Ten Paradoxes of Technology
Andrew Feenberg,
Vimeo,
Oct 04, 2011
Teresa Penedo posted this item in the #change11 Facebook group. The one-hour video tells us "most of what we think we know about technology in general is false." According to Andrew Feenberg, "Our error stems from the everyday conception of things as separate from each other and from us. In reality they belong to an interconnected network the nodes of which cannot exist independently qua technologies." This leads to ten 'paradoxes of technology':
"1. The paradox of the parts and the whole: The apparent origin of complex wholes lies in their parts but in reality the parts find their origin in the whole to which they belong.
2. The paradox of the obvious: What is most obvious is most hidden.
3. The paradox of the origin: behind everything rational there lies a forgotten history.
4. The paradox of the frame: Efficiency does not explain success, success explains efficiency.
5. The paradox of action: In acting we become the object of action.
6. The paradox of the means: The means are the end.
7. The paradox of complexity: Simplification complicates.
8. The paradox of value and fact: Values are the facts of the future.
9. The democratic paradox: The public is constituted by the technologies that bind it together but in turn it transforms the technologies that constitute it.
10. The paradox of conquest: The victor belongs to the spoils."
"1. The paradox of the parts and the whole: The apparent origin of complex wholes lies in their parts but in reality the parts find their origin in the whole to which they belong.
2. The paradox of the obvious: What is most obvious is most hidden.
3. The paradox of the origin: behind everything rational there lies a forgotten history.
4. The paradox of the frame: Efficiency does not explain success, success explains efficiency.
5. The paradox of action: In acting we become the object of action.
6. The paradox of the means: The means are the end.
7. The paradox of complexity: Simplification complicates.
8. The paradox of value and fact: Values are the facts of the future.
9. The democratic paradox: The public is constituted by the technologies that bind it together but in turn it transforms the technologies that constitute it.
10. The paradox of conquest: The victor belongs to the spoils."
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