The Sceptical Optimist

Why Technology Isn't the Answer to Everything

Nicholas Agar

Explores the ethical and philosophical issues that arise in connection with new technology
Challenges the view that progress in technology automatically results in increased well-being
Presents an alternative - more realistic - model of the impact
Includes recent psychological studies on the nature and human perception of well-being

The Sceptical Optimist

Why Technology Isn't the Answer to Everything

Nicholas Agar

Description

The rapid developments in technologies -- especially computing and the advent of many 'smart' devices, as well as rapid and perpetual communication via the Internet -- has led to a frequently voiced view which Nicholas Agar describes as 'radical optimism'. Radical optimists claim that accelerating technical progress will soon end poverty, disease, and ignorance, and improve our happiness and well-being. Agar disputes the claim that technological progress will automatically produce great improvements in subjective well-being. He argues that radical optimism 'assigns to technological progress an undeserved pre-eminence among all the goals pursued by our civilization'.

Instead, Agar uses the most recent psychological studies about human perceptions of well-being to create a realistic model of the impact technology will have. Although he accepts that technological advance does produce benefits, he insists that these are significantly less than those proposed by the radical optimists, and aspects of such progress can also pose a threat to values such as social justice and our relationship with nature, while problems such as poverty cannot be understood in technological terms. He concludes by arguing that a more realistic assessment of the benefits that technological advance can bring will allow us to better manage its risks in future.

The Sceptical Optimist

Why Technology Isn't the Answer to Everything

Nicholas Agar

1. Challenging technological progress
2. An interest in and a focus on technological progress
3. Is there a law of technological progress?
4. How individuals adapt to technological progress
5. The disappointing effects of technological progress on average well-being
6. The disappointing effects of technological progress on average well-being
7. Why golden rice is a bad solution to vitamin A deficiency
8. A plea for experiments in technological progress
9. How valuable is technological progress really?
References
Index

The Sceptical Optimist

Why Technology Isn't the Answer to Everything

Nicholas Agar

Author Information

Nicholas Agar, Reader Victoria University of Wellington

Nicholas Agar is Reader in Philosophy at Victoria University. He has spent much of his academic career writing about ethical and philosophical issues that arise in connection with new technologies.

The Sceptical Optimist

Why Technology Isn't the Answer to Everything

Nicholas Agar

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