Question
please read the article and answer the questions ignore the 3 numbers in the begging of each sentence. Do your best Industrial Society and its
please read the article and answer the questions ignore the 3 numbers in the begging of each sentence.
Do your best
"Industrial Society and its Future"by Theodore Kaczynski1INTRODUCTION21. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human 3race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in 4"advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, 5have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological 6suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe 7damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the 8situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater 9damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and 10psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in 11"advanced" countries. 122. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it 13MAY eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only 14after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of 15permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered 16products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the 17consequences will be inevitable: There is no way of reforming or modifying the system 18so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy. 193. If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger 20the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to 21break down it had best break down sooner rather than later. 224. We therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system. This revolution may 23or may not make use of violence: it may be sudden or it may be a relatively gradual 24process spanning a few decades. We can't predict any of that. But we do outline in a very 25general way the measures that those who hate the industrial system should take in order 26to prepare the way for a revolution against that form of society. This is not to be a 27POLITICAL revolution. Its object will be to overthrow not governments but the 28economic and technological basis of the present society.
OVERSOCIALIZATION17224.
Psychologists use the term "socialization" to designate the process by which children 173are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if 174he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning 175part of that society. It may seem senseless to say that many leftists are over-socialized, 176since the leftist is perceived as a rebel. Nevertheless, the position can be defended. Many 177leftists are not such rebels as they seem. 17825. The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a 179completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost 180everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. 181Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally 182imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually 183have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for 184feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin. We use the term 185"oversocialized" to describe such people. [2] 18626. Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, 187guilt, etc. One of the most important means by which our society socializes children is by 188making them feel ashamed of behavior or speech that is contrary to society's 189expectations. If this is overdone, or if a particular child is especially susceptible to such 190feelings, he ends by feeling ashamed of HIMSELF. Moreover the thought and the 191behavior of the oversocialized person are more restricted by society's expectations than 192are those of the lightly socialized person. The majority of people engage in a significant 193amount of naughty behavior. They lie, they commit petty thefts, they break traffic laws,
194they goof off at work, they hate someone, they say spiteful things or they use some 195underhanded trick to get ahead of the other guy. The oversocialized person cannot do 196these things, or if he does do them he generates in himself a sense of shame and self-197hatred. The oversocialized person cannot even experience, without guilt, thoughts or 198feelings that are contrary to the accepted morality; he cannot think "unclean" thoughts. 199And socialization is not just a matter of morality; we are socialized to confirm to many 200norms of behavior that do not fall under the heading of morality. Thus the oversocialized 201person is kept on a psychological leash and spends his life running on rails that society 202has laid down for him. In many oversocialized people this results in a sense of constraint 203and powerlessness that can be a severe hardship. We suggest that oversocialization is 204among the more serious cruelties that human beings inflict on one another.
SURROGATE ACTIVITIES29738. But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the 298emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine 299biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert 300themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. 301In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional 302involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities. 303Thus the aristocrats of the Roman Empire had their literary pretensions; many European 304aristocrats a few centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though 305they certainly didn't need the meat; other aristocracies have competed for status through 306elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats, like Hirohito, have turned to science. 30739. We use the term "surrogate activity" to designate an activity that is directed toward an 308artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work 309toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the "fulfillment" that they get from pursuing 310the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities. Given a 311person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal X, ask yourself this: If 312he had to devote most of his time and energy to satisfying his biological needs, and if that 313effort required him to use his physical and mental facilities in a varied and interesting 314way, would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X? If the answer is 315no, then the person's pursuit of a goal X is a surrogate activity. Hirohito's studies in 316marine biology clearly constituted a surrogate activity, since it is pretty certain that if
317Hirohito had had to spend his time working at interesting non-scientific tasks in order to 318obtain the necessities of life, he would not have felt deprived because he didn't know all 319about the anatomy and life-cycles of marine animals. On the other hand the pursuit of sex 320and love (for example) is not a surrogate activity, because most people, even if their 321existence were otherwise satisfactory, would feel deprived if they passed their lives 322without ever having a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. (But pursuit of an 323excessive amount of sex, more than one really needs, can be a surrogate activity.) 32440. In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical 325needs. It is enough to go through a training program to acquire some petty technical skill, 326then come to work on time and exert very modest effort needed to hold a job. The only 327requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence, and most of all, simple 328OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from cradle to grave. (Yes, 329there is an underclass that cannot take physical necessities for granted, but we are 330speaking here of mainstream society.) Thus it is not surprising that modern society is full 331of surrogate activities. These include scientific work, athletic achievement, humanitarian 332work, artistic and literary creation, climbing the corporate ladder, acquisition of money 333and material goods far beyond the point at which they cease to give any additional 334physical satisfaction, and social activism when it addresses issues that are not important 335for the activist personally, as in the case of white activists who work for the rights of 336nonwhite minorities. These are not always pure surrogate activities, since for many 337people they may be motivated in part by needs other than the need to have some goal to 338pursue. Scientific work may be motivated in part by a drive for prestige, artistic creation 339by a need to express feelings, militant social activism by hostility. But for most people 340who pursue them, these activities are in large part surrogate activities. For example, the 341majority of scientists will probably agree that the "fulfillment" they get from their work is 342more important than the money and prestige they earn. 34341. For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less satisfying than the pursuit of 344real goals ( that is, goals that people would want to attain even if their need for the power 345process were already fulfilled). One indication of this is the fact that, in many or most 346cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are never satisfied, never at 347rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives for more and more wealth. The scientist no 348sooner solves one problem than he moves on to the next. The long-distance runner drives 349himself to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate activities will 350say that they get far more fulfillment from these activities than they do from the 351"mundane" business of satisfying their biological needs, but that it is because in our 352society the effort needed to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality. 353More importantly, in our society people do not satisfy their biological needs 354AUTONOMOUSLY but by functioning as parts of an immense social machine. In 355contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate 356activities. have a great deal of autonomy in pursuing their surrogate activities.
Questions;
Can you identify any parallels between his views on the inevitable rise of technological society and Vinge's beliefs about the inevitable rise of the Singularity? Provide a couple of paragraphs summarizing a similarity or difference you can identify. Also, the Unabomber points out that refrigeration, like all science, solves one problem but creates many more. The more science you use, the more science you need. Provide another example of a post-Industrial technology that solves a problem but introduces additional complications or technical dependencies.
For example, Modern tractors and combines efficiently harvest and work the land better than any vehicle developed in the past. With GPS guidance and air-conditioned cabs, they provide comfort for their operators with technical sophistication. Ultimately, these vehicles help yield more produce and feed more people than ever before. On the other hand, they require sophisticated electronics which in turn requires the existence of the semi-conductor industry. We can't just get tractors, we get tractors and an entire industry dependent on rare earth elements that excrete heavy metals and poisonous fumes into the atmosphere. Additionally, these vehicles use sophisticated software that is error-prone (like all software) and requires additional expertise to master. Moreover, the software industry itself makes an environmental impact.
If you are at a total loss for ideas, consider Bitcoin, Ring Doorbells, Facebook, Autopilot.
You could also take the approach that every technology reduces human dignity and autotomy, select a technology of your choosing, and then point out the ways it deprives us of those.
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