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We are not controlled by technology any more than a mining town is controlled by picks and shovels and drills. Technology is just tools, and we rely on them every day, but we are not controlled by them. The reason is simple: no technology has the ability to initiate, to have agency or to start something new.

Arguments that we are controlled by technology generally form around the fact that we are surrounded by it. But the two things could not be more different. We are surrounded by and engage other things in our environments, like our desk at work, our homes, our pets, our yards, our cars. The only things that dictate to us are people: our spouses, our bosses. Influence in general comes from people. If it is generated by a computer, we generally don't care.

Even technologies that directly affect us don't control us. Specific life-saving medical breakthroughs have given life to people, but they don't dictate what to do with that life (other than "pay that medical bill"). They don't even replace the knowledgable physician who has to use the equipment to save the life.

Technology systems like our media broadcast systems, databases with our information, and the internet are also usually cited as evidence of technocracy. But until we invent true artificial intelligence, these are still controlled by people. We have extended ourselves with our inventions, not replaced ourselves.

We CAN have our opinions influenced by being surrrounded by tehnology, but only in very limited ways. Someone who has continual access to the internet may pooh-pooh the idea of balancing their budget or always carrying cash, but they still value knowing how much money they have. Someone who lives in a city with billboards and bus schedules and city ordinances enforced by camera may feel dictated to, but people are always behind the curtain.

We can be influenced by people, and people can sometimes control people, and technology can help them. But the inventions are delegated to the same role: that of a tool.

There is no spark of life in technology, and no creation from it. Society remains controlled by the people, and I believe it is a great society we have put together, with the help of our many technologies.

Learn more about this author, Michael Isaacson.
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