The Semioethics Interviews III 185all, because we are all connected. So it also concerns the interconnectivity of
the modern era – which is in part due to modern communications.
JD: I think that is certainly true. It is unavoidable. And quite incredible.
MT: This development has gone a long way even during my time as an adult.
When I was 20, I could not easily call people on the other side of the globe. I
met my wife, having to stay in touch with her online daily for 2 and a half
month before we could meet again in person. That would hardly have been
possible 10 years ago. Technology has an incredible impact on our lives.
JD: It is all science. That is the driving force behind all this.
(JD returns to the topic of the nature of capitalism)
JD: That is the problem of capitalism: At the heart of it you have these
individuals that are incredibly wealthy, and all that their intelligence is
focused on is preserving and expanding their wealth.
MT: I would say there is also a problem of technology here. Some have
introduced the term ̳the technological imperative‘ to describe the modern
situation in which technologies are developed and then somehow
implemented, or launched, before the technologies have been properly
examined in a public discourse, or in democratic terms.
JD: Can you give an example?
MT: Well, part of the dynamics here is due to the fact that we only see the
negative consequences of a new technology when it is already in full-scale
use. When you develop it, sometimes you cannot even imagine what
consequences it can eventually have in use. What is the name of this
insecticide? DDT... When it was first launched, people thought it was a
marvel. People thought: ―Look at the incredible effects it has!‖ It was only
many years later that people bothered with the fact that it functions as
undiscriminating poison.
JD (chuckles)
MT: It came as a shock to people. And this happens over and over again, I think –
that we belatedly discover the negative consequences of miraculous
technologies. There is an irony to the dynamics here, where we over and
over again think that we are saved by new technology that ends up just
expanding, or changing, our field of problems.
JD: I see exactly what you mean.
MT: But there is no easy solution to it, exactly because of the whole
unpredictability of development.
JD: (mentions the use of X-rays, with hazardous radiation as a side-effect) It is
exactly the kind of thing you are talking about. But the only answer to it is
yet more knowledge.
MT: More caution could be part of the answer here.
JD: More caution? Yes. Yes.