|
Since
the invention of the first tool, man has not ceased to build
upon and refine the technology of his forebears. Always
moving forward, faster and faster, he (almost) never
returns to making what has already been done (unless it is
to sell to others). We are inundated with modern articles
which invade our home and work space. The watch at our wrist,
the radio we listen to, the television, the telephone that
carries our voices thousands of kilometers, the electricity
that changes night to day, perhaps a row of teeth made of
a modern synthetic substance, a battery that keeps the heart
beating, the eye of a dead stranger that gives our failing
sight new clarity. The cars, the boats, the planes, the instruments
of war, the vehicles of travel in space, of interplanetary
voyages, nuclear and biological weapons, skyscrapers, computers,
military and industrial research; all this depending on hundreds
of thousands human beings in perpetual activity.
We
have imposed on ourselves a new frame of reference, that of
a life parallel to that of nature, a "nature" made
entirely by man, which is not live, but influences our lives
at the deepest level. Tis is "high
technology".
|
|