No one questions the golden calf. When you make something that wonderful, it's natural to celebrate it. The calf's creators are magicians, priests. Those who maintain it are endowed with strange properties; outcasts from the natural and accepted social worlds, they are geeks, igors toiling in the service of their genius masters. As for the calf itself, you may believe it miraculous, or a causer of miracles, or think rationally that it is only a tool, a mute means to human ends, but neither you nor anyone else will deny its power. (Whether it's guns, bullets, or people that kill people, the effect is much the same.)
The golden calf in question is technology. I am not the Moses of this story, an iconoclastic prophet come back down the mountain to say what's what; I don't even know if there is one. I am an alienated technology worker, a self-described recovering IT consultant. I have some questions to ask about the causes of our embrace of pervasive computer technology, and its effects. I don't know that we'll soon walking in the desert. If I can provide some insight into where we're going, it'll be by don't of exploring where we are and where we've been. If I'm skeptical of high tech, it's because that is the middle ground between being an enthusiast and a Luddite. (I wrote this, haltingly, on my iPhone.)
Recently, writers like Michael Pollan and Ann Vileisis have begun to explore our foodsheds - the many-fingered handprints that trace the sources, byproducts, and distribution of the foods we eat. I'd like to do the same for computer technology, in a time of unprecedented plenty: a technology glut.
I hope you'll join me in exploring the world of technology, and its effects on our world.
