Friday, May 25, 2007

Coalition Against Technological Development

I'd still like comments on my previous post (Divining), but I'll post this anyway. I found a flyer on a table in Kensington Market, Toronto. Of course, it's ironic that I'm posting this online using software that is in continual development. Anyway, here's what it says:

Advancing Technology Causes
Scarcity, Poverty and Environmental Damage
We are now seeing the negative economic consequences of environmental damage and resources running dry. The result is that people are falling towards and into poverty. Advanced technology has become unproductive and is creating this condition of economic decline.
Technology uses resources and as more technology is used, more resources are used. Actual economic output declines as a larger proportion of resources go into keeping the technology going rather than into actual usable output from the economy. This is going on while the total available resources are fixed or declining. It is no surprise that the expansion and progress of technology is making us poorer.
The economic effects of technological progress:
  • 10% of electricity is now used to run computers.
  • The energy of .9 kg of coal is used to generate and transmit 10 megabytes of data.
  • The use of computers is doubling every 8 years.
  • The use of computers is growing at such a rate because computers are increasingly becoming able to do any type of job.
  • Productivity stopped increasing in 1976 and has now started to decline.
  • Decreasing incomes, in particular low paying jobs, are becoming the norm.
Natural resources are the basis of all economic activity and wealth generation. An ever growing use of increasingly powerful computers means that the depletion of resources is accelerating.
The current situation in which we are now getting poorer instead of richer as time goes on, is the result of the greater growth of resource use by technology in recent times. Unlike previous technologies, which could only do a limited number of things and which could expand to only a limited extent, computers can keep on replacing more and more human activities and the growth of resource use is accelerating. This creates increasing poverty.
The impact has reached the point that economic output per person is now shrinking. It should be remembered that the amount of economic output is overstated by the commonly quoted Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP is greater than the actual economic output because it does not subtract the amount of equipment that is continually being worn out and/or replaced. The actual amount of economic output is the Net Domestic Product (NDP) which is GDP minus Capital Consumption. NDP per person has been decreasing at the same time as GDP per person has been increasing. In fact, GDP overstates the size of the economy by about 15%. The decline in economic conditions and standard of living is clearly shown by the decline in economic output, once the correct measure of economic output, Net Domestic Product, is used.

Technological progress means much greater problems in the near future.
Until recently, we have not faced a condition of long-term economic decline. Since this is a new thing, we should realize how much worse it could get.
Automation is different from other technological changes because it is not limited to shifting some fraction of resources from one use to another, but will continuously absorb ever increasing fractions of available resources and reduce the well being of people on an ongoing basis. This would cause much greater poverty than previous economic declines and the poverty would be for everyone.
Of the greatest concern to environmentalists and people concerned about economic conditions and poverty, should be the expansion of technology that results from advances in computers, as opposed to the unintelligent technologies of the past.

A sustainable economy will stop the economic decline
A sustainable economy, which means a stable economy, is an improvement over the declining economy we have now and are expecting in the future. An economy in which output is not shrinking is the solution to current and even greater future poverty.
Less use of technology and less development of new technology will be a major component of a stable, non-shrinking economy and an environment which is not endangered.

Solutions are low tech

Environmental solutions that are low tech will be preferable. Environmentalists should attempt to create a sense of achieving a condition in which there are not increasing technological impacts on nature and on the economy.
  • Support the natural world and propose environmental solutions that do not involve high tech.
  • Criticize the diversion of resources into research and development of technology.
  • Some of the most advanced developments in technology, especially further advances in computer technology, should be seen as very negative for people and the environment.
Please make use of the low tech approach in your activities, and you can contact us as follows to get more involved:
Coalition Against Technological Development
Contact: Stuart, and if you want the details I'll give them out if I trust you.

NOTE: This post was edited to change its title from "War on Science, 2" on 2013-11-04 to more accurately describe its content.

7 comments:

  1. The Coalition Against Technological Development looks to be a project initiated by Michael Rosenberg. I've seen him at numerous functions: academic conferences, film screenings, and openhouses. He usually speaks in quite thick language, and often makes statements rather than asks questions at these functions. Glad that his interesting flyer made its way across the pond!

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  2. Why is this post in a thread called war on science? War on science means the search for convenient lies and to justify those lies with bogus scientists. The coalition against technological development is not an act of war on science but a logical moral reaction to the devastation that technology is doing on this planet. I have written a book called Alert About Machines which follows a similar understanding. I'm giving away the book for free too. There is nothing more interesting than using technology against technology, in my opinion. Visit philosophers’ corners of Opera, general philosophy. Thanks for putting up the Coalition against technological development on the internet.

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  3. The flyer was copied into my blog shortly after my previous blog post: http://plaosmos.blogspot.ca/2007/04/war-on-science.html

    It's probably a bad name, and my thoughts have changed significantly since then, especially since Fox News have waged their own (very different) war on science. You can see from my previous post that my War on Science was more about warning people from trusting the science that had been tainted by corporate interests (esp GMO, Pharma, tech-tax, etc). With the attack that Fox has waged against science when it comes to climate change (and evolution), I believe it's now very important that people trust scientists more than I thought at the time. The empirical method seems to be one of the best ways we have to acquire knowledge.

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. I'll be sure to change the name of the post.

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  4. Some years ago (likely 2007) I attended a small climate change event wherein a U of T prof made a presentation on the errors being presented by climate change deniers, including a popular UK Ch 4 segment being shown at the time. Before the presentation, he allowed someone from this organization to speak, who gave out flyers. I just came across my copy just now, which is identical to what's presented here. Of note, there was no email address or website, however there were 416 phone and fax numbers listed. I just googled it, and this appears to be the only contemporary web record of that organization, so will assume it no longer exists.

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  5. I believe it does still exist. Michael Rosenberg is the main (only?) advocate and frequently passes out these flyers (unchanged). I last saw him doing so towards the end of 2013.

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  6. Wow!
    Accepted a flyer today at the (Toronto) Labour Day parade with the text exactly as above in the original post. I believe it was Michael Rosenberg who was handing them out.
    Was intrigued to find out more about this noble movement which landed me here on this post from 2007.
    I can only surmise that because it still takes .9kg of coal to generate and transmit 10 megabytes of data today (just like in 2007), the Coalition Against Technological Development has been successful in its mission and they are well on their way to saving the planet. Hooray for all of us!!!

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    Replies
    1. That's a lot of coal, given the petabytes of data moving around every day. I'm surprised the entire planet isn't made of coal!

      I joke, like you, oh protected-by-anonymity-one. But surely it is serious?

      The fear the seems to drive Michael is a very logical and real fear: the fact that the most advanced AI technology is weaponized and is being developed with virtually no ethical oversight, should probably give us all shivers. And can you really imagine us limiting this development, even with the strongest social movement in history (which would have to massively change the US military's arms race, and therefore challenges the global elite that the military protects)? The only way out, as far as I can see, is a technological and civilizational collapse. If you can suggest another, reasonable future path for us, please let us know—and please be active enough in your daily life to make it happen.

      If you can't and your don't, then please try to get involved in other struggles. Maybe one day you'll find a way.

      And please, if you post again, don't post anonymously. ;)

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