Although there is convincing argument and rational for both technological and cultural determinist positions, I find myself leaning more towards the idea that our culture and its ever-changing state is determined by its technologies rather than the other way around. However, I struggled to wrap my mind around the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) claim that “guns don’t kill people, people do.” At first, I agreed with this statement, but then after some additional reading, I had no way to oppose the fact that “guns do not have a completely independent will.” People, in fact, must consciously make the decision to pull the trigger.
From this I was able to better understand my conflict with adopting the cultural deterministic view as my own, in spite of this clearly accurate statement. Culture did cause changes in technology when the gun was invented. There was a need and desire for the development of a technology made to kill quickly and efficiently. The difference between this technology and all others is that it stems from the instinctive desire to be able to protect and defend one’s life. For this reason, I believe that the only instance in which culture will cause changes in technology is when a society is in a state of chaos and forced to push forward. Again, an individual’s intuitive and fundamental instinct is to live; and so when one feels that their life is in jeopardy, their first reaction is to find something to protect them. This has transformed from physical defense to simple technologies (i.e. spears and arrows) to more advanced technologies such as guns and bombs.
Aside from these technologies I feel that all else is a result of technological determinism. That is to say that our culture did not call on technologies such as the printing press or computer; however, once they were introduced, we, as a culture become dependent, adopting them as a function and necessity of our everyday lives. Once this technology is introduced and accepted by our culture (which is in large part due to “technological momentum”), we cannot regress.
To echo in part what had been discussed in class last Thursday, when technologies previously introduced to our culture are then removed, there occurs a state of chaos and lack of order. I have attached the link to a YouTube video to demonstrate further what I mean by this. The video is a trailer of the 2007 movie, “Blindness.” The world is experiencing a wide-spread epidemic and when the government resorts to quarantines, order and technology are minimized, enabling a state of confusion and panic. The story is seen through the eyes of an eye doctor’s wife. Refusing to leave the side of her blind husband, she is the only person able to see the chaos surrounding her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_WC4KNfBhw
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