Techno-progressivism or tech-progressivism is a stance of active support for the
convergence
Convergence may refer to:
Arts and media Literature
*''Convergence'' (book series), edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
*Convergence (comics), "Convergence" (comics), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that ...
of
technological change
Technological change (TC) or technological development is the overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology or processes.From ''The New Palgrave Dictionary otechnical change by S. Metcalfe. •biased and biased techno ...
and
social change
Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations.
Definition
Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or soci ...
. Techno-progressives argue that technological developments can be profoundly
empowering and
emancipatory when they are regulated by legitimate
democratic and
accountable
Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the ...
authorities to ensure that their
cost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in whic ...
s,
risk
In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environm ...
s and
benefits
Benefit or benefits may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Benefit'' (album), by Jethro Tull, 1970
* "Benefits" (''How I Met Your Mother''), a 2009 TV episode
* ''The Benefit'', a 2012 Egyptian action film
Businesses and organisation ...
are all fairly shared by the actual
stakeholders to those developments.
One of the first mentions of techno-progressivism appeared within
extropian jargon in 1999 as the removal of "all political, cultural, biological, and psychological limits to self-actualization and self-realization".
Stance
Techno-progressivism maintains that accounts of
progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...
should focus on
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
and
technical
Technical may refer to:
* Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle
* Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data
* Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...
dimensions, as well as
ethical
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
and
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
ones. For most techno-progressive perspectives, then, the growth of scientific knowledge or the accumulation of technological powers will not represent the achievement of proper progress unless and until it is accompanied by a
just distribution of the
costs, risks, and benefits of these new knowledges and capacities. At the same time, for most techno-progressive
critic
A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...
s and
advocates, the achievement of
better democracy, greater
fairness, less violence, and a wider
rights culture are all desirable, but inadequate in themselves to confront the quandaries of contemporary technological societies unless and until they are accompanied by
progress in science and technology to support and implement these values.
Strong techno-progressive positions include support for the
civil right
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
of a
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
to either maintain or
modify
Modification may refer to:
* Modifications of school work for students with special educational needs
* Modifications (genetics), changes in appearance arising from changes in the environment
* Posttranslational modifications, changes to prote ...
his or her own
mind
The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...
and
body, on his or her own terms, through
informed, consensual recourse to, or refusal of, available therapeutic or enabling
biomedical technology.
During the November 2014
Transvision Conference, many of the leading
transhumanist
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition.
Transhuma ...
organizations signed the Technoprogressive Declaration. The Declaration stated the values of technoprogressivism.
Contrasting stance
Bioconservatism
Bioconservatism (a portmanteau of the words ''biology'' and ''conservatism''), to Deakin University Lecturer in Health Ethics and Professionalism Tamara Kayali Browne and University of Oxford Senior Research Fellow Steve Clarke, is "a term that is ...
(a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...](_blank)
" and "
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
") is a stance of hesitancy about technological development especially if it is perceived to threaten a given
social order
The term social order can be used in two senses: In the first sense, it refers to a particular system of social structures and institutions. Examples are the ancient, the feudal, and the capitalist social order. In the second sense, social order ...
. Strong bioconservative positions include opposition to
genetic modification
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including ...
of
food crops
A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponics ...
, the
cloning
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...
and genetic engineering of
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to ani ...
and
pets
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence ...
, and, most prominently, rejection of the genetic, prosthetic, and cognitive modification of human beings to overcome what are broadly perceived as current human biological and cultural limitations.
Bioconservatives range in political perspective from
right-leaning religious and cultural
conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
to
left-leaning environmentalists
An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...
and
technology critics. What unifies bioconservatives is skepticism about
medical
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
and other
biotechnological transformations of the
living world. Typically less sweeping as a critique of technological society than
bioluddism, the bioconservative perspective is characterized by its defense of the
natural
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...
, deployed as a
moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. ...
category.
Although techno-progressivism is the stance which contrasts with bioconservatism in the
biopolitical spectrum, both techno-progressivism and bioconservatism, in their more moderate expressions, share an opposition to unsafe, unfair, undemocratic forms of technological development, and both recognize that such developmental modes can facilitate unacceptable
recklessness and
exploitation, exacerbate injustice and incubate dangerous social discontent.
List of notable techno-progressive social critics
*
Technocritic Dale Carrico
Dale Carrico (born 1965) is an American critical theorist and rhetorician. He is a critic of futurology and geoengineering. with his accounts of techno-progressivism
*Philosopher
Donna Haraway
Donna J. Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a prominent scholar in the field of science and technology studies. S ...
with her accounts of
cyborg theory
"A Cyborg Manifesto" is an essay written by Donna Haraway and published in 1985 in the ''Socialist Review (US)''. In it, the concept of the cyborg represents a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating "human" from "animal" and "h ...
