Technology Gone Crazy!

In the 20th century, the idea that technological advancement and progress were synonymous became the norm. While many challenged this claim (including Max Weber (instrumental rationality), Critical Theoriest like Adorno and Horkheimer (Dialectics of Enlightenment) and Deleuze and Guattari (indirectly, with the idea of the body without organs and desiring machines)), the majority of people appeared to assume that the flatter and better picture we get from the television, the smaller and cooler the phone, the better musical quality (even though most ears can't discern those differences), etc. always meant an improvement in quality of life. After World War II, and the death camps, fire bombing of Dresden and flight of the Enola Gay, led many to start questioning the logic of technology and science always pushing humans forward, yet positivism soon became the norm in the United States and few outside academia questioned the notion (except, of course, the countercultural 60s hippies).

In any case, since the 80s, most have come to fully embrace the connection between technology and quality of life. While the aging populations always decry the breakdown of the family or community, kids keep on embracing new technology with vigor, and even those old curmudgeons end up with Facebook pages and texting their way through a movie or lunch date. Yet what is happening with technology today? Beyond the oil spill in the Gulf, we have Toyota with seemingly endless recalls (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/02/toyota-lexus-recall), Dell knowingly selling faulty computers (http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2010/06/29/dell-sold-11-8m-computers-that-were-doomed-to-fail-did-company-try-to-hide-the-problem/), Apple launching the new I-Phone before its ready (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704898504575342663977842890.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories) and "smart bombs" that never seemed to have as high an IQ as we pretend. Could a neoLuddhite movement be in the offing?