Rating: 
Summary: Some good ideas
Review: Postman has written two hand-wringing books about the impact of technology on culture--this one and his earlier Amusing Ourselves to Death. This book extends his thesis from just television to other media and includes some additional material, such as a chapter on Scientism (criticizing too much faith in science as the answer to every question) and a chapter on The Great Symbol Drain (about the cheapening of our sacred symbols, as for example, using a reference to God to sell Kosher hot dogs). There are a number of good points in the book, but if you will read Amusing Ourselves to Death for the "technology determines culture" argument and David Shenk's Data Smog for the current look at infoglut, you'll have a more interesting and perhaps more informative experience.
Rating: 
Summary: An Analyst's Perspective
Review: Neil Postman, who was the head of the New York University Department of Communication at the time Technopoly was written, had been teaching for 30 years. During that time, he wrote "Amusing Ourselves to Death" which continues with H. Marshal McLuhan's theme of "the median is the message. But, unlike McLuhan, who embraced the unfolding potential of emerging technologies, Postman perceives a darker future. "Technopoly" follows "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and further explores Postman's misgivings of a world in which technology seems to be holding sway over man's intellect. "...(T)he uncontrolled growth of technology destroys the vital sources of humanity. It creates a culture without a moral foundation. It undermines certain moral processes and social relations that make human life worth living." Civilization, according to Postman, could be divided into tool using (pre - 17th century), technocracies (the Industrial Revolution), and technopolies (the current state of the United States, with Western Europe, following close behind). In the tool using era, tools were designed to subdue nature for the benefit of man. In the era of technocracy, tools were "not integrated into the culture; they attack the culture. They bid to become the culture." Here, we think of print. In technopolies, the focus is on efficiency in all forms of thought and labor to the extent that human judgment by itself regarded as untrustworthy and in need of automated supplementation. In developing that theme, Postman makes the following points: - We live in a society in which all other forms of our culture tend to be subordinated to technology. - we are becoming less human with a gradual loss of contact with the human elements in our culture. - technology seems to be taking more and more control of our lives with our focus shifting from effectiveness to efficiency. - we are beginning to place a greater faith in concrete numbers rather than the subjective, and we are beginning to discount educated intuition in favor of the dictates of mathematical models. - previous ages were noted for the development of technology, or tools, that were user friendly; plows, the hand press, hand tools, and the stirrup. These tools remained subordinate to the interests of man and served mans interests. - the synergism of automation, systems management, scientific methods, systems analysis, and programs of zero- defects have displaced calculated risk taking, innovative exploration, and a human reliance on "the touch and feel" of exploratory program building. - modern man seems to have exchanged critical thinking for a passionate embrace of trivia. In discussing the ecology of information, Postman contends that as society experiences information overload from a wide variety of sources (television, radio, press, movies, computers, etc) and that the traditional values control systems (family, church, school) cannot function in their traditional roles. According to Postman, since families, for example, are no longer able to provide adequate social guidance in light of all the technological pressure, they must turn to new, technologically enhanced control mechanisms: expert services, IQ tests, SAT scores, to supplement judgment. As we move deeper into the age of the computer, Postman sees the computer as usurping initiative and responsibility while taking the element of chance and surprise out of research that has frequently produce unanticipated breakthroughs in other areas. Postman's prescription is a return to healthy individual and collective skepticism and to object and question rather than submit. It seems that to Postman, it's important to get an answer the question "why?" before entertaining the question "Why Not?" Postman urges that individuals become resistance fighters by following his ten commandments. If there is a potential for a technological suffocation of our values, the remedy may rest in a reemphasis of the humanities, religion and the philosophy of technology. There is a difference between McLuhan and Postman's vision of the future and the role technology plays. To McLuhan, future technologies cradle man's potential to develop, use and maintain the full range of his potential. To Postman, future technologies are poised to suffocate that spark within the human soul that makes man unique within the universe. Postman harkens to a Jeffersonian belief in man that reposes great trust in the judgment of an educated people. However, Postman does not seem that have the same trust that McLuhan did: that man ultimately will tame new technologies to serve his vision of the future. In a larger sense, though, Postman's ten prescriptions demonstrates his belief that man can overcome the threat posed by technology run amok. Postman, more so than McLuhan, focuses on the negative aspect of technology and has more doubts about man's ability to mold these wonders of science into his vision of tomorrow.
