Technology and Astonishment
The largest accomplishment of technology is its capability to astound people into completely new ways of living. Agriculture astounded people into lives in which food should always be at one’s doorstep. The city astounded people into lives of the marketplace economy. The vehicle astounded people into mobile, transient lives on the road.
Unfortunately, technology’s ability to astonish also distracts people from consequences: Institutionalized inequality derived from agriculture, the economized lives of city folk, the unending dependence on personal vehicles for food and livelihood—in our astonishment, our spiritual centers have been replaced by tools.