The Effects of Technology on Our Humanity

Abstract

am tired and sick of War. Its Glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have never fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is Hell! William T. Sherman (1) ... and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. -- Isaiah 2:4 The of a reference our physical training regimen, was all that defined the e-mail message I had just received from my boss, the commanding officer of an infantry battalion which I had been assigned as Chaplain. There was no other text, but a video clip was attached. Opening the attachment, I saw what appeared be an aerial view of an enemy bunker; the video obviously was from the nose cone of a quickly descending smart (2) targeted on the bunker. Suddenly a door of the bunker opened and out ran a soldier, sprinting for all he was worth toward the edge of the screen. Just as he reached the far corner of the view, the screen went blank, indicating the bomb had hit the target. I watched the clip a few times, laughed at the commander's comment on PT, and forwarded the e-mail some colleagues. Only later did some troublesome little questions start nag at me: Did the soldier make it safety? Were others caught unaware in the bunker? What human tragedies or sorrows, if any, fol lowed that blank screen? This article will explore the increase of technology's influence in the military and the correlating effects that influence has on those who make war and those who fight in war. It will suggest the reason behind my finding humor in the video clip and my concurrent failure consider from the start the human questions. That reason is subsumed in technology. In conclusion, the article will propose responses the harmful influences of technology and explore their potential for countering or ameliorating those negative influences. Devices and Disengagement The concept of how technology can lead disengagement may be most clearly delineated by Albert Borgmann's device paradigm. (3) While application of Borgmann's device paradigm technology in a military setting is at first glance a strange prospect, it may be helpful in understanding how the most harmful aspect of technology, that of disengagement, comes about. In Borgmann's paradigm, he uses the concept of the stove or hearth as compared the furnace. (4) The hearth, according Borgmann, was more than just a source of heat; though it was that, it also had a culture of its own. It possessed the characteristics of a thing. These characteristics were embedded because the fireplace required engagement. (5) It informed and engaged the user as a furnace never could. The user of the fireplace was required participate in its use. Chopping wood, keeping embers going, cleaning out old ashes--all were part of the experience. The hearth was also less efficient than a furnace, and so often families would gather there for evening activities. According Borgmann, technology transforms things (the hearth) into (the furnace) by splitting means and ends. (6) In that transformation the means are provided by machines. The ends are split from the means and adopt the status of a commodity. The goal of technology in this splitting of means and ends is make the c ommodity more available. As a result of this pushing of the importance of availability, devices take on important characteristics; they are safe, easy, instantaneous, and ubiquitous. (7) Safe and Easy Warfare Applying warfare Borgmann's device paradigm provides some interesting insights. Often we hear soldiers crudely refer the Army's mission as to kill people and break things. While the true mission is much more involved than that description suggests, the description itself is helpful in applying the device paradigm. …