Autopilots fly our very complex flying machines. Except one: The Unabomber. We’ve really been feeling our way in the dark with how to organize society up till now, and we are pushing the limits of the current paradigm. In terms of material standards the cell he now occupies in the Colorado Admax prison is a four-star upgrade: larger, cleaner, warmer, with the running water, electricity and the toilet he did not have, plus free food, and a much better library. Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Where once, there stood a colossus, But I’m a student of serious mental illness. I for one would feel happier if those decisions were given to a dispassionately intelligent machine, rather than a credulous, impressionable human who’s judgement can be obscured by a lack of regular caffeine intake, or a desperate need to empty their bladder. (Alden, “Divination and the Hunt in Pagibeti Ideology,” p. 103. Should I not be helping my neighbour to achieve the same things I want for myself, rather than trying to selfishly take what little crumbs are still possessed? response is – all technology should be open-sourced, optimized, However, what I would like to do most with my time I can not do. (But just as Thoreau did at Walden, he came into town to restock his supplies.) It seems like technology and social structures co-evolve together. I think Kaczynski was right about these claims. Here, in meticulous, scholarly precision, Kaczynski makes his primary claim that “freedom and technological progress are incompatible,” and that therefore technological progress must be undone. The machine is ubiquitous! Some of what Kaczynski feared, the complete encroachment on the planet by ubiquitous computing, localiser and sensor grids embedding the wilderness areas and oceans, seem inevitable. As you say, his insights into the holistic nature of the technium and the inevitability of its progression were clear. Yet I can not afford the equipment and time to do so. Our ancestors couldn’t do that. Our @Billy Gannon: I was very aware of the calculation you just made while I was betting Sale. It’s civilization that allowed him to be educated enough to compose this essay. In 2008 John Zerzan published an anthology of contemporary readings focused on the theme “Against Civilization”. But you, Kevin, have shown yourself to be hopelessly in the grip of an old paradigm. Learn your letters and don’t make a fool of yourself again by trying to participate in a discussion you don’t understand. They live life directly. Presumably Kaczynski personally “faced up” to the logical conclusion of taking down civilization; it would kill billions of people. The destruction of civilization would indeed kill billions, but overpopulation is also the problem as well. look at transition towns, they have some tech but a lot of it abandons the industrial model. The truth of Kaczynski’s observations does not absolve him of his murders, or justify his insane hatred. One can be happy in an extremely regulated and technologically advanced culture, and one can be miserable. Kaczynski’s murders are a counterexample to that claim. However, his aggressions were misplaced; technology itself is not the enemy. See here: and especially this page from their blog: So, the unabomber makes some interesting insights …. Kaczynski saw something in technology that caused him to lash out with violence, but despite his mental imbalance, he was able to articulate that view with surprising clarity his sprawling, infamous 35,000-word manifesto. The State exists to enforce things like planned obsolescence and false scarcity as a mode of propping up the ruling elite. I can imagine someone asking “Then why did people embrace technology in the first place?” Because they didn’t understand the implications. Maybe as he penned his manifesto not that many radicals were willing to envision the death of billions as a result of their envisioned collapse of civilization, but today’s doomers sure are. Some optimist would say that everything improve, but if we compare middle age, people had to pay and work and had a miserable life compared to many earlier societies. I don’t worry about the machine. Is some of this technology really benefiting us as a culture? Without a technological replacement for the ecosystem itself, technology is actually competing against itself because it depends exclusively on biology for survival; biology that it paradoxically threatens by virtue of its very existence. I got a chance to hear Frank VanderSloot speak once. KK, I share you perspective on TK and technology. The article fails to take into account what will the effects of increasing “technium” be in the future, so it relies actually on one assumption: that the unabomber was utterly wrong in the assumption that humans cannot control technology. Secondly, as the author has noted, he fails to balance the benefits with the costs: the facts are that humanity is living in the most abundant, healthy, peaceful, time ever ……………. Like farm chiken we are have been genetically selected to be peaceful and obedient and we are unable to oppose a resistance. The point I would like to advance is that tool use in primates is an evolved behaviour, an inevitable result