Indra's Net and the Midas Touch: Living Sustainably in a Connected World

3. Technology

3 Technology In short, we can say today that man is far too clever to be able to survive without wisdom. —E. F. Schumacher In Greek mythology, a titan named Prometheus was given the job of distributing to all the beasts of creation their unique capacities. For reasons unclear, Prometheus allowed his absent-minded brother Epimetheus to carry out the task. Epimetheus took on his new charge with gusto. He gave the lion its powerful jaws and claws, the bear its brawn, the birds their feathered wings, and the snake its venom. At the end of a very long day, Epimetheus was greatly satisfied with his work—until he realized that he had left one species, humankind, empty-handed. On learning of his forgetful brother’s blunder, Prometheus was much chagrined. Because he was unwilling to leave the human species defenseless in the world, Prometheus returned to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods, to secure something of merit. He lit a torch from the sacred fire of the sun and, stealthily placing a burning ember in a fennel stalk, slipped back down the mountain to bestow the purloined gift to the deprived race. In short order, the all-powerful Zeus, king of the gods, discovered the thievery and duly punished Prometheus. Nevertheless, humanity now had what it needed to defend and distinguish itself. Fire allowed human beings to frighten off their predators, cook their meals, warm their homes, harden their pottery, forge their metals, and communicate with each other over long distances. Humankind was now unique among earthly creatures by its tremendous power to refashion its world according to its own needs, wants, and visions. Technology had arrived on the young earth. 94 Chapter 3 Zeus, however, saw fit to punish the human species for receiving the theft of fire. He had a beautiful woman created to become the wife of Epimetheus, and subsequently presented the happy couple with a marvelous jar (some say a box) as a wedding present. Expecting retribution, Prometheus (whose name means foresight) had warned his brother to beware any gifts from the gods. But Epimetheus, good to his name (which means afterthought), ignored the advice. The beautiful woman was Pandora. When the newlyweds opened Zeus’s enchanting gift, all hell broke loose. The jar had been filled with every vice imaginable. Pandora, watching with horror as greed, envy, vanity, hate, and a host of other evils were loosed on the world, quickly shut the lid. But it was too late. The damage had been done. The only thing remaining in the jar was hope, which now would stay sealed away forever. In presenting his version of this well-known tale in the Theogony, the Greek poet Hesiod concluded that it is impossible to hide from the mind of Zeus.1 Perhaps the ancient bard was simply admonishing his readers not to accept stolen gifts from an all-seeing, and rather vengeful, god. Or perhaps Hesiod was saying that from a cosmic perspective, everything is connected. Although humans may well hanker after power, it always comes with a price. Every technological good is accompanied by an unexpected consequence that will be loosed on the world. Prometheus’s gift was the first technological benefit to exact, in Zeus’s revenge, its unknown cost. The human race would experience countless more. It would profit greatly from the metals forged in red-hot hearths, for instance. But this great boon would make warfare more deadly and more likely, as primitive clubs of wood gave way to swords and spears, cannon and rifle, bomb and missile. Hesiod was admonishing us to ask, “And then what?” before we act. With similar concerns, Wendell Berry, the agrarian man of letters, counsels us “to worry about the predominance of the supposition, in a time of great technological power, that humans either know enough already, or can learn enough soon enough, to foresee and forestall any bad consequences of their use of that power.”2 The marvelous wits that allow for our Promethean craft prove too meager to foresee, avoid, or remedy every unintended consequence. Upstream ingenuity will always exceed the ability to control downstream effects. Technology 95 Barry Commoner first identified this problematic aspect of technology in the early 1970s. The subtitle of Commoner’s highly acclaimed book, The Closing Circle, was “Nature, Man and Technology.” Commoner’s work raised concerns about the social and...