No discussion of technology at this time of year would be complete without mention of scary technology. Nuclear weapons are the scariest of all; and Albert Einstein spoke about them as follows:

“My part in producing the atomic bomb consisted in a single act: I signed a letter to President Roosevelt, pressing the need for experiments on a larger scale in order to explore the possibilities for the production of an atomic bomb.”

“I was fully aware of the terrible danger to mankind in case these attempts succeeded. But the likelihood that the Germans were working on the same problem with a chance of succeeding forced me to this step. I could do nothing else although I have always been a convinced pacifist. To my mind, to kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.”

Communication technology can be used to help people – or to incite people to harm others. Disease can be spread intentionally – and perhaps even invented for the purpose of spreading and engaging in genocide. Evidence is growing – and I believe present – that the technology of smokestacks and internal combustion engines (and beef consumption, for there is more damage to the environment from cattle waste than from cars) is warming our planet to the point of no return from destruction.

How do we use technology only for good – or even primarily for good? What technologies scare you the most? What aspects of technology gives you pause?

There were a number of responses to the post about technology and ethics. I know that these are longer than our normal posts, but they are so good, I wanted to share them with you (below)! BRAVO and THANK YOU to all who responded!!!!

RESPONSES

This is a complicated set of questions and I have written extensively about the ethical aspects of technology in my various essays. I believe to truly contend with the topics you are raising, you need to ask even more fundamental questions about what it means to be human.

I believe that we in the industrialized world have taken far too anthropocentric a view on what qualifies as human – by which we apparently mean those who are allowed to have a voice and whom we recognize as being sentient.

Simultaneously, we have also deprived too many non-industrialized humans of the voice they already have, often because we refuse to acknowledge the merits of belief systems that do not enshrine the scientist interpretation of material reality.

Until we have a global recognition of the interconnected fabric of existence in our universe we will have difficulty threading these ethical questions adequately. In other words, many of the fundamental assumptions embedded in those questions you have raised are flawed and thus any intellectual system predicated upon this incomplete information cannot provide the answers that we seek.

We must go back to the drawing board and start again. Fortunately, we are completely able to do this at any time, and I believe a significant portion of humanity is doing so even as we speak.

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This really gets to the core of the issue. Assuming that lobbyists representing special interests help write the laws and that Congressmen and Senators move back and forth between lawmaking and private sector jobs which happens regularly, we have a fixed game with little accountability.

Unless the money is taken out of the equation which seems unlikely, I see no way to change the game from money before people and planet or technology being used to benefit humankind rather than for the few at the expense of the many.

Medical care is a good example where technology serves those who can afford it and the rest are left to try and keep themselves healthy. Will we get single payer that could benefit everyone or something that will benefit the pharmaceutical companies?

Technology should serve people and the planet but that is not the way the world presently works. Yes some technology is certainly beneficial and changes are underway like keeping the internet free.

I look forward to reading the other answers. For me, it’s a very difficult challenge. A great example is the current flu emergency as declared by Obama which benefits Big Pharma to the tune of billions with the CDC as cheerleader for everyone getting vaccinated without proof its as serious as they say it is. Orwellean… Check out my post on NPD for more details.

I would love to see the creation of an insurance company that provided premium reductions for preventative pro active policyholders who ate good diets, exercised regularly, meditated, did yoga, etc..used complimentary and preventative medicine as a first treatment and gave premiums back if they were not used. This would be a game changer.

Technology and ethics: an increasingly troubling set of concerns. We have expanding abilities to challenge the status quo of human beings in ways that can be amazing, but also frightening and horrific. Cloning, stem cell therapy, genetic engineering are ready examples.

Who decides? On what basis are decisions made? What kind of accountability and oversight is needed to assure ethical outcomes? Whose ethics form the basis for the answers to these questions?

It’s clear that technology can be used for good or ill. How do you propose to address this paradox? What kinds of guidelines would you suggest if you were suddenly charged with running things?

Please let me hear from you on this so that I can share the answers.

Have human beings kept up with the technology that we have invented? I must admit that I couldn’t successfully detail for you how most things work besides a general description. Carl Sagan said:

“We’ve arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

Many of us learn enough about a given technology to use the features that we most want, but never learning how to use many other features. My new iMac is a great example of available technology that I’m confident that I have not learned. I want to spend time on the tutorials, but I never seem to make that time.

How do we develop a working relationship with technology so that we can feel comfortable understanding what we are using? Does this problem have a solution – or are we doomed to experience what Sagan predicts?

How would you describe your relationship to technology? Can’t live with it and can’t live without it? Hate it? Love it? Indifferent and resigned to it? Heidi and Alvin Toffler famously said in their book, “Future Shock,” that “Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible.”

I often hear people complaining about the time that technology requires – accompanying by an expressed longing (sincere or not) for a simpler time when there were more limited options for technology.

How tied are you to email? To your PDA? Your DVR? Your HBO? Your mobile phone? Texting? Voice recognition? Google and / or other search engines?

How do you feel about technologies’ increasingly begatting new technologies? Is your life richer or poorer as a net result of technological advances over the last ten years? (Remember, Google is barely ten years old).

For those readers expanding beyond reading novels, biographies and historical fiction are hits among our readers. It’s useful to read outside the genre that you normally read so that you can broaden your experience.