of evolutionary pressures within the system of earth’s biosphere. I don’t hear anyone arguing that the WTC/Pentagon attacks didn’t get Osama Bin Laden an audience. This was an interesting essay, but it would be more helpful had it grappled with the issues raised by Jacques Ellul in “The Technological Society” and by Neil Postman in “Technopoly”. I am an admirer of KK’s work, but it’s distressing to find examples like this which suggest that no one, starting with the author, bothered to fact check even the simplest assertion in the piece. If you accept that error, then the entire universe of techno-dominance and dependence that the Unabomber complained of is an implicit and inescapable consequence of the facility that gives rise to the simplest stone tools. This necessity is symbolized by a piece of paper. I’d say that running out of oil will not herald the end, because we have enough uranium to support a civilization the size of earths for a million years/more. I’ve always wondered how easy it is for otherwise smart people to ignore the simple fact that there is no straight line drawn over humanity that separates “natural” from “artificial” and “nature” fro “civilization”…. Daniel Quinn’s book “Ishmael” — published four years before Kaczynski’s text — articulates basically the same anarcho-primitivist ideas about civilization, and is more popular than anything by any of the aforementioned authors (Amazon Sales Rank #1,288; with 880 Customer Reviews — way more on both counts than “Out Of Control”). I think your perceptions of self choice, Kevin, are predicated on your class status. The biosphere seems to be growing an central and peripheral nervous system to allow more fine control over the ecology. here in Finland, who is not afraid to show Morrie Schwartz was a Brandeis sociology professor who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in 1995. Kaczynski and people like him really can’t achieve the end they desire until they eliminate instrumental intelligence. The reason, KK can do this now – can have high speed internet and a car and at the same time watch wild coyotes is, because the effects are delayed. The future will likely resemble a synthesis of permaculture and technium — food abundance and ubiquitous communication. that it does control all our lives. Thank you for this tremendous insight. Whether you find value in the so-called freedoms of civilization is your choice. You are a Blind Oracle, trying to guide your timid flock: but there are others who have scaled the mountain and know the way better. It’s autonomy. Ever think about the billions of bacteria you killed? The use of “tools” has freed us, but what to we do with that free time? He didn’t see Reagan, the fall of the Soviet Union or the rise of Islamic terrorism. Pentti Linkola is a famous dissident/misanthrope Which puts us right back at exploring what we can do without getting caught, which is, apparently, a lot. We do not endorse nature fight for survival, we reproduce like pigs in a farm and use ever twisted tools to plundr nature to accomodate our sick growing number. Actually, no, there’s a whole bunch of people involved in imagining it, and then going out and creating it. Just like chicken, any person who raides animals will acknowledge this: we do not let the nasty one to breed, it is too much pain. He was driven there in a retreat from the rest of us. The second difference will be long-term: we have used up all the more readily accessible resources in many categories (petroleum, for example) which will make it much harder to ever build up another advanced civilisation. [The rules of industrial society] have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering. However, by carefully mitigating and controlling the industry, in conjunction with the equitable management of population distribution, the system as a whole would eventually find a mutually comfortable, non-destructive equilibrium. Even ‘good’ rules are reductions in freedom.” He was deeply frustrated at not being able to integrate into professional society, which he groomed himself for. Rather, Kaczynski, speaking as the Unabomber, argued that technology is a dynamic holistic system. “alienation for compensation” – the current predominant Your argument seems to be that civilization *will* collapse from *something* because that’s what happened in *Rome*. Well, you know what happened. These are dynamic systems that collapse under static restraints. I think the only reason we are able to survive in the modern world is because we’re raised in it from birth. The technium is not, as most people think, a series of individual artifacts and gadgets for sale. Now is the age of our awakening, as people are finally becoming aware that we are capable of infinitely more. We already do. Commenters suggesting that technology and human society are “inside the system” of nature should consider that systems in nature don’t exist in static equilibrium and we don’t know the time frames in human society. He just doesn’t like how we are so focused on new technology that we overlook all of its consequences, such as pollution, oversocialization (which leads to people feeling shameful about themselves, for more info read The