Technology, Technique, and the Modification of Human Nature
Various people throughout history have recognized the effects that widespread integration of technology into human life has had on human nature. The adoption of and subsequent reliance on technological means for daily living and the functioning of society has molded the human being into a mechanized form of its former self. Perhaps no one has done a better job of elaborating on how the reliance on technology and technical applications (techniques) has modified human society than Jaques Ellul in his book The Technological Society in which he proposed it is the widespread adoption of valuing and searching for absolute technical efficiency in every aspect of life that is the root cause of the mechanical modification of the human being. As human society has progressed technologically and has adopted technological innovation and progress as its guiding ethos it has led the human being to adopt a technological lens for viewing and valuing life. This technological lens evaluates life based on efficiency and productivity; which are the two strongest characteristics that determine how technology is evaluated and valued, and also the values driving technological development. As a consequence of this change in the human value system, a mass focus has developed like never before on creating and deploying the most efficient techniques in every realm of human life. Technique can be thought of as the means and method of doing something. Ellul calls this force that is now governing human society as the “technical phenomenon”. We are collectively consumed by it. It inhabits our daily decisions and routines, our leisurely activities, the work we engage in, our systems of governance, our school systems, the division and specialization of our professions and workforce, and so much more. Our days and weeks are measured by productivity. Our societies are structured around efficiency and convenience. We outsource our opinions and decisions to specialized experts who seemingly possess knowledge of the most effective techniques from politics to economics to medicine. We line up to purchase the latest technologies produced by corporations that are going to seemingly improve parts of our lives. We are essentially operating from programmed software that forces the human being to bow to technique and its technical application. Slaves to the technical phenomenon.
As Ellul points out in his book, this phenomenon of needing to apply and develop the most efficacious techniques in all aspects of living is a newer paradigm of existence. Technical development was restrained throughout history up until the last several centuries where it exploded. This explosion in technology and techniques was only possible with a shift in the cultural character and values of societies. This sudden obsession with developing, applying, and improving technical methods is what Ellul points to as being the catalyst for modern industrial-technological society. There were centuries where no significant technical advancements occurred, or technical expansion was kept in check, simply because there were other, higher values in societies. For example, Ellul points to ancient Greece: “But it is certain that material needs were treated with contempt, that technical research was considered unworthy of the intellect, and that the goal of science was not application but contemplation.” (p. 28). At some point the human society became enamored with technical development and application over all else. The convenience and comfort that resulted from technical progress made man marvel at technological possibilities. Eventually the efficiency and productivity of machine inspired and intimidated man/woman to adopt a mechanized lifestyle in which every task that could be outsourced to a technical technique was in order to keep up with machine induced efficiency. This led to a societal obsession with improving technology and techniques to more and more efficient ends and applying them in every realm possible. Thus the results are manifested today in our industrial-technological system that sustains itself through proliferation of technological goods and services and techniques.
Side note: To be clear, evolution and change we may call “progress” into something new or better in some way is a natural phenomenon of life. But this is a slow-moving, gradual, piecemeal process. Modern technological developments and evolution are changing conditions for life in such a way that is not natural and ultimately harmful to human nature, the environment at large, and all biological life. The modern human obsession with technique and improving efficiency is also not a natural phenomenon. It is a newer disposition to life that is different than the typical psychological drive for improvement that past humans possessed.
As stated earlier, technique is the means and method of doing something. The technique of machine as it exists here has its own specific tendencies. It is rigid, systematic, predictable, and completely rationally-based. For a machine to function as intended, it must operate from a predictable nature because it is designed to achieve specific goals and outcomes. When you press a button or pull a lever it must correlate to certain results as much as possible. Thus it must have a rigid and systematic design to achieve this. This results-driven nature of its technique is why the guiding ethos of technology is efficiency and productivity. It is a measure of its value. It constantly seeks to correct its “flaws” to improve its efficiency and productivity with new upgrades and innovations. At some point in the last several centuries, increasing exponentially after the Industrial Revolution, human societies began identifying more than ever with these characteristics of machine technique. Society became merely an ecosystem for facilitating the development of technologies and techniques that improve efficiency and productivity. Human value became intertwined with it. The efficiency and productivity of human life became quantified through measurements of GDP, health and well-being, IQ scores and educational metrics, income, and the myriad of other measurements that are supposed to quantify “success” materially. As we reduced every aspect of life to its technical measurement, we began to become more dependent on techniques to produce more efficient results.
