November 09, 2016

A Demon-Haunted World

America, welcome to the Demon-Haunted world: we have arrived at the moment Carl Sagan foretold 20 years ago.

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

A Demon-Haunted World was written in 1997. Time to take notice.

Posted by David at November 9, 2016 10:28 AM
Comments

"No one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues:" A couple years ago I decided to devote myself to this problem, making technology more understandable to mere mortals in my own geeky corner of the world.

Posted by: David at November 9, 2016 10:39 AM
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