Just sent this email to the people involved with the panel I'd be joining in IETM plenary session "Technophobia vs Technophilia", this week in Montreal.
I think that following this kind of perspective I could be seen
as leaning to technophilia, although assuming a critical position.
I'm part of a network here in Brasil - MetaReciclagem - that
proposes a de-constructive approach to technology, meaning
an almost intimate human-machine relationship. But that does
not mean we are seduced by the so techno-fetishism that is
unfortunately so common. We criticize exactly the programmed
obsolescence of technologies - why shouldn't our equipment
last longer if we knew how to do it, hack it, customize it?
Coming from that, the more intimate we get to technology -
free and open source software, freeing hardware and the
such - likely more open are the possibilities.
I mean, I'm talking here of a kind of sensibility and a kind
of perspective in which technology should not be seen as
something apart from human culture. Technology is culture,
technology is human. It's a matter of understanding technology
in a broader sense - a toothbrush, an axe, the ability to control
fire and language, are all examples of technology, of knowledge
applied in order to make life easier.
One could spend some time talking about greek drama and the
idea of machina - deus ex machina and all that stuff. In that
sense, technology and the performing arts can always bring
back the idea of ritualizing the use of applied knowledge. A
flying belt or a sensor-arduino-pd-operated PC are all in the
same level, as I see it.
