In a previous article I attempted to defend the record of the ‘west’ from the tiresome and tedious ‘woke’ attacks which tend to cast everything the ‘west’ has ever done as unspeakably evil and steeped in colonialism, racism, capitalism or whatever ism is the target of the day.
I pointed to one set of achievements, those of the sciences and maths, as being a great example of a really positive thing the ‘west’ had bequeathed the world during the ‘colonial’ times. But Brian Davey inspired an interesting question.
What if you don’t view these things as ‘achievements’?
That’s not an accurate summation of Brian’s actual position, but he does have some serious misgivings about the automatic assumption of superiority implicit in praising ‘western’ technology. Fair enough.
So, what’s so great about technology?
Here’s an example of an early technology. It’s a Neolithic flint scraper from Ethiopia and may date to 3,000 BC.
But these little beauties may be as much as 320,000 years old
That’s some pretty ancient technology we have there.
I tried to depict the amazing explosion of technology that has occurred in (roughly) the last 300 years. If we date the ‘technological’ dawning of man at around 300,000 years ago, then the last 300 years represents just 0.1% of our time as users and inventors of technology.
It’s not to scale, but it does give a sense of the extraordinary explosion of technology that occurred.
Whilst I was doing a bit of googling for the information (instead of having to walk several hundred miles to find some expert who dreamed it in a vision, because print, and cars, hadn’t been invented) I was astonished to discover that the earliest known dildo dates to around 30,000 years ago. It brings a whole new meaning to the term stone tool.
I’m not sure whether this counts amongst the most impressive of man’s technological achievements, but one can only hope it brought some degree of sexual achievement to its users.
Later on I’ll probably do a search for “Neolithic butt plugs” - I’ll let you know how that goes.
My contention is that technology has brought us incalculable benefits. It’s also brought us considerable harm. You could only bash one Ugg at a time to death with your stone axe in times gone by. These days we can wipe out an entire planet to defeat the evil of Putin.
But the question of whether we have used technology wisely, or always in the most ethical way, is separate to the question of whether technology is beneficial, in general.
Nearly two years ago now, I was stunned to discover I’d developed cataracts. I am getting on a little bit, but I didn’t think I was that old. Furthermore, I was told that my cataracts were of an aggressive variety. I was suffering from ROGD (Rapid Onset Goggle Destruction). I was told that I might have to wait about 2 years to have the operation to fix this on the NHS. Thankfully, I had some savings and was able to have the operations (both eyes) done in a matter of weeks privately.
I can’t even begin to untangle the web of technological achievements that have gifted us with the ability to fix this common ailment. It made a radical change to me, and doubtless to thousands (and more likely millions) of others with failing vision.
Everything had to be in place; our understanding of optics and lenses, the fine machinery and tools and materials necessary to construct an artificial lens, the precise tools and devices that allowed the surgeon to perform the operation, the medication that prevented subsequent infection, and so on.
Just trying to disentangle this complex, and impressive, web of technological achievements that had given us this almost god-like capability makes my head hurt.
That’s just one personal story. I’m sure many of you have your own examples of how technology has wrought massive improvements in the quality of your lives.
Try it and see. Take just one technological thing around you that you, maybe, depend on and try to trace back the impossibly intricate web of advances and understandings that led to it. Not to mention all of the manufacturing capability, the coordination of supply chains, the furnishing of the raw materials that were necessary to bring it to you.
It’s human achievement on a massive, and interconnected, scale. And it’s almost all happened in roughly the last 300 years.
The “intersectionality” assumed in the risible matrices of oppression conceptualization of the woke is trivial by comparison to the ‘intersectionality’ of technology.
Human history has been the history of control and domination over our natural environment and the control and domination of social environments. It is technology and understanding that has allowed us to achieve any degree of mastery and control over our lives. We haven’t always implemented that ability to control in the wisest, most ethical, or most sustainable ways, that’s for sure. And maybe we do have a trick or two to learn (and things to unlearn) from indigenous people who have managed to live sustainably for millennia.
But to suggest that 8 billion people can return to some agrarian and sustainable ‘paradise’ is romanticism of the highest order. Our only way forward (unless you’re one of the homicidal maniacs who want to cull the human herd) is through technology.
The green eco-freaks seem to want to return us to some Neolithic state of existence. To which I paraphrase Marie Antionette : let them use stone dildoes.
Allegedly, the ancient pre-hellenic egyptians used dried calabash or hollowed ivory tusks for dildos.
Not that remarkable perhaps, but they filled them with bees.
On the other hand, archeologists spend a lot of time out in the mid-day sun.
For some years I helped in the fabrication of aleution and greenland style kayaks. The history of the fabrication and use of these incredibly small and agile little boats is mindbending. Standing on a beach with a few bits of driftwood, killing a few seals and preparing the skins, and creating a vessel that will allow you to hunt whales is beyond a leap of imagination, its in the realm of genius and magic. Also, I contest the idea that modern plastic and fiberglass kayaks are better, instead they are heavier and more fragile as well. Go old school, skin and frame, but using nylon fabric. Fabric does not shatter if it hits a rock... we have gone backwards with plastic boats. My skin and frame boat weighed half of the plastic version. This guy makes them and has great videos of modern skin on frame here--
Cape Falcon Kayak https://youtu.be/dfL_8aD4Y3E
And I did get to know the fellow that wrote this giant history of kayaks, see link, , Harvey Golden of Portland OR If you are truly interested in kayaks, this book is a great investment
https://www.academia.edu/15032654/Book_review_Kayaks_of_Greenland_The_History_and_Development_of_the_Greenland_Hunting_Kayak_1600_2000_by_Harvey_Golden