Book TV: Neil Postman, "Technology"

Encore Booknotes: Neil Postman, "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology"

Neil Postman, author of Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology published by Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, spoke on the theme of his book which noted the dependence of Americans on technological advances for their own security. He said Americans have come to expect technological innovations to solve the larger problems of mankind, and technology itself has become a national "religion" which people take by faith to solve their problems.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• BookTV
• BookTV.org
• cspan
• c-span
• culture
• technology
• criticism
• commentary
• behavioral
• theory

[ryecroft57]

Neil Postman always has something thoughtful (and thought provoking) to share. He is correct that Americans' faith in technology is a new religion. When I mention to people that I don't have a cellphone or iPod they all but call me an infidel and are eager to evangelize to me the great benefits of converting and embracing these technologies. Postman points out the drawbacks to adopting new technologies without weighing the costs of what is lost or undone.

[parakeethands]

amusing ourselves to death was a great book. one of the best i have read up to date. :)

[ybltmd]

@noelsview2010 Ha ha! I thought the same thing. YouTube can be a good tool if used properly...

[noelsview2010]

Love Postmans work and used this book for my thesis.... There is some irony viewing this on YouTube... :-)

[yourfiction]

I never ever called people a genius, but if this world has seen a genius in the last fw centuries it was Neil Postman. He was one of the few people who still had intelligent and unaltered thoughts. His words are usually closer to the truth than most people in the technological and scientific community will ever be. And most likely he was one of the very very few people who could still call themselves rational thinkers.

[MrGRIZFACE]

Neil was a great thinker with a sexy voice. We need more technology to somehow bring him back to life.

[MJimiD]

What I find wrong with modern technology, and I think Neil might agree here, is the dissipation of immediate control, where we operate everything vicariously. When you rolled down a car window, YOU rolled down the car window and if it was broken, it could fix the mechanism with your bare hands. Now, when you roll down a car window, you press a button which sends a command signal and the BUTTON rolls down the car window via electrical pathways.

[NgrH8r]

fuck you

[mrgerbeck]

Technology has always shaped human culture. What is interesting about our time is the velocity at which technology is absorbed into society. Whereas culture arises to enable us to adapt to our environment--including human technologies--the current velocity is far too rapid for culture to respond to it.

[Cyanidespork]

I find his books extremely informative and insightful. Along w/ Mcluhan, you can get a really understanding about media.

[PeterRoeder31]

One of the ten most brilliant people of all time!

[the13thof12]

@parakeethands I'm about to read it myself.