Rating: 
Summary: The Fear of Technology Conquering Culture
Review: Neil Postman was indeed a celebrity within the mediating sphere where academic resources meets literary preferences meets sardonic humor. From the great breakthrough with the pulse-taking, entertainment industry icon of serious irony from the mid-80's; "Amusing Ourselves to Death", does "Technopoly" provide a brilliant link to our present society concerning the extensive take over from the diverse technocratic spots to a gathering world of technological artifacts, techniques, languages and behavior. This book was written before the major breakthrough of World Wide Web, and certainly before Internet became an ordinary information device connected and used in every family home. Especially the latter point is important to grasp, because one of the deep concerns in this book is the flooding of unnecessary information. The lack of information, claims Postman, has never been a source to conflict. The problem is more truly the complexity of professions and the variety of information channels. In addition to this is of course the human limitation of receiving relevant information. Whether it is entertainment, commercials, scientific populism or just plain methodological junk, the problem rises when the really informative and giving information gets lost in the never ending stream of more or less serious news, advertising and "knowledge". "Technopoly" is above all a book that tries to describe and explain how culture is loosing the war against technology. Postman goes through a wide range of themes to mainframe these losses, and succeeds extraordinary well. The historic aspect is one perspective that Postman deliberates with careful hands. He does not go too far in romanticizing the past, or singing about "glory days", but keeps his position quite tight and narrow concentrated on the main development agendas. From Gutenberg to The New York Times, tower clocks in 14th century Italy to scientific taylorism, and lots of more examples, Postman draws almost straight lines between producing and consuming technology as medium between mankind and culture. Further on he moves through the break down in control mechanisms, especially concentrated towards the rivers of stupid illuminations, quasi-scientific research, the use of intelligence tests, lie detectors, machine technology, medical technology and the moral - not the technological! - ineffectiveness of present bureaucracy. The range of Postman's references is sometimes very complicated, and you have to be in position of rather heavy thesis of social knowledge. On the other hand "Technopoly", both in terms of profession and style, sort of reflects the complexity of flexible interpretation views when it comes to channeling the relevant variables for understanding socio-technical development. The underlining graph of Postmans book is that the technological agenda has overruled morality and traditional values concerning production and distribution of knowledge. Technology itself is no longer only a tool for social systems to function within the industrial way of thought, but also a goal for society. More technology in every area is meant to improve the conditions of for example politics, finance and living in general. Few are questioning the darker sides of this development, where humans instead of coping with actual problems, redefine them to be a matter of adequate technological equipment or scientific progress. Something is lost in between the problem risen from human inadequacy in dealing with human problems, and the blind belief in that better technology or science will set things right and everybody's home free. We believe that technology is the golden key to solving in example our instant need of more time, and that technological gadgets produced to make our lives easier actually does so, by all matters. Another warning from Postman is our belief in technology as final judge in complicated cultural challenges. The transition from religion to science is just a shift from one set of dogmas to another. Reason and revelation are ultimately interconnected with the existing levels of scientific research and development (often named R & D). Computer technology is one of the many versions of technological tyranny Postman attacks, primarily because of humanly developed programs for computers to value the behavior of men and women. The legitimacy of so-called intelligence tests is trashed by Neil Postman's verdict, according to the fact that these tests do not express anything more than the outcome of what the test says it does. At best, they measure a person's ability to respond to a number of intricate theoretical logics. But it has nothing to do with intelligence. Secondly, Postman deliberates the value of medical technology, where it may derive propositions of how to treat physiological deviations, but has no other function. The moral aspect of medical technology is all in all in the hands of pharmaceutical industry and common faith. Thirdly, in connection to these two particular points, the existence of "scientism" is nothing else than a transformation of religion. Everything that is hidden under the carpet of projects fulfilling scientific acquirements is acknowledged as one step closer to the absolute truth. This is rubbish, writes Postman, and says further that nothing in human spiritual life can be arranged as scientific material. It may be good or bad documentation of situations and ideas, but never sheer scientism. In the final chapter Postman proposes a solution to the ever growing technological dictatorship surrounding us, and brings forward a way of though every human being should use when threatened by unnecessary technological crap. Cultural resilience with cynical utilization of the good sides of our technological world is the formal answer, but, there is of course more to it of which I will not reveal here. My mood after reading "Technopoly" is thrilling if we watch the last ten years in comparison. The extension of the Internet, satellite controlled mechanisms, GPS-systems and the explosion of cell phone use, the involvement of technological knowledge in every field of work, the succeeding of science as God instead of religion, and not to forget the faith in more information via technological tools as salvation for human misdeeds, somewhat confirms Postman's prophecies about his lack of hope for a less techno-based society.
