The new demons

What Hacker News says

1. nonrandomstringOct 2022
   Some good tips, thanks for sharing.

   > No, I do not reject new technology innovations; instead, I refuse the ways of the people how they engage with these tools.

   Absolutely. This is a key attitude. It's mature and strong to be discerning, not to "throw out the baby with the bath-water".

   But it's also the friction point, because culture and use is inseparable from affordance/utility [1]. In different words, how other people use technology also impacts it's relation to you. Especially networked technology. So dash2's response to my earlier comment is spot-on, we need collectively organised "spaces" and groups to challenge digital imposition.

   [1] Not wishing to bore with lots of tech critique literature and references but Jacques Ellul (New Demons, Empire of Non-Sense), Ivan Illich (Tools for Conviviality) and Neil Postman (particularly Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves to death) - all good materials to understand the difficulty of neatly distinguishing individual choice/freedoms from context of culture and practice.

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2. paganelSep 2020
   > I am not a religion apologists, but his videos and lectures are structured exactly the same way as sermons. He even feigns a false pastor modesty

   I highly recommend Jacques Ellul's "Les nouveaux possédés." (translated in English as "The New Demons" [1]) an analysis written back in 1973 describing this exact process you're describing, i.e. modern stuff (rock stars among others) trying to fill the hole of the disappearing religion. Ever since I've read the book I cannot attend a big music concert or a crowded football match without thinking about it (before this pandemic started, of course).

   [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1362676.The_New_Demons

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3. paganelJan 2020
   Believing in self-driving cars is believing in AGI, and if some people find not believing in that “sensationalist” then it all kind of proves my point. I also don’t live in the SV bubble, maybe down there the AGI church is stronger, I wouldn’t know. I strongly recommend Jacques Ellul’s “The New Demons” [1], and Ellul’s works generally speaking.

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/New-Demons-Jacques-Ellul/dp/081640266...

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