With that in mind I’m going to suggest some reading that I strongly recommend middle and high schools should include in their curriculums because they raise questions about some of the troubling trends of our times—and some suggestions on how we might address them.
Books:
Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age by Bill McKibben. The author explores the promises and dangers of current technologies: human germline engineering, robotics, and the creation of nanobots and asks if we have the will to say No to things we can do, but shouldn’t because they threaten our very humanity.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In this novel Huxley presents a view of a dystopian world in which human embryos have been genetically engineered for the high class or low class roles they will play in society, where they are conditioned to be consumers and where people are kept docile and “happy” with sex and drugs (soma). I suggest students read this after reading Enough.
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher. In the modern economy we are constantly told that big is better—or, at least, inevitable. But what are the human costs of things (corporations, machines, technology) constantly getting bigger? Is preoccupation with materialism and profit-making destroying the values of our society? And is there a better alternative? Schumacher’s views on education are also worth noting in this book.
The Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things by Ralph W. Estes. It seems as if every other week we read or hear a story of corporate greed and crime and most of us have some idea of the ways that corporations and those who work in them are controlling our lives. In this book Ralph Estes describes how corporate culture can make even good people do bad things. More importantly he describes a reasonable prescription for curbing the abuses of corporations and making them more responsible to customers, employees, and society.
Faster: The Acceleration of Just about Everything by James Gleick. Where did our obsession with urgency in everything we do come from? What do we gain and lose in our modern frenzy to “save time.” Glieck offers some answers to these questions that should produce some thoughtful discussion in classes.
Briefer Readings:
“Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us” by Bill Joy in Wired Magazine (2004). In this article, Bill Joy, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Sun Microsystems, examines how genetic engineering, nanotech, and robotics could one day make humans obsolete. He argues that the experience of atomic scientists should show us that work in fields of technology can move too fast and get out of control causing insurmountable problems.
“Ray Kurzweil: In The 2030s, Nanobots In Our Brains Will Make Us ‘Godlike ”by Kathleen Miles Huffington Post (2017). In this article Miles discusses her interview with Ray Kurzweil, futurist, inventor and author of The Age of Spiritual Machines, who describes how once we combine our brains with nanobots and become cyborgs we will become funnier, sexier, more loving and Godlike.
“The Veldt,” a futuristic short story by Ray Bradbury recounts how our current desire for technology to fulfill our every need can result in unforeseen family disaster.
I’m not suggesting that everyone needs to adopt an Amish lifestyle, but it is worth noting how the Amish do not allow new technology to destroy their values, disrupt family life or diminish their commitment to community. The links below describe how we might benefit from adopting some of the Amish ideas on regulating technology.
https://qz.com/1275194/the-amish-understand-a-life-changing-truth-about-technology-the-rest-of-us-dont/
https://cspo.org/legacy/library/1104251605F53294166SV_lib_WetmoreAmishTech.pdf
Currently students are in danger of being anesthetized by standardized testing (much of it multiple choice) which demands that they memorize and reproduce other people’s answers to questions that may not be of great interest to them, or for that matter be important for their lives now or in the future. We and our students are living in a world that is headed in a profoundly questionable –and even disturbing direction. It’s time for teachers and parents to provide opportunity for young people to examine and even question that direction