Technological change is ecological

From Neil Postman:

Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological. … One significant change generates a total change. If you remove the caterpillars from a given habitat, you are not left with the same environment minus caterpillars: you have a new environment … In the year 1500, fifty years after the printing press was invented, we do not have old Europe plus the printing press. We had a different Europe. After television, the United States was not America plus television; television gave a new coloration to every political campaign, to every home, to every school, to every church, to every industry.

2 thoughts on “Technological change is ecological

  1. In the year 1493, one year after Columbus, we do not have Old Wolrd plus New World. We had a different Planet. Trying to paraphrase Charles C. Mann.

    Thanks John. And a Happy 2012!

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