Healing Appalachia: Sustainable Living through Appropriate Technology

Postscript

We as a people acknowledge and appreciate the positive bene- fits of modern technology that has created computers and useful modern communications systems. Progress has always been a goal for our non-native people. But with progress there is greed and competition. If continued, this progress will destroy our Mother Earth and its Creation. Let us not wait any longer. Let us work with common ground and begin to work together to do what can be done to conserve and protect our lives, our children’s lives, and all life. So Mother Earth can begin to heal, as we heal, together with one mind, one heart, one Spirit and one Prayer. William Commanda, keeper of the sacred wampum belts of the Algonquin Nation Is it right to talk about friendly or appropriate technology trends in the twenty-first century without discussing communication technologies? These technologies include the cell phone, the personal computer, and the Internet, which have dramatically altered the present-day world. More than any others, these three have made a profound impact on the movement toward globalization , for better or worse. These technologies have allowed people in developing countries to bypass the long process of industrialization and creation of an expensive communication infrastructure to become more nearly equal partners in access to general information. Postscript: Communications 392 ❖ Healing Appalachia HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION The history of technology is a history of communication. It is not a history of constant improvement, for progress has depended on many factors, such as the ability of governments to ensure the safe and relatively rapid transfer of information. In Roman times the postal system was highly efficient: good roads and the Pax Romana allowed for the free flow of correspondence. But after the Roman Empire’s fall and the coming of the Dark Ages, communications became more difficult and the free flow of information was no longer guaranteed. Over a longer period of time, other improvements in communication occurred: faster ships, railroads, the telegraph, the telephone, undersea cables, motorized transport, radio, television , satellites, computers, and cell towers. While older forms of communication could not match the speed of modern electronics, news and knowledge traveled faster than one might expect. For example, I belong to the Society of Jesus; our founder, Saint Ignatius Loyola, impressed upon his company the need to become mobile, to travel to all parts of the world, and to still keep a companionship of quality based on letters , conferences, and the Relations, or annual travel and mission reports. In 1712 a Jesuit in Asia wrote in his annual report about Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng). Within a mere three years a Jesuit in Canada had read the report and discovered the plant’s cousin Panax quinquefolium, and the first export of the ginseng root from North America through France to China had taken place. The recent widespread access to information is a global revolution , allowing a more intense sharing of ideas, not solely the shipping of bulky materials. The challenge now is to guarantee the secure delivery of information. In World War II and its aftermath, radio brought both news and hope to people living under totalitarian regimes, and even in the age of the Internet, the radio remains an important communications tool. We are avid nocturnal BBC listeners and have Postscript ❖ 393 come to regard its Outlook program, which takes calls from people on every continent, as a glue that will bring our world together . Of course, these callers must have a general proficiency in English, but the program offers a global experience that previous centuries could hardly dream about. Radio can help cement the aspirations of good folks worldwide who strive for health, education , social justice, and tolerance. The transmission devices are sophisticated, but the programs are received through a rather simple, low-cost electronic device and can be heard by millions when not deliberately jammed by tyrants. Are these modern forms of communication appropriate technology ? Certainly the systems required for their functioning are far more sophisticated than an efficient hoe or cooking stove. But producing solar photovoltaic cells is also a sophisticated process, and some other technologies also take extra effort and planning. Appropriateness may be judged by the amount of resources required to sustain these technologies, the number of persons benefiting from them, and the cost and access for each user. Electronic forms of communication can be efficient in themselves...