The Reality of Our Troubles
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A book review I’ve put off publishing for a few months.
I’ve just posted a “Ray-view” of a book I finished reading back in January. It’s called Shrinking the Technosphere by Dmitry Orlov. Its subtitle is: Getting a Grip on the Technologies that Limit Our Autonomy, Sell-Sufficiency and Freedom. It’s a thoughtful book about civilization’s collapse by an author whom I think mostly gets it right. He writes with humor on a subject not given to humor. At times, he gets materialistic with an agnostic’s hubris, but I see that as a minor flaw in a work that otherwise speaks candidly of humanity’s most perilous time on Earth.
I think this book, of Mr. Orlov’s, is especially relevant for computer technology workers, such as I have been for over 35 years. It provides a context for our work beyond the Star Trek and superhero fictions that inspired the most of us who get paid for playing with digital technology. It is a dark, destructive context that Mr. Orlov calls “the technosphere.” This strikes me as a useful way to look at our world. We live in, and are ruled by, the technosphere. The unimaginably powerful tools that the world’s oligarchs use to control governments, economies, societies, climate, and the weather, are all components of the technosphere.
While Mr. Orlov does provide a definition for what the technosphere is, and where it came from, and where it’s going, further reading will nail it for you even better. The books on my “Get A Clue” list will round out your understanding, if you want to understand (and that would put you in the minority of the population). I would especially recommend the works of Quinn and Eisler:
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler
From these works we see the technosphere as the evolutionary descendant of our tool-making, supporting a hierarchical, patriarchal society that recognizes no limits to its expansion, and no value of human (or any other) life.
These are bubble-bursting insights that can suck a lot of enjoyment out of life. It’s hard to enjoy a summer’s day when you know the UV levels are unprecedented (due to the ozone destruction by geoengineering) and the air is so saturated by metal particulates that breathing it is a slow death for humans, animals, and plants. Go here to find understanding of what I’m talking about.
It’s also difficult to find the wonder in travel and living unrestrained, when governments impose endless restraints and foment trouble everywhere. And so I take no amusement in the “antics of Donald Trump.” Someone so unqualified to be president, in being president, only underscores the reality of our troubles.
Yet, the desire to understand why things are the way the are, can be strong. So reading books written by knowledgeable commentators can be helpful. Hence, the recommendations on my “Get A Clue” list, and my reviews of books about collapse. You can find those on Mr. Orlov’s two principal works here:
Shrinking the Technosphere
The Five Stages of Collapse
I’ve just posted a “Ray-view” of a book I finished reading back in January. It’s called Shrinking the Technosphere by Dmitry Orlov. Its subtitle is: Getting a Grip on the Technologies that Limit Our Autonomy, Sell-Sufficiency and Freedom. It’s a thoughtful book about civilization’s collapse by an author whom I think mostly gets it right. He writes with humor on a subject not given to humor. At times, he gets materialistic with an agnostic’s hubris, but I see that as a minor flaw in a work that otherwise speaks candidly of humanity’s most perilous time on Earth.
I think this book, of Mr. Orlov’s, is especially relevant for computer technology workers, such as I have been for over 35 years. It provides a context for our work beyond the Star Trek and superhero fictions that inspired the most of us who get paid for playing with digital technology. It is a dark, destructive context that Mr. Orlov calls “the technosphere.” This strikes me as a useful way to look at our world. We live in, and are ruled by, the technosphere. The unimaginably powerful tools that the world’s oligarchs use to control governments, economies, societies, climate, and the weather, are all components of the technosphere.
While Mr. Orlov does provide a definition for what the technosphere is, and where it came from, and where it’s going, further reading will nail it for you even better. The books on my “Get A Clue” list will round out your understanding, if you want to understand (and that would put you in the minority of the population). I would especially recommend the works of Quinn and Eisler:
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler
From these works we see the technosphere as the evolutionary descendant of our tool-making, supporting a hierarchical, patriarchal society that recognizes no limits to its expansion, and no value of human (or any other) life.
These are bubble-bursting insights that can suck a lot of enjoyment out of life. It’s hard to enjoy a summer’s day when you know the UV levels are unprecedented (due to the ozone destruction by geoengineering) and the air is so saturated by metal particulates that breathing it is a slow death for humans, animals, and plants. Go here to find understanding of what I’m talking about.
It’s also difficult to find the wonder in travel and living unrestrained, when governments impose endless restraints and foment trouble everywhere. And so I take no amusement in the “antics of Donald Trump.” Someone so unqualified to be president, in being president, only underscores the reality of our troubles.
Yet, the desire to understand why things are the way the are, can be strong. So reading books written by knowledgeable commentators can be helpful. Hence, the recommendations on my “Get A Clue” list, and my reviews of books about collapse. You can find those on Mr. Orlov’s two principal works here:
Shrinking the Technosphere
The Five Stages of Collapse
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