Can technology set you free?

Should we be much more demanding of what we could get from new kinds of technology? What does the debate about technology say about our sense of purpose and ambition?

Prometheus was severely punished for giving fire and the arts to mankind, but his loss of liberty was our gain. Just what though is the relationship between technology and freedom? Did washing machines liberate women, or was it feminists who demanded washing machines? In what senses are we – in a gadget-filled world – freer today than 50 or 500 years ago? What might it mean, even, when we talk of being made free?

For the developing world, technology has been named ‘the single most transformative tool for development’, while others claim it will destroy – not liberate – traditional communities. Our lives are enriched by technology but we also blame it for taking away our autonomy. The smartphone that makes the daily commute a creative moment is also the device that makes you available 24/7 to the demands of your boss, and indeed your friends. Can we ever be truly free if privacy is a thing of the past, where technology has enabled the accumulation of masses of personal data? Even when there is so much potential to exploit, critics point out that its potential to emancipate humanity might be illusory. But technology is all around us. It makes things faster, smaller, cheaper, and improves how we live, work and entertain. It can empower – removing the shackles of disability and dependency and the housewife’s daily graft. Technology has made travel to the moon and the bottom of the oceans possible, given us artificial hearts and oral contraceptives, mapped our genetic code and even allowed the blind to see again and amputees to run in the Olympics.

Nevertheless, we often seem incapable of handling the change new technology brings. Does it cause a loss of autonomy – or are we more fearful of our inability to withstand change? Should we be much more demanding of what we could get from new kinds of technology? What does the debate about technology say about our sense of purpose and ambition? Perhaps in answering that, we can begin to answer the question of whether or not technology can liberate us, or if the liberated are in the best position to make use of what technology offers.

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