The Practice of Technology: Exploring Technology, Ecophilosophy, and Spiritual Disciplines for Vital Links

Alan Drengson is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Victoria. His recent books include Beyond Environmental Crisis: From Technocrat to Planetary Person, and Doc Forest and Blue Mountain Ecostery: A Narrative on Creating Ecological Harmony in Daily Life. He has published three books of poetry and is a Nidan in Aikido, the Japanese Martial Art.

The Practice of Technology explores the narrative themes of modern industrial technology that reveal the underlying agenda of modern culture, which is to redesign the human and natural worlds to conform to the monoculture models of Western society that are embedded in industrial paradigms and practices. The author argues that ecological and social responsibility should be built into the design of new technology practices based on ecosophy (ecological wisdom) that enable us to harmonize with our specific place and ecological context. Root metaphors and mythologies of the West are examined so as to transcend the modern-postmodernist debate that devalues human life and the natural world. Drengson explains how our current problems, such as the environmental crisis, violence, social injustice, dehumanization, and alienation cannot be diagnosed, let alone cured, without understanding the role of technological forces and activities in modern civilization.