Jonathan Franzen on the 19th-Century Writer Behind His Internet Skepticism

I gave up that project and didn't go back to it until a couple of years ago, when I met some people who were Kraus fans. In the context of the crazy techno-utopianism and crazy techno-boosterism we're now living through, it seems worth taking a look at a writer who was there at the birth of modern media and tech, being suspicious of the language of the people who were talking about how everything is getting better. It's great for buying stuff, it's great for bringing together people to work on communal things, like software, or people who share a passion or are all suffering from the same disease and want to find each other and communicate. It's extremely unlikely, but it's actually not inconceivable, that after an unintended nuclear explosion and a few more power plant disasters people will say, "We can split atoms, but we're going to choose not to. We're going to get together as an entire planet to ensure that this thing we can do, we're not going to do." With GMOs, and recombinant DNA in all its forms, we're already hearing people saying "Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should." But our embrace of the new digital technology? It's been headlong, despite obvious negative consequences.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AtlanticCulture/~3/vyY_eVFrbGA/story01.htm