Do We Want to Advance Towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

By Paz Serra Portilla, Green European Journal

The age of Enlightenment ushered in progress and left it anchored in our political and economic consciousness. From that moment on, technology has emerged as the key, unique and universal solution to all of our problems. This, coupled with the unprecedented rate of acceleration we are experiencing in today’s world, means that industrial revolutions are occurring before we’ve even had time to assimilate their characteristics and consequences.

The Future of Technological Society: Will They Really Think of Something?

By Damaris Zehner, Integrity of Life

There is a fundamental truth that these prophets of cutting-edge technology are not considering: fossil fuels are running out. It was inevitable that they would. Nothing that could only be created under unique conditions over millions of years can be expected to renew itself during the brief span of the Industrial Revolution.

Outsourcing Our Brains

By Damaris Zehner, Integrity of Life

There are many signs that in our use of electronic technology we’ve reached the point of damage in the physical realm. I contend that we are reaching that point in the intellectual realm, too – when to know something means to be able to type, click, skim, and forget.

What happened to individual empowerment in the internet age?

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

Practically every device, piece of software and internet platform not only holds the promise of enhancing the individual's power but also can be weaponized to undermine it.

Why You Don’t Hear Trump or Farage Talking About the Tech Revolution

By John Harris, The Guardian blog

This is the basic argument of a book I have been lost in for the last 10 days: The Technology Trap, by the Swedish-German economist and historian Carl Benedikt Frey. His basic thesis is that this phase of the 21st century is turning out to be very like the early 19th, in the sense that technology is causing a great crisis of status, security and trust in institutions.

Why ‘Game of Thrones’ was about Ecomodernism

By Vasilis Kostakis, Chris Giotitsas, P2P Foundation

Game of Thrones was arguably about climate change, but the HBO series turned this narrative around by presenting a last-minute technological solution as magically saving the day, the planet, and existence. 

Walking Away From Facebook

By Brian Miller, Winged Elm Farm blog

Since this is a blog whose aim is to speak of community and connectedness, albeit from a very imperfect practitioner, here are my areas of concern with the rise of social media, Facebook in particular: It is not some commons of a communal resource. It is a global business posing as community forum.

The Inescapably Slow Deployment of Energy Technologies

By Philippe Gauthier, Resilience.org

Can technological progress save us from ecological destruction? If some new clean form of energy was discovered tomorrow, could it be deployed quickly enough to decarbonize the world by 2050?

Beyond Computational Thinking – a ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ for the 21st century

By Bart Hawkins Kreps, An Outside Chance

James Bridle’s New Dark Age is a deeply researched plea for us to move beyond computational thinking. He says learning to code doesn’t help us understand the internet age, any more than learning plumbing skills will give us an understanding of the ways an essential municipal utility is determined by hydrology, infrastructure, and sociopolitical policies.

Drones for Christmas

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

Unidentified drones shut down London's Gatwick Airport for three days last week in the midst of the busy holiday travel season. Drones are examples of how miniaturization and cost reductions of existing technologies can lead to havoc when there is no thought or testing concerning the implications for public safety.