Hearty thanks to the readers who wrote in!!! Here are some of their replies to questions about biographies and historical fiction:

“I also LOVE historical fiction. When The Tudors series first came on TV, I became fascinated with that period of English history and began reading all of Philippa Gregory’s novels about Henry XIII, his reign, his wives, his heirs and the entire Tudor and Elizabethan periods.”

“Her books, on which the series was based, are steamy page turners (some are better than others) but to your point, I learned so much about the history that I was able to justify reading and enjoying them. They transported me to another time and were great escape fiction. Some of the titles are (if I can remember): The Constant Princess (about Katherine of Aragon) The Virgin’s Lover, The Queen’s Fool, and The Bolyen Inheritance.”

AND

“I also read a great many biographies when I was younger. You’re the first person besides me I have heard say that! I read just about everyone I got my hands on, so the list is long and actually a lot were autobiographies. Isak Dinesen, David Niven & Hildegard Neff come to mind.”

“One of the best things I learned from this reading is to persist. Over and over you see the pattern that people who become famous (perhaps mostly in the arts which was what I read about) succeed because they ‘would not take no for an answer,’ because they did ‘not know how to do anything else,’ and because they ‘ignored all the people who told them to give up on their dreams.’ Well, I think these things work, personally.”

Please share your favorite biographies and books about history with the group. What have you learned from this kind of reading outside of business and self-improvement reading?

Some of my clients have felt guilty when reading fiction for pleasure. They have felt that they “should” be reading business books or learning how to use a new computer application. Many clients choose to read biographies of people whom they admire as a kind of mid-point between pleasure reading and reading business books.

“Pleasure” is the operative word. What do you enjoy? As a child and teenager, I read every biography I could put my hands on. The stories were amazing, and the experience was definitely pleasurable.

Choose fields of interest and then research biographies of prominent people in those fields. Classic biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Ernest Hemingway, and Alexander the Great are among those which made a big impression on me in the past.

Historical fiction is another way to read for pleasure, but also learn. The most recent winner of The Booker Prize is Hilary Mantel whose book, “Wolf Hall,” has received rave reviews and is being celebrated for its deeply researched and historically accurate depiction of life in Tudor England.

Please share your favorite biographies and historical fiction with our group and read!

PS: Another great fiction recommendation from a different reader in Florida:

“The Monuments Men…Robert Edsel……recovering the art treasures ,stolen by the Nazis during WW2….fascinating.”

We’ve had many GREAT recommendations for books, and I want to share some of them with you. Thanks, everyone, and please keep on sending books that you read for pleasure so that we can share them with others.

Next week, we’ll get back to more business and philosophy-related topics. For now, I’m looking forward to getting all of these books that I haven’t yet read and making friends with them.

From a reader in Florida:

My favorite book right now is “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.” Wonderful book about a mute boy and his dogs. It is told from several points of view including Almondine, his personal pet that he grows up with. Wonderful story, incredibly evocative writing and a great read for a dog lover! Also love “Peace Like a River.”

From a reader in Northern California:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Covenant by James Michner

Hawaii by James Michner

Secrets of the Talking Jaguar by Martin Prectel

The Legacy of Luna by Julia Butterfly Hill

The Holy Man by Susan Trott

Of Water and Spirit by Maladamo Petrice Some

The Bridge Between Worlds by Linda Baker

Collision With the Infinite by Suzanne Segal

From a reader from California’s Central Coast:

“The Historian” from a few years ago was great – by Elizabeth Kostova

“Molokai” by Alan Brennert was a very good read.

I am currently reading (slowly) James D. Houston’s “Bird from Another Heaven,” also about Hawaii.

From a reader in Massachusetts:

“The Time Traveler’s Wife” had a tremendous impact on me. I even read this novel out loud to my husband. Naturally, the novels of Garcia Marquez…. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being.” “The English Patient.”

I remarked recently that I needed a new novel so that I could spend 15-30 minutes a day with it for a couple of weeks and “make a new friend.” There have been a number of authors / books like that over the years. Almost all of Pat Conroy’s novels.  Tom Wolfe and John Irving.

Who are your friends? Don’t be shy. Literature / fiction is increasingly difficult with which to make acquaintance. Tell us by sending me an email describing your new and wonderful relationships.

Among the suggestions with which I most resonate are: The Life Of Pi . . . and Kite Runner . . . and The Archivist which, according to a fellow SH alumnus, “If you are the sort of person who always dwells in or longs for a New York City state of mind, then you’ll love this multi-layered inter-personal and intra-personal journey through Manhattan that covers over three decades of the characters’ lives.”

Life imitates art, and art imitates life. Do you have any new friends who are “novels” who can keep you entertained for the next few weeks? Please share!!

I recently read an article which discussed how much we, as a populace, are reading and writing in email, blogs and other online activities. That kind of reading and writing is a far cry from what our English and Literature teachers and professors taught us was exemplary.

Juxtapose that for a moment against the likelihood that, because we are reading so much online, that we are reading less for the sheer joy and pleasure of reading. I just completed a novel called The Art Of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein which is narrated by a dog and tells a very sweet story about his love for his human family. It’s so touching that I keep remembering it and reliving the experience as if I actually know the characters.

Pleasure reading moves us into relationship with interesting people, animals, geographies and situations. And, lest I sound like one of the librarians from when we grew up, reading for the joy of it is a very enriching and pleaurable experience.

Many of you are big readers, so please send in some recommendations so that I can share your picks with others. What are some books that you’ve read recently for pleasure that you’d recommend? What are some works of fiction that you’d like to read that you’ve been intending to read for a while?