The proliferation of technique is apparent all around us. Entire fields are dedicated to studying and developing techniques for any aspect of life you can think of. Economics, politics, physical health, mental health, agriculture, education, engineering, philosophy, physics, computers, sociology, psychology, theology, communications, advertising, media, etc, etc. Our views and experience of life and reality has been neatly divided into categories that are specialized and headed by experts who propagate and develop the “best” techniques for understanding and applying aspects of life. We have created our own artificial systems with their own specialized techniques we give power over to for facilitating our existence. The technological system is constantly seeking the proliferation of new techniques to apply to everything from parenting to to diet to space travel and everything in between. Techniques do not just exist as physical methodologies, but take the form of belief systems, systems of planning and organizing, methods of influence such as propaganda, and patterns of thinking about and understanding things. Theories are simply applied techniques of understanding. So even our cognitive faculties are infested with the techniques we have adopted from other sources for viewing and understanding life.
We are frequently outsourcing our own autonomous experience to the perceived best technique. It is difficult to choose independence in all or most regards when we know there are methods that provide more ease, more efficient results, and lessen the burden and struggle of autonomy. The convenience and efficiency provided by technical techniques makes us indifferent and accepting of the fact we give up autonomy and freedom to live in such a way. But what is the cost of this to human nature and human dignity? What if this technical lifestyle of convenience, its hyper focus on efficiency and productivity, and the erosion of human autonomy is at the root of our innermost issues and psychological distress?
What is a machine but a means and measure of the efficiency of an applied technique? And what is a human being but a machine if he/she has become merely a barometer for the seemingly best techniques?
An issue with such an obsession with technique is that it’s spiritually bankrupt. The human experience loses value as it becomes based on the utilization of technologies and techniques. The latter become authorities over human life and erode human dignity, autonomy, and freedom. It reduces everything to logic and rationality and applies measures of quantification to all things. All decisions are made through logic and evaluating maximum efficiency which creates an automization of choice in which the human being must choose by principle the most efficient technique. It is nearly impossible for the human mind to choose against rationality. Technology and technical techniques only come to fruition through applying rationality. It is their building blocks of life. As they have infiltrated human society, so too has human nature and society reduced its existence to rationality. This reduces spontaneity, freedom, and creative expression, and imposes predictability and protocol. The human being is thus molded into a mechanical, machine-like existence that is governed by the same principles as technology.
Perhaps there is no greater example of the governance of technology and technique in human life than the adoption of mechanical time. In our natural past the human being relied on the rise and fall of the sun as the governing factor of the experience of our days. We lived more according to the natural rhythm of nature. With the adoption of mechanical time our experience of our days became governed by a precise, quantifiable experience of time facilitated by technology. But why did this develop? Because this was a way to make our days more efficient and productive. Every single day, week, month, and year is now structured around this experience of mechanical time. We never feel like we have enough time. We are always fitting a schedule into our days that optimizes the efficiency in which we can get things done. Even our enjoyment of leisure activities is based around the metrics and parameters of mechanical time. Where we go, what we do, and how much time we spend doing it is facilitated by the mechanical clock. Every schedule and time frame we organize our lives and societies around are techniques applied to optimize the functioning of the human being. Efficiency and productivity rule the existence of the modern human being.
