Nature vs. Technology

I agree with the points made here.

It is nice to see the effort, but it is coming too late, we should have focused on this before we had big problems.

Most of the time, I try to live my life by thinking, how was this accomplished before we had such and such invention, and it usually leads me to a natural sustainable conclusion. This work for the basic needs of survival and comfort. But in general, we tend to seek beyond those needs for exploration, knowledge, and significance, and in a world like the one we live in today these needs aren't easily met by means of the natural survivalist. We need technology to expand ourselves in these aspects. Computers and internet have changed the way we go about learning and communicating, planes, trains, and automobiles have led the way in exploration, and the technology used in creating something to contribute to society is all very important. I feel we need to seek out technology to make these important needs in life greener, but revert back to a simpler state in other aspects of life. We've already determined that it's not impossible to live without these inventions to survive, but maybe we do need them to thrive on our minds. I always wonder how we were intended to live, but then I remember we have free will, and we are the ones who determine it. It only makes sense though that we respect the earth in all of advancements.

I think your question is one that people need to ponder. I am a mechanical engineer by training although I worked virtually all my life in IT both in industry and as an academic.

Our technological abilities and knowledge are just that they are neutral. The question is what we do with them.

Up until now we have had an exploitatitive attitude towards the rest of creation and have consequently used our technological powers exploitatively. This approach, as more and more people are becoming aware, is creating an ongoing and ever increasing ecological disaster for humankind and the rest of life on earth.

If we want to survive as a species we have to change our approach, replacing our exploitative mindsets with cooperative mindsets, a mindset which seeks to cooperate with the rest of creation.

I have been a Quaker since my mid-twenties and the essence of a Quaker life style as I understand it is to try to live ones whole life under the guidance of the Light, as we term it, or as others might term it, the Spirit, or as still others might term it, the Whole.

The trouble is up until now our Quaker understanding, like that of the rest of tne first world, has generally not seen ourselves as just a part of creation like any other part, a part not superior to anything else but destined to work cooperatively together with everything else in creation. This outmoded way of thinking has unfortunately blinded and deafened us all, including Quakers, to the cries of agony that were coming from the rest of creation because of our exploitative behaviours. We can change that however and we must, all of us.

The history of humanity shows that when faced with problems, mankind solves the problem through technology.

Perhaps the reason why there's so much technology is that the "old ways" didn't work.

Scarlet -

I think you're right on target there, both points. (And no, I don't believe they're necessarily mutually-exclusive.) I think that by reaching back to embrace the wisdom of older cultures more "in tune" with their environment while simultaneously pressing onward scientifically, we'll find ourselves in a much healthier place environmentally and economically (and socially?) sooner rather than later. I was trying to spark these sorts of ideas in my blog a month back: http://greenopolis.com/blog/5811

So, in short, I feel both the former and the latter. We're more than a little self-absorbed when it comes to ways to combat our own eco-unfriendliness from within, and we're also within reach of an energy renaissance. I think as long as we have our feet planted firmly in the past and keep our eyes on the future, we'll get there.

Two cents. ;)

Cheers!