SocraticGadfly: Technology doesn't always win

May 30, 2010

Technology doesn't always win

That's especially true with the BP/Deepwater Horizon oil gush, but not just there. In fact, I even have a blog tag, "Salvific technologism," for posts on this issue.

The belief, by political alignment, is strongest among libertarians. It may be a bit stronger among the GOP mainstream than the Democratic one, but I'm not sure about that, even.

Greens distrust a lot of tech advances, some rightfully so, many others not. Some of the distrust is due to exposing ungrounded beliefs in the salvific power of technology, others for other reasons, less realistic.

Hard core paleoconservatives? Not sure about them.

Meanwhile, speaking of misgrounded beliefs, and why I don't think there's much difference on this issue between the mainstream of the two main political parties, even Carol Browner, Obama's environmental advisor and not a slouch in the green world, can't explain why the administration didn't assume a worse "worse case scenario than it actually did.

If we get one benefit, besides a carbon bill, out of this mess, maybe it will be the loss of such facile beliefs.

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