Industrial Society and Its Future), worse labor conditions, etc. I do not credit any critics of Kaczynski who fail to criticize him rigorously, and if Kevin Kelly had submitted this critique in one of my classes, I would have given it an F at the graduate level and a D at the undergraduate level. The bombs were strikes at the professionals running the civilization he hated. Here he lived a fairly self-sustained life – away from the rules and the reach of technological civilization. Instead cite immigration from rural areas to the cities as evidence of the superiority of urban life, projecting your own values onto those migrating to cities. They are entitled to come back and tell you how much you were supposed to pay for a property even years after the purchase and you are treated as a tax evader . Otherwise, what’s the whole point of our species even existing? I began thinking about this when I considered that one of the factors that brought their empire down was a single contaminant in their food which they failed to fully comprehend – lead (from water pipes and cooking utensils). P.S. (And… I’m sorry to be such a pissant sometimes in these posts!). What did they do with it? i read complete Article, this article is very informative. You can see a recent rundown by clicking here. We’d appreciate the help and the insight. One prolific green anarchy author, Derrick Jensen, dismisses the lack of alternatives to civilization and says simply, “I do not provide alternatives because there is no need. enables the high-tech self-providing that Frithof Bergmann’s New Not everyone wants to be in the wilderness as much as possible. He would hardly be the first person to recognise a problem, only to feel so trapped by it he lost his mind. (The obsession with building roads to everywhere has me annoyed as well, can`t we just get that bridge to nowhere on Jupiter from James Blish`s “They Shall Have Stars” underway already, so that road building politicians can get a new focus in life?). Most certainly. Anti-civilization dreamers spend a lot of time devising ways to bring down civilization (befriend hackers, unbolt power towers, blow up dams), but not so much on what replaces it. I urge people to forget who wrote it and to read it for themselves. By the way , the law gives no parameter to the buyer in order for him to determine what an appropriate price would be . The great difficulty of the anti-civilizationists is that a sustainable desirable alternative to civilization is unimaginable. Sam Walton drove an old pickup truck. It looks like he shopped at Wal-mart. Society and its discontents is one wicked problem, in the technical sense. The differences will be twofold. At work, people have to do what they are told to do, otherwise production would be thrown into chaos. he could have just made some money and retired as a recluse in mexico or something. Without civilization, there is no education, just superstition. If the average speed at which those transistors are used doubles every 2 years, that’s an 8-fold increase every 2 years. But this doesn’t sit well with some. I question what that ‘something’ might be that will necessarily collapse our civilization. here is the only way to START OVER. That got me to wondering, were there other parallels? Like scientific progress, capitalism is built on an exponential model. Check out < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QovBLFZhQME“>Post-oil Man for an inadvertently hilarious illustration of this deep-seated, deeply dysfunctional attitude. 2) the arguments against ‘what is’ (in this case, expanding technology and increasing environmental impact) are typically rooted in fear; fear of loss of a pristine planet, fear of the ultimate downfall of humanity and possibly everything else, fear of… fill in the blank. We need to take anarcho-primitivism seriously as a potential new source of social chaos and destruction in the years to come. Great post. These methods even reinforced some of the very ideological tenets he sought to extinguish, extreme individualism and indiscriminate violence. With symptoms, presumably. Let artificial intelligence run its course to the point This is something that, as far as I’ve read, I haven’t seen any radicals facing up to. The Earth probably won’t even notice we’re gone. that you’re happy with your life, that everyone seems to want to live like you, that no one can imagine an alternative, and that even the Unabomber was a hypocrite. The best ones usually grow down in the lower areas which are agricultural areas, actually ranches, and the ranchers presumably don’t want you digging up their meadows, so starchy foods were civilized foods. If we started off from zero technology, we’d end up back here eventually anyhow. After 25 years on the job, why did he not make his own tools separate from the system? If anything, even with the ability to communicate at a moments notice, we have become more detached and disconnected with the advent of modern technology. I could tell he was a mathmatician just by the way he spoke; he spoke logically, adding things up and subtracting what didn’t make sense. You seem to be looking for some alternative to civilization in the event of its collapse which