Humans are the most sophisticated toolmakers in the family of
life. We’ve gone from stone hammers to
hydrogen bombs. We’ve become so addicted
to our technology that we can no longer survive without it. If we eliminated electricity, this way of
life would disintegrate before our eyes, causing many to perish.
Humans no longer sit in the pilot seat of our global civilization.
The autopilot runs the show. Our complex labyrinth of technology herds us
through a chute. It’s no longer possible
to make sharp (intelligent) turns, because the system has immense momentum and
no brakes. We can’t banish cars, plows,
or electricity today. We’re trapped on a
runaway train.
How and why did we get into this mess? That’s the subject of George Basalla’s book, The Evolution of Technology. Scholars were debating this issue, and
Basalla had an urge to jump into the ring, molest the illusions of his
inferiors, and set the record straight.
His first task was to demonstrate that innovation did, in
fact, evolve — by synthesizing or altering existing innovations. Famous inventions were never original,
unique, unprecedented acts of pure magic that fell out of the sky, like acts of
God. The myth of the heroic inventor is
just 300 years old. Henry Ford referred
to his monster child as a quadracycle. “The
first automobiles were little more than four-wheeled bicycles,” said
Basalla. The mother of invention was
evolution, not revolution. A stick on
the ground evolved into a throwing stick, then a spear, then a missile.
His second task was to explain the various ways in which our
dance with artifacts has evolved, and this consumed most of the book. Readers are taken on an illuminating journey
to realms that our industrial society has erased from the maps and forgotten.
We’ve all seen the graph of population growth over the last
10,000 years. Technological evolution
follows a similar curve. For most of the
hominid journey, our artifacts were little more than sticks and stones, and
their evolution happened very slowly. A state
of the art stone hammer might be no different from a hammer used 500,000 years
earlier.
It is important to understand that for almost the entire
hominid journey, our ancestors enjoyed a relatively sustainable way of life,
and that this era corresponds exactly with the long, long era when
technological evolution was essentially in a coma. This is not a coincidence.
Unfortunately, our system of education is writhing in a bad
trip after inhaling the loony fumes of the myth of progress. This intoxicant was conjured by notorious buffoons
200 years ago, and its side effects include disorientation, anxiety, and
uncontrollable self-destructive impulses.
We continue to hallucinate that the zenith of the human journey is
today, and that the Golden Age is yet to come.
We have a remarkable ability to completely tune out what is perfectly
obvious, and vitally important.
The Tikopians and Sentineli are island societies that keep
their numbers in check, and live very lightly, using simple artifacts. These communities stay in balance with their
land, and are content. They do not
suffer from a persistent itch for more and more. Technological innovation is entirely off
their radar. They have no need for it,
and experimenting with it could permanently destroy them.
Native American potters and basket weavers created artifacts
that were careful, error-free reproductions of traditional designs. Apprentices worked hard to imitate the work
of their elders, and their success earned respect. Their culture had a healthy resistance to
change, because their time-proven traditions kept them on a good path.
“In the Muslim
tradition, innovation or novelty is automatically assumed to be evil until it
can be proved otherwise,” said Basalla.
“The Arabic word bid’a has the double meaning of novelty
and heresy.” The Prophet
warned that those who imitate infidels turn into infidels. Indeed!
China invented the compass, gunpowder, and printing, and put
them to practical use. When Europeans
brought this knowledge home, it sparked immense innovation that led to major
changes in their way of life. The vast
Chinese civilization was stable and conservative. It was not nimble, fast-paced, and highly
competitive, like Europe. Europe was a chaotic
and unstable collection of competing nations.
Society had far less resistance to new artifacts.
The wheel was first used in Mesopotamia, about 5,000 years
ago. In many societies, it became a
popular artifact, used for commerce and warfare. “A wise king scattereth the wicked, and
bringeth the wheel over them.” (Proverbs
20:26)
The native civilizations of North and South America were able
to grow and die without using wheeled transport. Many groups in the Near East eventually abandoned
the use of wagons, because camels were a faster and easier way of moving
stuff. Wild tribes often just carried
stuff home on their backs via footpaths, or paddled canoes — wheels required far
more effort: cleared roads, bridges, and wagons.
The industrial civilizations of Europe and America have
extensively used wheels in their artifacts.
Our cultural myths celebrate the wheel as a super-sacred icon. Basalla concluded, “the wheel is not a unique
mechanical contrivance necessary, or useful, to all people at all times.” The ability to whoosh across the landscape on
a bicycle is not required to meet our biological needs. No sustainable society used wheels, because
they had no need for them.
Basalla’s book contained zero evidence that he was an
eco-terrorist determined to smash civilization, or even a mild-mannered
tree-hugger. The book just seemed to be
unusually objective, as if it had a good cleansing soak in a potent
mythocide. It felt like he was a shaman
conveying vital messages from the realm of the ancestors, whilst being cleverly
disguised as a history professor. To the
mainstream mind, these messages constitute shocking, obscene heresies. But the messages contain the medicine we need
to blow the locks off our minds, so we can escape, go home, and heal.
Agriculture and architecture are new novelties, not
necessities. “No technology whatsoever
is required to meet animal needs.” Yes,
other animals use tools but, “There are no fire-using animals nor are there
animals that routinely fashion new tools, improve upon old tool designs, use
tools to make other tools, or pass on accumulated technical knowledge to
offspring.”
Obviously, we could not live like hurricanes without
artifacts, and we could not survive in many regions where humans are an invasive
exotic species, but we could enjoy a tool-free future in tropical regions, like
our ancient African motherland (or a future Siberian jungle?).
There is no evidence that “a causal connection exists between
advances in technology and the overall betterment of the human race. Therefore, the popular but illusory concept
of technological progress should be discarded.”
Agriculture and cooking are “unnecessary because plants and
animals are able to grow and even thrive without human intervention, and
because food need not be processed by fire before it is fit for human
consumption.”
“Artifacts are uniquely identified with humanity — indeed
they are a distinguishing characteristic of human life; nevertheless, we can
survive without them.”
“Fire, the stone axe, or the wheel are no more items of
absolute necessity than are the trivial gadgets that gain popularity for a
season and quickly disappear.”
Basalla’s insights bounce off the frozen minds of the
mainstream world, automatically rejected by bulletproof denial. But these fresh notions are a sure sign that
clear thinking is beginning to seep into the stagnant halls of history
departments, those dusty story museums where the dying Cult of Progress will
make its last stand.
The path to sustainability is blocked by ideas — toxic
illusions, metabolized into highly contagious beliefs, resulting in mass
insanity. At the gate of the path to
healing, rubbish ideas must be left in the recycle bin. There is no shortage of better ideas. Help yourself, and share.
Basalla, George, The
Evolution of Technology, Cambridge University Press, New York,
1988.
