Is Technology a Parasite Masquerading as a Symbiont? And if so…

Abstract

The conventional wisdom on technology is that our ongoing affair is symbiotic. Because it frees us up for more meaningful pursuits, the more technology takes over the mental, physical, and social labor, the better. But is it better? Do most people most of the time make smart use of technology’s freeing up fruits? Do they beneficially translate effort, or, under the illusion of benefit, just let technology do the work and succumb to the always in hand, addictive by design, means to amusement? To answer these questions, this paper draws on an apparent loophole in the second law of thermodynamics - actually a feature – that, under the right conditions, not only allows shrinking entropy as power enabling organized matter and energy, it favors organization as a more ordered, more effective, more efficient means of escalating the sum total of dissipated potential – entropy - in the universe. The claim is that to satisfy the 2nd Law’s demand that no matter what happens, total entropy always increases, behind the mask of win-win symbiosis, the rising organization / shrinking entropy of exponentially concentrating power in advancing technology is parasitically discharging its dissipative effluents into human brains and bodies as it degrades our human to human bonding skills. Outing the modus operandi, an agenda whose means are us, whose ends are not, offers a platform for recognizing and righting the accelerating injustice to ourselves, our children, our human future?