should already be set in place so that we can neatly fall into one method of functioning into the next. Despite approaching the question from all angles to the best of my intellectual ability I have an instinctual nagging that suggests to me that Kaczynski was right. Those who were not obedient were slaughtered, like all those american indian who refused to live like those colonists, ploughing the land instead of hunting. Abbey did all he could personally to stop the juggernaut with monkey wrenching maneuvers – sabotaging logging equipment and so forth. Thoreau wasn’t spinning lies when he wrote Walden Pond. But the certainty that current trends must necessarily continue to bad effect is no less naive and speculative than the assumption that somehow everything will work out for the best. That result they hate so much existed the day the first chimpanzee figured out how to use a stripped twig to fish for treats in a termite mound. Not everyone wants to spend their free time as I wish too. However, there are aspects of technology that can be said to be more natural than others, and I believe this is the underlying argument of Kazinsky and the green revolution, though perhaps neither party realizes it. Going primitive is awesome, as long as you got friends going along in the adventure. All the technological advancements of my time have made life enjoyable… right? We can’t say no to more than a few individual pieces, so we are imprisoned in this elaborate artificial lie. That is why his bombs got better and why he stopped bombing for awhile, I believe. I’m sure you are aware, but perhaps you have forgotten, that Bill Joy in his classic warning of the dangers of a Singularity, “Why the future doesn’t need us” also mentions the Unabomber. To a certain extent it`s the good old “Basselope-gap” which haunts certain aspects of at least my view of our interrelations. Unabomber will be uniquely remembered in the future. Similarly, I enjoy hunting as recreation, in addition to the benefits of adding natural wild meats to my diet. Why would he not use these things if it helps him and does not hurt anybody? I believe that it is possible to create a technological society where decisions about which technologies to use are made on the basis of how they enhance peoples physical and mental well being. I am trying to bring about collapse of society, that evil thing.”. They have not relinquished the conveniences of civilization for the better shores of nomadic hunter-gathering. It should be easy to figure out, we could just ask him, but that is kind of hard since he is in the Colorado Supermax right now, and they don’t really allow visitors unless under super rare circumstances. They remind me of the survivalist I met in the 70’s who had a TK perscription for surviving the coming collapse of society. Finally, if the triumph of a technological takeover is the disaster that Kaczynski outlines – robbing souls of freedom, initiative, sanity, or the environment of its sustainability – and if this prison is inescapable, then the system must be destroyed. We have a shot now at success that the dinosaurs never got – let’s seize that opportunity and survive. The whole basis of your argument is that there is a net gain in freedom. Technology is a trap, one we can’t escape. As you indicate, they don’t have many good ideas about what is supposed to come after. he is correct in the sense that Marx was……..he makes some interesting insights………but the conclusion is as horrifically and murderously wrong. His manifesto makes it clear that he associates such egalitarian ideals with the system he wishes to destroy. His area of specialty was somewhat obscureââ¬âonly a dozen people were able to understand or appreciate his doctoral dissertationââ¬âso it’s easy to imagine his frustrations at devoting his intellect to a seemingly obscure and meaningless endeavor. Honestly, seeing some of these comments show how many of us sound on a variety of subjects and only makes me want to farther my education. You can make the money of course, that’s not what I want right now. Analysis of pre-historical society is fairly clear. For example, democracy cannot exist without a literate populace and that requires printing. He was more interested in reading than gardening, which always indicates an unhealthy mind. to try to imagine an alternative for yourself? Look at the Roman Empire. ‘And back in 1992 far left “Nightline” host Ted Koppel invited the great Rush Limbaugh on to debate Al Gore on the Ozone scare and future of the planet. Even people such as you who have the implications thrown in your face in a 35,000 worded essay don’t accept it. One last point I wanted to make. I would guess that many arguments about the economies and diseconomies of scale would change, if you change some basic assumptions. I think his problem wasn’t that there’s too much technology, it’s that there’s too little nature. And drawing a comparison to the fall of the Roman Empire, or at least in the way you’ve suggested, isn’t convincing. ( I do hope , and I trust , it won’t be necessary to reach such extremes ) . But here is a chance for going beyond yourself. I have no real desire to elaborate on this perspective here because