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), two separate story lines published by DC Comics:
**A four-part crossover storyline that united the four Weir ...
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 socio ...
. Techno-progressives argue that technological developments can be profoundly
empowering and
emancipatory when they are regulated by legitimate
democratic
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
and
accountable authorities to ensure that their
cost
In Production (economics), 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 o ...
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 environme ...
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 organisatio ...
are all fairly shared by the actual
stakeholders to those developments.
One of the first mentions of techno-progressivism appeared within
extropian
Extropianism, also referred to as the philosophy of extropy, is an "evolving framework of values and standards for continuously improving the human condition".
Extropians believe that advances in science and technology will some day let people l ...
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 ...
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 morality, right and wrong action (philosophy), behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, alo ...
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 govern ...
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 o ...
of a
person
A person (plural, : 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 pr ...
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 protein ...
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 vario ...
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 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 hereditar ...](_blank)
" and "
conservatism
Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in r ...
") 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 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 hydroponi ...
, 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 anima ...
and
pets, 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
Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...
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 i ...
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 practi ...
and other
biotechnological transformations of the
living world. Typically less sweeping as a critique of technological society than
bioluddism
Neo-Luddism or new Luddism is a philosophy opposing many forms of modern technology. The term Luddite is generally used as a pejorative applied to people showing technophobic leanings. The name is based on the historical legacy of the English Lud ...
, 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 are ...
, deployed as a
moral 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
Technocriticism is a branch of critical theory devoted to the study of technological change.
Technocriticism treats technological transformation as historically specific changes in personal and social practices of research, invention, regulati ...
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. Sh ...
with her accounts of
cyborg theory.
*Media theorist
Douglas Rushkoff 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 sof ...
.
*Cultural critic
Mark Dery 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 med ...
.
*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 firs ...
with his
Viridian design movement
The Viridian Design Movement was an aesthetic movement focused on concepts from bright green environmentalism. The name was chosen to refer to a shade of green that does not quite look natural, indicating that the movement was about innovative de ...
.
*Futurist
Alex Steffen and his accounts of
bright green environmentalism
Bright green environmentalism is an ideology based on the belief that the convergence of technological change and social innovation provides the most successful path to sustainable development.
Origin and evolution of bright green thinking
The ...
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 calle ...
with her accounts of the
Bio punk.
*Bioethicist
James Hughes of the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) is a technoprogressive think tank that seeks to "promote ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies."Joseph R. ...
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
Technocriticism is a branch of critical theory devoted to the study of technological change.
Technocriticism treats technological transformation as historically specific changes in personal and social practices of research, invention, regulati ...
Dale Carrico, who has used "techno-progressive" as a shorthand to describe
progressive politics that emphasize
technoscientific issues,
has expressed concern that some "
transhumanists" 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 techno-progressivism.
See also
*
Algocracy
Government by algorithm (also known as algorithmic regulation, regulation by algorithms, algorithmic governance, algocratic governance, algorithmic legal order or algocracy) is an alternative form of government or social ordering, where the usa ...
*
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 s ...
*
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, med ...
*
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 Fo ...
*
Digital freedom
Digital rights are those human rights and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks. The concept is particular ...
*
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
Fordism is a manufacturing technology that serves as the basis of modern economic and social systems in industrialized, standardized mass production and mass consumption. The concept is named after Henry Ford. It is used in social, economic, an ...
*
High modernism
High modernism (also known as high modernity) is a form of modernity, characterized by an unfaltering confidence in science and technology as means to reorder the social and natural world. The high modernist movement was particularly prevalent dur ...
*
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
*
Post-scarcity economy
Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.
Post-scarcity does not mean that scarc ...
*
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
*
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, scien ...
*
Techno-utopianism
*
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