# 20211012



## Discussion on tech criticism in Discord

> [[tech solutionism]] is bad because it abstracts away everything but the technical and implementation side through a sleight of hand that presents the other parts as already solved
> 
> technology is almost _always_ part of a solution, because you have to change the way we’re organizing matter and behavior to solve things has to change which is technical, but what’s important is that it’s also always political and social
> 
> I think a lot of the problem with how tech is treated in society is the idea that it’s a distinct thing in itself. Rather than the same sort of thing as a bureaucracy, political formation, or other human-designed system. Techs are complexes of organized matter and behavior and people like abstract away the latter through [[fetishism]]
> 
> I mean part of the issue I think is that people in Western Europe/America are insulated from the problems that the higher degree of technical development and implementation in their economies has solved and so literally have no idea what its like to live without it
> 
> — @Redmay (Discord), on [[technology criticism]], repeating the attitudes of [[Alexander Bogdanov]]


### Commentary

I think that this sentiment is a pretty good rebuttal to the attitude that _tech itself_ comes to dominate our lives. This itself is a fetish, because the things that dominate us are the social systems and processes that make such tech possible.