Rating:
Summary: a Love-Hate relationship
Review: I love technology. I tell you this, even though it must be obvious to you considering where these words are appearing. I love technology, but I'm not blind to its problems. To those who say technology has no faults, I ask you when was the last time your computer crashed or whatever happened to that grand notion of a "paperless office"? Technology is something between Pandora's box and Prometheus' gift; I would not want to live without it because I've read history, but I can also imagine an even better world. Neil Postman may or may not love technology, but he certainly knows its failings. Postman is the author of several books on the interplay between American culture and technology, and his most recent, Technopoly, is in some ways a culmination of his previous efforts. Postman is an educator who is distressed by the state of American education. Instead of simply decrying the fact that schools are changing and moaning for a return to the "good ol' days," Postman took the time to understand the nature of the beast, dissect it, and present his conservation strategy. As he states, his idea of getting "back to the basics" is not quite the same as that typically bandied about by politicians and policy makers. First, the argument. Postman describes what he calls the three stages of how a culture deals with technology: 1) tool-using, 2) technocracy, 3) technopoly. In a tool-using culture, technical improvements are limited to the uses at hand. This differs from the technocracy, where the tools "play a central role in the thought world of the culture." In the technopoly, tools become the culture. Astute readers may sense a possible linkage here with Alvin Toffler's three waves of culture detailed in The Third Wave. Toffler views each wave as having a trough and crest, with monumental social impact happening as each wave breaks upon the shore of human culture. Toffler says the reason for the breakdown in our traditional structures today is that we are in the break between the second and third wave. Toffler predicts a time of stability in the future, in which this new wave of culture and technology will have enhanced all of our lives. Postman and Toffler are not exactly foes in their views of the waves of culture, but differ on how we are to approach this change. Toffler implies that it will sort itself out -- a type of laissez-faire view of societal change that makes it easier to understand Toffler's ties to Newt Gingrich. Postman feels we must address the change, or it will destroy us. To that end, Postman writes a history of the growth of technology in American society. His history centers on the impact of technology on the medical profession -- how it saw the progression of each technological stage to the detriment of both doctors and patients. As damning as this evaluation is, he follows it with an even better one from our standpoint: the impact of computers on American culture. As I said before, I love technology, and computer technology most of all, but it was impossible not to follow Postman's clear and reasoned analysis of the computer's impact on society. Had Postman ended here, having formulated his theory and verified it with examples, the book would have been simply interesting, but Postman follows it with a suggested course of action. It is unsurprising that, as an educator, his solutions center on this area of society, but he states that his suggestions could never be implemented without being supported in the political and legal arenas, to name two. Postman proposes a goal for American education -- no longer, he says, can we simply train people for employment (the current state of education), but we must instill in people a purpose. His proposed goal is the betterment of humanity. To achieve this goal, he suggests that we get back to the basics in our schools, but by this he means the study of the underlying assumptions of our culture rather than just basic skills. That is, he posits a curriculum that includes the history of every subject as part of that subject, including the history (or ideology) of history itself. Only by understanding how we came to be in the place we stand now, will we be able to move forward. Only a few days before I finished reading Technopoly, Microsoft and MCI announced an initiative to get every public school a presence on the Internet. While it is a generous offer, we should examine the purpose of it all. How exactly will this aid our educational goals? I love technology and I'm bullish on the prospect of the interactive properties of the Internet to help bring about a new form of thinking, critical Americans (especially as opposed to the last mass media technology that came about, television), but that does not mean that the implementation of the technology does not need to be evaluated. And this, in a nutshell, is what Postman is about. I've probably done a major disservice to Postman in summarizing so much of his treatise here, but I hope that it has been sufficiently intriguing that it actually got you to thinking. I suggest as a follow-up that you try the text itself or some of the works listed in the bibliography. It is what I'll be doing.
Rating:
Summary: A thought provoking analysis on technolgy.
