The Un-Easy Case for Technological Optimism

Abstract

is a term of art, an article of faith, and a theory of politics. It is a view that pervades modern attitudes, yet gets little explicit attention. For a brief period the situation was otherwise. In the early 1970s, the optimistic outlook figured prominently in an important debate about nothing less than the future of the world. Technological optimism won. The outcome was unsurprising, given the nature of the argument. On one side of the debate was a group of self-proclaimed Malthusians who foresaw an impending period of stark scarcity unless relatively drastic remedial steps were quickly taken; on the other side were the technological optimists, whose message, essentially, was not to worry at least not too much. The two sides moved quickly to joinder on an issue that neither could carry. The debate, in other words, reached a dead-end; it came down to believing whatever one wished. Most people wish to be optimistic. This is why the optimists triumphed. It is also why, today, critical discussion of the optimistic viewpoint is largely passe. The literature on the subject is more or less closed. Not many people know very much about it, lawyers in particular. The exception might be those who work and teach in fields like environmental law and natural resources, where technological optimism has a special relevance and a notable dominance.1