Technology that liberates

Technology is a product of rationality through empirical enquiry whereas its medium, the biosphere, rationally should not exist. Furthermore, the human condition, which includes technology, has advanced through our ability to put the common good above self-interest, a seemingly irrational act. Much technology is liberating but it can enslave us. Technology is liberating when it is directed at satisfying our needs and the common good. Technology can be enslaving when it is directed at our self-interest, our individual wants and when the directions of development are determined by the few rather than the many. Through the emerging processes to facilitate more effective democratic participation we should be able to develop technologies that are liberating rather than enslaving. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.