Luddite?

Is it just me, or is there something wrong in calling someone a Luddite just because s/he is not obsessed with technology? I mean, is technology all that we have to say or show for ourselves? And what is technology anyway? And who decided that it's our be-all and end-all?

Recently I read an article lamenting that we were risking our children's futures because we weren't teaching them to program. If they didn't learn that, they are doomed to become unfit for the world of tomorrow, we're cheating them of opportunities. Today, three-quarters of the population of Germany, for example, has a driver's license, but how many of these almost 60 million people can fix a car? Moreover, 100 years ago when we were just getting rolling in the automobile society, how many of anybody, let alone educators, were running around claiming we would be robbing our children of their futures if they didn't learn automotive mechanics? What makes digital technology so different?

Well, nothing fundamental, at least as far as I can tell.

Cars are a kind of tool, one that helps us get from point A to point B. They were clunky, temperamental, difficult to operate at first, but over time, they got easier and more comfortable to use. What is more, they are becoming so reliable that some are speculating when we'll be able to produce cars that won't need maintenance anymore. Relatively speaking, we've come a long way in the 125 years since Herr Benz registered his patent.

Computers are also a kind of tool, one that helps us do other things. They were clunky, temperamental, difficult to operate at first, but over time, they got easier and more comfortable to use. What is more, they are becoming so reliable and so compact that some are speculating when we'll be able to produce computers that are always on and always connected ... for everyone. As things move much faster in the computer world, we've come relatively far relatively faster than we did with cars, but the developments resemble each other in important ways.

What we failed to ask ourselves then (with cars) that we are failing to ask ourselves now (with computers) is what this technology is really good for? Back in the technological ecstasy that abounded, very few were asking about the worth of the technology. Urban sprawl, environmental pollution, junkyards, the Rust Belt, resource depletion, and many, many more issues were not thought about and not of much interest. The technology was going to do it for us ... now the technology is doing it to us.

A Luddite was one who opposed technological progress not technological obsession. We don't really have a technology problem today, we have an obsession problem. Of course there are jobs and incomes and revenues and stock prices that are intimately connected to the technology, but just because we have linked them now doesn't mean we have to keep them linked forever. No matter what we decide to do with our world, jobs and incomes and revenues and stock prices will be intimately connected to it. Obsession, however, is a serious signal that something is not right, that there is something unhealthy afoot.

If we really want to do something for our children, I think it would be wiser to teach them how to remain healthy.