Technological Progress: An Oxymoron?

At what price do we continue the headlong emphasis on computers in schools?

By Dennis L. Evans

Technology (also known as "progress") has an aura of inevitability and invincibility about it. It is perceived as a force that cannot and should not be stopped, and anyone with the temerity to suggest that there might be a downside to its inexorable march is cast as a naysayer, a neo-Luddite, or a relic from another age. We have accepted a priori the assumption that technology is an all-or-nothing phenomenon: We must either allow it to permeate all aspects of our lives, or we can't have any of it.

Technology's ability to reduce the levels of time and human effort needed to perform tasks, both menial and highly complex, is the source of its siren-like appeal. Who can argue with the marvelous advancements in science and medicine expedited by computer and other information-age technologies?

But technology takes no prisoners. In their 1995 book The Axemaker's Gift , James Burke and Robert Ornstein present a history of technological advancement from the prehistoric to the present. Their fundamental thesis is that with each advancement created by technology (the "axemaker" of the title), something is lost. For example, while the ax facilitated the felling of trees for shelter, it also made dispatching an enemy easier. The wonderful progress wrought by Gutenberg's printing press also brought increased control over peoples' lives by making it easier for despots to disseminate the...