I should add, though, that I think there is an important truth in the concern about whether progress makes us happier. Material progress doesn’t make us happier on its own: it also requires good choices and a healthy psychology.
Technology isn’t inherently good or bad, it is made so by how we use it. Technology generally gives us more power and more choices, and as our choices expand, we need to get better at making choices. And I’m not sure we’re getting better at making choices as fast as our choices are expanding.
The society-level version of this is that technology can be used for evil at a society level too, for instance, when it enables authoritarian governments or destructive wars. And just as at the individual level, I’m not sure our “moral technology” is advancing at the same rate as our physical technology.
So, I do see problems here. I just don’t think that technology is the problem! Technology is good and we need more of it. But we also need to improve our psychological, social, and moral “technology”.
I should add, though, that I think there is an important truth in the concern about whether progress makes us happier. Material progress doesn’t make us happier on its own: it also requires good choices and a healthy psychology.
Technology isn’t inherently good or bad, it is made so by how we use it. Technology generally gives us more power and more choices, and as our choices expand, we need to get better at making choices. And I’m not sure we’re getting better at making choices as fast as our choices are expanding.
The society-level version of this is that technology can be used for evil at a society level too, for instance, when it enables authoritarian governments or destructive wars. And just as at the individual level, I’m not sure our “moral technology” is advancing at the same rate as our physical technology.
So, I do see problems here. I just don’t think that technology is the problem! Technology is good and we need more of it. But we also need to improve our psychological, social, and moral “technology”.
More in this dialogue: https://pairagraph.com/dialogue/354c72095d2f42dab92bf42726d785ff