.
*Media theorist
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Mark Rushkoff (born February 18, 1961) is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture and his advocacy of open sour ...
with his accounts of
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...
.
*Cultural critic
Mark Dery
Mark Dery (born December 24, 1959)''Contemporary Authors Online'', s.v. "Mark Dery" (accessed February 12, 2008). is an American author, lecturer and cultural critic. An early observer and critic of online culture, he helped to popularize the ter ...
and his accounts of
cyberculture
Internet culture is a culture based on the many way people have used computer networks and their use for communication, entertainment, business, and recreation. Some features of Internet culture include online communities, gaming, and social medi ...
.
*Science journalist
Chris Mooney with his account of the
U.S. Republican Party's "war on science".
*Futurist
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the '' Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre.
Sterling's first ...
with his
Viridian design movement.
*Futurist
Alex Steffen
Alex Steffen (born 1968) is an American futurist who writes and speaks about sustainability and the future of the planet. He emphasizes the importance of imagining persuasive, positive possible futures: "It's literally true that we can't build ...
and his accounts of
bright green environmentalism through the
Worldchanging
Worldchanging was a nonprofit online publisher that operated from 2003 to 2010. Its strapline was ''A bright green future''. It published newsletters and books about sustainability, bright green environmentalism, futurism and social innovation.
...
blog.
*Science journalist
Annalee Newitz
Annalee Newitz (born May 7, 1969) is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals '' Popular Science'' and ''Wired''. From 1999 to 2008 Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column ca ...
with her accounts of the
Bio punk.
*Bioethicist
James Hughes of the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies with his accounts of
democratic transhumanism
Transhumanist politics constitutes a group of political ideologies that generally express the belief in improving human individuals through science and technology.
History
The term "transhumanism" with its present meaning was popularised by Ju ...
.
Controversy
Technocritic Dale Carrico, who has used "techno-progressive" as a shorthand to describe
progressive politics that emphasize
technoscientific
In common usage, technoscience refers to the entire long-standing global human activity of technology combined with the relatively recent scientific method that occurred primarily in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. Technoscience is the ...
issues,
has expressed concern that some "
transhumanist
Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition.
Transhuma ...
s" are using the term to describe themselves, with the consequence of possibly misleading the public regarding their actual cultural, social and political views, which may or may not be compatible with
critical
Critical or Critically may refer to:
*Critical, or critical but stable, medical states
**Critical, or intensive care medicine
* Critical juncture, a discontinuous change studied in the social sciences.
*Critical Software, a company specializing ...
techno-progressivism.
See also
*
Algocracy
*
Body modification
Body modification (or body alteration) is the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or human physical appearance. In its broadest definition it includes skin tattooing, socially acceptable decoration (''e.g.'', common ear piercing in many so ...
*
Bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...
*
Biopolitics
Biopolitics refers to the political relations between the administration or regulation of the life of species and a locality's populations, where politics and law evaluate life based on perceived constants and traits. French philosopher Michel F ...
*
Digital freedom
*
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for software users, namely the freedoms to run the software, to study the software, to modify the software, and to share copies of the s ...
*
Frontierism
*
Fordism
*
High modernism
*
Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America.
There were three basic tenets to the concept:
* The special virtues of the American people and th ...
*
New Frontier
The term ''New Frontier'' was used by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech in the 1960 United States presidential election to the Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the ...
*
Post-scarcity economy
*
Scientism
Scientism is the opinion that science and the scientific method are the best or only way to render truth about the world and reality.
While the term was defined originally to mean "methods and attitudes typical of or attributed to natural scientis ...
*
Technocentrism
Technocentrism is a value system that is centered on technology and its ability to control and protect the environment. Technocentrics argue that technology can address ecological problems through its problem-solving ability, efficiency, and its m ...
*
Technological progress
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
*
Techno-utopianism
Technological utopianism (often called techno-utopianism or technoutopianism) is any ideology based on the premise that advances in science and technology could and should bring about a utopia, or at least help to fulfill one or another utopian i ...
*
Transhumanist politics
Transhumanist politics constitutes a group of political ideologies that generally express the belief in improving human individuals through science and technology.
History
The term "transhumanism" with its present meaning was popularised by Ju ...
*
Progress
Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension w ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Institute for Ethics and Emerging TechnologiesOverview of Biopolitics
Ideologies
Technology in society
Political ideologies
Progressivism
Humanism
Science and technology studies
Transhumanism
Ethics
Transhumanist politics