A Brief Remark on Technological Advancement

In 1959, Walter M. Miller II’s novel “A Canticle for Leibowitz” was published. The novel, comprised of three novellas, details life after a nuclear holocaust, known as the Flame Deluge. In it, there is an eerie passage detailing an aversion to knowledge and technological advancement by the “Simpletons,” those that blame the war on said knowledge and technological advancements.

“Let us make a holocaust of those who wrought this crime, together with their hirelings and their wise men; burning, let them perish, and all their works, their names, and even their memories. Let us destroy them all, and teach our children that the world is new, that they may know nothing of the deeds that went before. Let us make a great simplification, and then the world shall begin again.”

Notwithstanding a logic flowing from this position, it is inherently reactionary.

In Ted Kaczynski’s 1995 manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, the Unabomber advocated the simpleton’s position:

“The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in ‘advanced’ countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in ‘advanced’ countries.”

I cannot recommend enough Miller’s monumental and, frighteningly, timely work.

As the Biden administration, NATO, London, and Berlin push for conflict, if not all-out war with the nuclear-armed power Russia, this book serves as a reminder of what atomic fire is capable of, and, with such advancement in destruction 3,000-fold can, if not will, do.

June 3, 2022