Review: Neil Postman, leaves no stone unturned in his attck on how technology's ideology is undermining our own values and our very way of life. This could be hardly considered an inspirational book, rather it a deep dark trip into how technology manipulates us,using us to become the supreme dictating system in society. This is a wonderfully informative book, supplying a fantastic amount of history from technology's humble beginnings in the form of the early printing press to the lightening fast computers of today. Even though the title "Technopoly" might suggest that this book might be filled with technical jargon, quite to the contrary, it is not concerned with such technical aspects, rather it is a book that would appeal to anyone, who is open-minded and wants to know the effect of rapidly growing technology on our soceity. Postman at first starts out with a more broad outlook at technology, but then devotes whole chapters to the different sciences that technology employs such as in medicine, physics etc so that it elevates its position to being considered in almost god-like porportions. It's interesting how Postamn points out to us has to how we have become so used to technolgy being integrated into our lifes that we don't notice how much we are prompting the aspects of accuracy and efficiency(which is one of the pillars that technology stands on), that we forget our own traditons and culture, out past is engulfed by technology's insatiable hunger. I could ramble on for quite a bit on this book, since there is so much stuff to comment on, to explain to understand. This book would be perfect as a stand alone read as well highly informative for high school or college students. It really does ask the reader to step back from the world of technology we live in today and take a long hard look at the side effects and the failure in morals that technology prompts us to make, and encourages us to look where it is taking us. I gave this book 4 stars becuase it is not something that will keep u awake till th wee hours of night. Not because this book is boring but so intense that after reading a chapter or two you need some time to evalute and reflect what the auhtor has said before proceeding on with the book. I myself was deeply effected by this book. In that we should not just take for granted the immense amount of convenience that we presume technology provides us. Nothing of great importance comes free, there is always some strings attached. On which you can find rich detail and a better understanding of the adverse effects of technology in Postman's book. One thing is for sure after reading the book I don't think I'll ever look at a computer the same way again.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Riddance (He is dead)
Review: Neo-Luddite and misoneist Neil Postman lived in terror of the future because he could not contribute to it. In this book, which is his thinly veiled exposition on how great things were in the "good old days" (when slavery was common and a little scratch could give you an infection that could kill you, and the earth was believed to be flat, and human rights were only for the rich), Postman waxes moronic about how the abundance of information is somehow (he never actually gets to it exactly) harmful to society. What postman, in all his mediocrity, never understands is the parts of the "glut" of information are actually useful to people. Human understanding has reached depths of high complexity and with it go the requisite level of information. The processes of a single cell are enormously complicated, and that information is useful to a biologist, while possibly not useful to others. According to postman, all this information is just garbage - he can't see that all the information is simply a grouping of individual pieces of information - each useful to someone. Postman represents the most vile of human short-comings: the belief that your idea of the universe is all encompasing, and that no other information is relevant beyond that.
Rating:
Summary: On Target
Review: Marshall McLuhan observed the medium is the message. Postman's argument is along similar lines as suggested in the subtitle of this book, "the surrender of culture to technology." He begins with a legend and goes into a question about how we learn in our culture. The introductory section is followed in the next chapter by a look at the tools that paved the way for industrialization and later the information age. In the third chapter, Postman makes a poignant observation, in discussing the assumptions made by Frederick W. Taylor in his classic book on scientific management i.e., "human judgment cannot be trusted, because it is plagued by laxity, ambiguity, and unneccesary complexity; that subjectivity is an obstacle to clear thinking..." (p. 51).
His lucid examination of ideas, inventions, and public adaption continues. In the fourth chapter the quote that stood out most for me was one from H. L. Mencken who said "there is no idea so stupid that you can't find a professor who will believe it" (p. 57). I've been in academe long enough to verify that that observation remains the same now as when it was first written.
Anyone who has ever been the victim of the fill-in-the-blank mentality of bureaucratic thinking can appreciate Postman's comment that "the invention of the standaradized form--a staple of bureaucracy--allows for the 'destruction' of every nuance and detail of a situation" (p. 84). To make his point even stronger, he goes on to define a bureaucrat as "little else than a glorified counter" (p. 86).
