Technology And Technology In The Machine In The Garden By Leo Marx

Reflection Paper #2 Leo Marx’s The Machine in the Garden presents the concept of the ‘pastoral ideal’ as a way to explain mankind’s relationship between the natural world and the industrial world. Marx establishes what he sees as a longstanding conflict between the pastoral ideal and technological advancement. The conflict between pastoralism and technology is not a completely alien concept as other works in this course have displayed technology being in conflict with other aspects of human life. Other conflicts can be witnessed in both the course materials and the contemporary world between technology and privacy, technology and tradition, and technology and human actions. A conflict between technology and privacy can be observed in multiple

This conflict can be observed in the film Chappie. The idea that technology could reach a point where police officers could be replaced by machines is indicative of the idea of how humans’ behavior and actions can be affected by the technology accessible to them. In this case, the technology is changing human action by removing humans from harm’s way and replacing them with machines. The change in human action as a result of technology brings up the question of whether the new human action is necessarily an improvement. As was seen in the film, the new technologies brought forth the debate of the morality of using such advanced robots. The uncertainty of the merit or value of technology is present in many of the interactions with technology seen in the course. With the changes brought about by technology, there also exists a conservative sentiment that does not see such changes as necessary. This resistance to technology can be seen in Marx, with the push for a return to a pastoral life. One other instance of the way that technology has shaped human behavior is one of the examples presented in lecture. An article spoke of how a statue was being moved as a result of too many people bumping into it because they were texting while walking and thus distracted. This provides an example of

The other conflicts presented in this course thus far can be examined through the lens of how Marx presents the conflict between pastoralism and industrialization. As a result of the applicability of Marx’s thoughts on technology in the United States, his ideas are given greater credence as they still ring true today when considering the contemporary