Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-Sufficiency and Freedom

264 Pages·2016·1.626 MB·English

by  Dmitry Orlov

US/CAN $19.95 SOCIAL SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY
D M I T R Y O R L O V
Can we bring our technology choices
back under control?
S
SHRINKING
H
R THE
…a clear and compelling exploration of what is wrong with the technosphere,
and what we can do about it. I
N
DERRICK JENSEN, author, Endgame and The Myth of Human Supremacy
K TECHNOSPHERE
…we need to work out where we go from here, individually and, more importantly, I
N
collectively. Dmitry Orlov guides us through this process more effectively,
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and entertainingly, than almost anyone else writing today.

NICOLE FOSS, Senior Editor, The Automatic Earth T
H
E
OVER THE PAST two centuries we have witnessed a wholesale replacement T
of most of the previous methods of conducting both business and daily life E
C
with new, technologically advanced, more efficient methods.
H
What exactly is progressive or efficient about this new arrangement is hardly N
ever examined in depth: if the new ways of doing things are so much better, O
then we must all be leading relaxed, stress-free, enjoyable lives with plenty S
of free time to devote to art and leisure activities. But a more careful look P
at these changes shows us that many of these advances are not weighing H
favorably in a harm/benefit comparison. The harm to the environment, society, E
and even to our own personalities, on an individual level, is plain to see, but is R
brushed off with hollow claims about efficiency and progress. E
Shrinking the Technosphere guides readers through the process of bringing
technology down to a manageable number of carefully chosen, essential,
well-understood and controllable elements. It is about regaining the freedom
to use technology for our own benefit, and is critical reading for all who seek to
get back to a point where technologies assist us rather than control us.
Shrinking the Technosphere is part self-help book, part philosophical
tour de force. It is both entertaining and shockingly eye-opening;
it is a book that liberates the mind. O
RICHARD HEINBERG, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute
R
DMITRY ORLOV was born in Leningrad, USSR and emigrated to the US in the mid- L
O
1970s. He holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Linguistics, and has worked
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in a variety of fields, including high-energy physics, Internet commerce, network V
security and advertising. He is the author of several previous books, including
Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of Collapse. TTTTHHHHEEEE TTTTEEEECCCCHHHHNNNNOOOOLLLLOOOOGGGGIIIIEEEESSSS
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www.newsociety.com
Praise for Shrinking the Technosphere
Dmitry Orlov has written a clear and compelling
exploration of what is wrong with the technosphere,
and what we can do about it. This book needs to be read and
understood by policy-makers as well as the rest of us. It is
a valuable contribution to the resistance to the sacrifice
of the living planet on the altar of the machine.
DERRICK JENSEN, author,
Endgame and The Myth of Human Supremacy
The religion of technological progress cedes control
of our lives to machines and money. Dmitry Orlov tells us
how to return human values, pleasures, and freedoms to
the driver’s seat. Shrinking the Technosphere is part self-help
book, part philosophical tour de force. It is both
entertaining and shockingly eye-opening;
it is a book that liberates the mind.
RICHARD HEINBERG, Senior Fellow,
Post Carbon Institute
A brilliant new book on a crucially important theme.
Our dignity, our autonomy, and quite possibly the survival of
our species depends on our willingness to extract ourselves from
the dysfunctional and metastatic mess that modern technology
has become, and craft a new relationship with technology
and the world. Shrinking the Technosphere marks an
important step in that necessary direction.
JOHN MICHAEL GREER, author, After Progress
and Dark Age America
This book is simply essential reading. It will jolt you
out of your comfort zone, but do not let that put you off.
We absolutely need to take a critical look at our world and the
assumptions upon which our lives and society are based.
And we need to work out where we go from here, individually
and, more importantly, collectively. Dmitry Orlov guides us
through this process more effectively, and entertainingly,
than almost anyone else writing today.
NICOLE FOSS, Senior Editor,
The Automatic Earth
It was Ivan Illich who first described how our doctors
induce illness, our teachers dumb down our kids, our judges
institutionalize injustice, and our “defense” establishment
makes us insecure. Dmitry Orlov now tells us our most
beloved tools make us incompetent. Written with
delicious humor, this is an absolutely essential
guide to avoiding Revenge of the Idiots.
ALBERT BATES, author,
The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook,
The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement

Copyright © 2017 by Dmitry Orlov. All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Cover image: © iStock
Printed in Canada. First printing November 2016
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Shrinking the
Technosphere should be addressed to New Society Publishers at
the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please
call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online
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Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
[phone]
LiBRaRy and aRChiVes Canada CataLoguing in PuBLiCation
Orlov, Dmitry, author
Shrinking the technosphere : getting a grip on the technologies
that limit our autonomy, self-sufficiency and freedom I Dmitry Orlov.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
isBn 978-0-86571-838-8 (paperback).--isBn 978-1-55092-633-0
(ebook)
1. Technology--Social aspects. i. Title.
t14.5.076 2016 303.48'3 C2016-906242-2
C2016-906243-0
New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute
in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and
just society, and to do so with the least possible impact upon the
environment, in a manner that models that vision.
www.newsociety.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
1 THE TECHNOSPHERE DEFINED 8
Its hapless denizens 8
Pity the biosphere! 10
In the beginning... 11
It evolves! 12
It overcomes its natural limits 14
Conquest of nature 15
It wants to control absolutely everything 18
It wants to technologize everything 19
It wants to put a monetary value on everything 20
It demands homogeneity 22
It wants to dominate the biosphere 25
It controls you for its own purposes 28
It demands blind faith in progress 29
I ts only alternative to infinite
progress is the apocalypse 34
I t always creates more
problems than it can solve 35
Why it will fail 41
“They will come up with something!” 42
But must we fail with it? 47
What would its success look like? 48
The Anti-Gaia Hypothesis 50
2 WHAT IS AT STAKE? 55
Just how bad is it likely to get? 55
Remembering who we are 58
What should we consider normal? 59
A problem of shared values 64
Why act now? 73
3 APPROACHES AND DEPARTURES 80
Jacques Ellul 81
Ted Kaczynski 86
4 HARM/BENEFIT ANALYSIS 97
Calculating the harm/benefit ratio 99
Anti-technology technologies 101
Mandatory technologies 103
Personal standards 106
Powerful technologies—weak humans 107
Unlimited harm potential 111
Nuclear power industry 112
Genetic engineering 112
Nanotechnology 115
The harm/benefit hierarchy 116
Cost-benefit analysis 118
Technologies that should be disallowed 118
Technologies that may be allowed 120
Zero-harm technologies 123
The dangers of nonexistent technology 123
Relative harm 124
5 NATURELIKE TECHNOLOGIES 126
The germ of an idea 126
Village life 131
Wilderness as a state of mind 134
Bringing back the village 134
A good way to inhabit the landscape 137
The house 137
The stove 139
The sauna 140
Time for a change of venue? 141
Extreme homesteading 144
Life on the move 154
6 POLITICAL TECHNOLOGIES 159
Beyond good and evil 160
Political technologies in the US 161
The fossil fuel lobby 161
The arms manufacturers 162
The two-party political system 163
D efense contractors and the
national defense establishment 164
The medical industry 165
The higher education industry 165
The prison-industrial complex 165
The automotive industry 166
The agribusiness industry 166
The financial industry 166
Organized religion 166
The legal system 167
American political technologies abroad 168
International Loan Sharking 169
The Color Revolution Syndicate 171
Terrorism by Proxy 176
A requiem 177
Beneficial uses of political technologies 177
The importance of patriotic leadership 178
The need for partisans 180
The making of a partisan 184
Partisans of the biosphere? 186
7 SOCIAL MACHINES 189
Part-human, part-machine 191
A playground for psychopaths 193
It’s robopaths all the way down 195
Countermeasures 197
8 WRESTING CONTROL 202
The iron triangle 203
Distracting ourselves 205
Problems of scale 210
Lifehacks 214
Boats 216