Re: <nettime> "The Taming of Tech Criticism", by Evgeny Morozov

[Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>]

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OK, at least for the nettime context, the argument is no-brainer, no,
more than that, it's actually a core tenet of the entire nettime project.

To criticize technology from a purely moral / cultural standpoint is
an inherently conservative project. Conservative critique is always
moralizing. Just look at discourse around Greece or the faux obsession
with "moral hazards".

So far, so good. Now, what? A radical critique is necessary, one which
places technology in the larger "historical and economic context".
What could that be? Perhaps, capitalism and its changing paradigms?
Wait, not so fast. Morozov only addresses "venture capital".

Why only so far? Morozov clearly spells out the fork he sees in the
road in front of him, where one path leads through the mainstream
(where one can make a living as a gifted writer, but at the price that
only conservative critique is allowed) and the other through the
wilderness of academic obscurity (less and less an option).

I suspect many people here on nettime have encountered similar forks
over the years and are continuing to do so. All the more interesting
to see what Mozorov will do next. For the moment, he seems to stand
still in front of the fork. But that is a very unstable spot.

Felix




On 2015-03-30 04:48, agent humble wrote:
> http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/taming-tech-criticism
> 
> BOOK REVIEWED The Glass Cage: Automation and Us, by Nicholas Carr, 
> W. W. Norton,
> 
> 
> What does it mean to be a technology critic in todayâs America?
> And what can technology criticism accomplish? The first question
> seems easy: to be a technology critic in America now is to oppose
> that bastion of vulgar disruption, Silicon Valley. By itself,
> however, this opposition says nothing about the criticâs
> politicsâan omission that makes it all the more difficult to answer
> the second question.

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