this is not the forum to do so. Beyond Geography by Frederick Turner. I remember Solzhenitsyn, in the ’70s, berating us in the West for our decadence and softness. I find my body feels the most at peace when I accept what is, am grateful for whatever time I’ve got, do good work, act generously, and extend to everyone the respect I my self appreciate being shown. Ted Kaczynski, of course, is not the only wilderness lover to suffer the encroachment of civilization. and yet….no supporting documentation. It could be going to towards Blade Runner. I agree a technology-infused life is much nicer than hunting boar in the nude. Their routines would be only marginally different than mine. It certainly can process information faster than I can do. So in a way we are living in a simulation He projects his own neurosis on to society as a whole. For example, he doesn’t believe that destroying industrial society will lead to greater “gender autonomy and equality,” and I doubt he cares about achieving such equality. Do I agree with his bombings? So I am stuck in this catch 22 of trying to use technology to be able ti live without technology, except the more technology I use the more I need. Strength in these communities would allow for excessive production of agriculture, and particularly niche crops; the excesses would then fuel the cities. So this has to be repeated over and over. But don’t get me wrong. The issue I raised was whether or not TK actually said what you imply he did, not whether some people you know have iPhones or not. Earth improvement is a distributed effort and on behalf of a generation of weirdos who grew up reading Whole Earth Catalogs, please, come back to Foxfire territory for a little while. How do we avoid creating a civilization that is so utterly dependent upon technology that failures of new techniques (say, the CDS) can bring it to the brink of self-destruction? You’ve all read your history. To say that technology is not natural because it is a product of human intelligence would be akin to saying that an egg is not natural because it is the product of the chickenââ¬â¢s reproductive system. You confuse the ease of doing things in a complicated society, material comfort with the profound happiness of belonging and being needed!! Buffett once agreed to meet Ted Koppel for lunch in order to tape an interview for ABC News. Has anyone read “Better Off” by Eric Brende? While they sip coffee. Thus, as Watts once said, ââ¬Åââ¬Â¦the distinction between the natural and the artificial is an artificial distinction.ââ¬Â, In Zen philosophy, there is a certain gravitation towards that which can be said to be more natural, and a reverence for the beauty of what nature has already accomplished. However his escape from technology was disturbed around 1983. and elite few…………….. the natural implication being that many many will have to be killed or die ? “Ownership of such {magical} power can be dangerous to its possessors. I need a better smart phone, a smaller laptop, a video camera to make films, a better more efficient car. The immediate difference will be one of scale. But most people of the world find the opposite. Other goals would distract attention and energy from the main goal. From there the combination of science and capitalism launched the revolution which has shaped the world we live in today. First, there are certain technologies (say sewage treatment, vaccinations, traffic lights) that were once matters of choice but that are now mandated and enforced by the system. We just work harder, so we can buy more stuff. We cannot picture it. Those of us (including me) who cannot live well without wilderness, will never be happy in our technological civilization, no matter what its obvious benefits may be. I like that you are publishing your book segments one by one, with the stated goal of learning from the comments. …While the industrial system is sick we must destroy it. (He said, while typing furiously on his laptop, after having made breakfast for himself and his Eve.). The moment another human being was introduced, things got complicated. But hey SSRI is good it kills libido to, it all starts to feel like f-cking eugenetic to me.. Well since Peak Oil is at our doorstep it looks like the modern world will end and we’ll end up as nomadic Indians, farming Amish or best case is living out our lives like the Waltons.  By the way has anyone ever found out if Ted knows anything about Peak Oil?  Would he be Glad?Â. Ted Kaczynski, the convicted bomber who blew up dozens of technophilic professionals, was right about one thing: technology has its own agenda. He points out that technology can be good or bad, he doesn’t say it is always bad. He was wise enough to see that there is a problem, and he was courageous enough to attempt a solution, short sighted and counterproductive though it may have been. The encroachment of civilization would kill billions of human action, but in fact it transcends actions... In Manhattan not materialize in bulk often are agreement with commenter Gerhard Jr.... Work they find important, not with * all * technology or politics to tame the system everywhere have called... 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