We essentially now exist as resources for the technological society. Just as machines can be reduced to their parts, so has the human being been reduced to its role in the massive, abstract machine of industrial-technological society. Societal protocol is in place to program us since birth into functioning components of this system (“functioning members of society”). Educational conditioning, cultural norms, advertising campaigns, social pressure, propaganda, economic opportunities, and physical comfortability and necessity program the individual to accept the way the system operates as normal and necessary. Our ability to survive has been subtly and progressively interwoven into the functioning and promotion of this system. Our capability to provide for ourselves and function in society is tied to what we provide for the system and its functioning. The “job” of the ancient “primitive” human was simply to live; now our jobs are to serve the system in some way and in return we are able to live comfortably within the system. Even if we don’t realize the roles we play, if we look hard enough we will notice how our jobs, behaviors, and beliefs contribute to sustaining and promoting the industrial-technological system. Consciously and unconsciously participating in a collective ideology based on technological progress and innovation. We are conditioned to worship efficiency, production, structure, innovation and “progress”. These values are so subtly and firmly ingrained in the collective psyche that to question their necessity feels like questioning human nature. This is how deeply modified the human being has become; developing a technical nature more similar to a machine. The reliance on technique and technology has been counter-intuitive to the human necessity of autonomy and freedom. The more the system expands, the more our natural humanity deteriorates.
We are always seeking to find better, more efficient ways for getting things done. Never satisfied. This seems to me a futile approach to life. If we are constantly seeking material progress then nothing is ever good enough. Technological innovation and progress is an addiction that cannot be satisfied. It will never end until it completely modifies the natural world into an artificial world. When looking through the technological lens everything needs upgrading. The inevitable result of this perpetual forward march of technological progress will be a complete modification of human beings until we are no longer products of nature, but products of technology and scientific techniques. Biodigital implants and the synthetic merger of man and machine is already manifesting as reality. The “technical phenomenon” will not stop until it expands dominion over every aspect of human nature and human physiology.
The only way out of this technological predicament is a return to nature, to what is natural. Returning to life that is structured and within the natural rhythms of nature; in contrast to the technical imposition of life which imposes its own artificial system upon nature. The only way I see this occurring is to move back to existing in small, intimate communities that are self-sufficient and provide all essential needs independent of the technological, manufacturer dependent system we have now that relies on national and global supply chains. Living in small, independent communities which are self-sustaining and rely on only simple technological tools and necessities is not only a stable, minimally invasive way to live, but this also encourages human autonomy, dignity, and freedom. As well as human connection. We regain the natural life skills and abilities we once had. Freedom from the technological system and its pressures of a mechanized existence as well as its unnatural stresses. The autonomous ability to live as a natural being outside of unnatural and unnecessary technological structures. This is what we should be striving for if we truly want freedom.
On a more individual level, effort can be made to unplug from technology as much as possible. We all can identify our technological addictions and take steps to reclaim our sovereignty. As with all addictions, there is a feeling that we can’t live without technological gadgets and comfort or that life will be less fulfilling without them; but this is simply not true. Wherever possible it would serve our human nature to live a life as independently and free from technological influence as we are able to. It does not have to be big changes, it can start small. Like deleting apps on your phone you know are not necessary and that steal your time. We can consciously choose to engage in leisurely activities where we do not use technological devices. We can resist the materialistic drive to constantly upgrade and purchase the latest device or technological gadget. Most importantly we can spend more time in nature and with others without the influence of technology. These are just simple suggestions we may begin to choose to re-establish our relationship with natural life and ourselves.
Returning to what was stated earlier regarding technique, we must resist the pressures that tell us efficiency and productivity are the most important elements of living. Living is an experience, not a goal. There is no such thing as the best technique to life. We need not quantify our existence at every turn and reduce life to rationality. There may be no bigger act of rebellion to a mechanical existence than to go against rationality. To break our addiction to technique, we must embrace spontaneity and autonomy, let go of our need for total efficiency, and dissolve where we have too much structure and protocol. This is operating from the heart and soul instead of the mind. A return to trusting our inner, transpersonal being and its guidance that flows from beyond the mind. When we don’t have this trust we become vulnerable to outsourcing our experience to techniques, technologies, and authorities.
A movement from valuing technological development to spiritual and personal development is key. This is a type of progress worth pursuing. It deepens our understanding and appreciation for life, and results in a fulfillment not attainable through technological means. If we would stop chasing efficiency and innovation we would recognize these things are illusions. The human experience is already beautiful, amazing, and full. No technique can make this realization truer. It simply requires a change in perception to see what is already in front of you.
References:
Ellul J., The Technological Society. 1954