The Invisibility of Technological Alternatives

Abstract

For almost any new service or gadget in the market, someone wants to make us believe that it contains the most advanced technology. We tend to take any such affirmation as an argument in favor of using or acquiring the technology. If it is the latest technology, presumably it must have some advantages over its predecessor. This essay is about overcoming the ever more generalized discourse that validates recent changes in technology again and again, practically without exception. According to this discourse, we should always take advantage of the benefits of the latest in technology. The disadvantages should be taken care of as they show up. This discourse not only reveals the total absence of reflection with respect to the nature of technology as such and contemporary technology in particular, but it also obscures, rules out and puts obstacles to imagining alternatives to the prevailing technological tendencies – making alternatives invisible.