Emergent technologies have already altered our lives profoundly and promise to do so even more in the near future – from the smart phones most of us carry around to 3D printing to augmented reality, like Pokémon Go. But these innovations are seen as a fact of life – part of the march of progress – rather than something that comes with a steep price, and that we should have political say over. Urbanist Adam Greenfield talks about the hidden costs of these technologies. And Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro discusses the dangers of a leftwing environmentalism that focuses on overpopulation and civilizational collapse.
Resources:
Adam Greenfield, Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life Verso, 2017
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, Ecology, Soils, and the Left: An Ecosocial Approach Palgrave MacMillan, 2014