Postman never fails to leave his readers with a perspective they didn't have before picking up one of his books. Read this one and learn a little more about how technology is shaping your perceptions often without your awareness.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, poorly argued and self contradictory
Review: Having read several of Postman's books I find this to be the one of his most poorly argued. The same issues are presented as in his better books ("Amusing Ourselves...," "Disappearance of Childhood") but written as a manifesto of what technology --Technopoly-- has brought to society. Unfortunately his examples end up being self contradictory, often to hilarious effect by easily being read against his message. This is shows in how argues against "experts" and "specialization" while he himself is a prime example. Many other examples are show that he's no "wiser" than technophiles since he uses many examples at "face value" --since they were in print-- as more valid than those shown presented by computers. The highest irony would be anyone reading or writing reviews such as this one --which greatly contradicts his early, and strong dismissal of computers. Such approaches are not mentioned or conceived that there would any way for people to communicate or to respond to his work such as these reviews. Anyone reading reviews "praising" his work should ask HOW of IF they could do this BEFORE computers and the internet. Many of his strongest examples are misplaced. A prime example is to raise the TELESCOPE to the same level of importance as print and mechanical (pg 28). He cites the telescope, not the facts it revealed, as undermining religious authority. Even though, on the SAME PAGE, he admits Copernicus' work was done without it. He does not suggest that circulation of that information, as with Luther's writing, had far more impact on Christianity. He seems to suggest that, if not for the telescope, the earth would remain at the center of the universe thanks to the Catholic Church. Given that this book was written before the rise of the web it is clear that he should realize, especially starting his work with the Phaedrus, that he's not in a position to crown himself a "wise king." This is most clearly that many of his concerns are misplaced and address media that are still in period of flux. Bottom line Postman is as his best when writing about the past and media effects where he can undergird his opinions with the writings of others, such as McLuhan. When doing so, his presentation is clearer and more accessible than McLuhan. Unfortunately the more he pontificates about the future the more his ignorance of technology, discomfort with change, and his desire to return to the idyllic 1800's clouds his rhetoric showing (quoting the Phaedrus, pg 4) "... the reputation for it [wisdom] without the reality."
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, often disagreable, but definitely worth reading
Review: The overall message of the book is very profound and I think Western society would be better off if more people have read it. Postman is also a great writer who will no doubt keep you entertained. There is one catch: The book seems to have a number of claims that I thought were factually incorrect, plus a bunch of others that just seem to go overboard ideologically. Overall, the argument is far from "water tight". In the end, though, I was convinced and felt that the book was definitely worth the time. Plus, personally I enjoy reading books that keep you on your tows. Based on this, I recommend this book to those readers who can handle an author that they do not always 100% agree with, readers who enjoy mentally "debating" an author. If you tend to toss a book the moment you find a flaw in the argument (or two, or three), this might not be the best book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Dated but very relevant, sobering
Review: Cultural critic Neil Postman goes after what he calls technolopy which is essentially a "self-justifying, self-perpetuating system wherein technology of every kind is cheerfully granted
sovereingty over social institutions and national life." Postman is not by any means an luddite but he wants us to be aware of how technology has shaped our society,and epistemology. Often not for the better in many respects. We live in a society that does not use machines but is more and more used by them. It shapes our world view. Postman attempts to trace it's effect on us from the beginning. Overall he does a fine a job. Although a easy read many of the topics require closer scrutiny and thinking. Which is good, he wants you to think about whats happening not just accept what he has to say. In one chapter he roasts the medical industry's infatuation with new technology while the doctors neglect their patients. Patients invariably are reduced to slabs of meat on a assembly line. He makes the salient point that information is not understanding, which is usually ignored by most promoters of technopoly. Another chapter deals with 'scientism' which is science distorted into a intolerant fundamentalist belief system and its effects on our society. This chapter is his most humorous as he disects some the masters of the obvious(Dilbert like scientists who think they have discovered something profound but what most people on the street already know)Like people are afraid of death and that open minded people tend to be open minded. That's right Ph.d's have done studies to prove these notions! Perhaps a better title for this chapter would have been "the marching morons of science." The last chapter deals on how to resist technology in our daily lives. Which he sums ups in several points(not all of them are listed in this review). Though it's not enough in my opinion, considering technolopy's corrosive influence on people and cultures throughout the world. Things need to be addressed at the nation policy level if anything is to be really changed. * who do not regard the aged as irrelevant * who admire technological ingenuity but do not think it represents the highest form of human achievement. * who are at least, suspicious of the idea of progress, and who do not confuse information with understanding. * who have freed themselves from the belief in the magical power of numbers, do not regard calculations as an adequate substitute for judgement or as synonym for truth. The book is a good starting point to informing oneself on the minuses of technology. Though dated much of his observations are still relevant and a good antidote to high tech mavens like Kelly, Moravec and their ilk. Another good book is David Ehrenfeld's "Beginning Again" written from a profession biologist POV. Or better yet, get Wendell Berry's tract "Life is a miracle" which a rather thorough disection of technolopy's epistemology and what lies beneath it's pretty public facade.
|
