key theme of Postman’s book is the conflict between technopoly and democracy. For Postman, technopoly is a society that “subjects all deliberations about ends and means to considerations of technical feasibility” (p. 9). In other words, technopoly is a society in which technology reigns supreme and all other values are secondary. Democracy, on the other hand, is based on the principles of debate and discussion, with various stakeholders coming together to decide what is best for the community as a whole.
In technopoly, there is no need for debate or discussion because the answer to every problem is always “more technology.” More specifically, the answer is always “whatever new technology happens to be available at the time.” This blind faith in technology has led us down a path where we are constantly replacing old technologies with new ones without pausing to question whether or not we actually need them. As Postman puts it, we have become “a people on holiday from responsibility” (p. 31).
The Dangers of Technopoly
Carelessness about human values is part and parcel of Technopoly. When everything can be solved with more technology, there is no need to consider things like ethics or morality. This can have dangerous consequences, as evidenced by the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the Stanford prison experiment. In both cases, researchers took advantage of unsuspecting participants in the name of science without regard for the potentially harmful effects their actions might have.
Postman’s Technopoly is a comprehensive and well-argued critique of our society’s relationship with technology. While many people see technological progress as an unalloyed good, Postman persuasively demonstrates that this progress comes at a high cost to our social and cultural values. As we become increasingly reliant on technology, we may find ourselves losing sight of what it means to be human.