What is Techno-Optimism?

Abstract

Techno-optimism • Risk Should we be optimists or pessimists about technology?This question goes to the heart of how we should think about and relate to technology.Curiously enough, there are few systematic discussions of this question in the philosophical literature.In his nuanced and wide-ranging essay 'Techno-optimism: an analysis, an evaluation and a modest defence' (1), John Danaher remedies this situation by providing a long-overdue systematic exploration of techno-optimism.His essay does four things: it provides an analysis of how techno-optimism should be understood.It offers a general framework for assessing when techno-optimism is warranted.It explains why strong forms of techno-optimism are difficult to justify. And it defends a modest, agency-based version of techno-optimism.There is a lot in the paper that I find compelling, and the general framework he puts forth will prove useful for everyone thinking about the topic.In this discussion note, I want to engage with one part of Danaher's analysis that I find less compelling, namely his account of how techno-optimism should be understood.I will first explain why we should reject Danaher's account and then outline an alternative account.Danaher defends the preponderance account of techno-optimism.Essentially, this account defines techno-optimism as "the stance that holds that technology plays a key role in ensuring that the good prevails over the bad." (2022, p. 8) He rejects the improvement account, according to which techno-optimism is, roughly, the stance that holds that technology makes things better, perhaps substantially so.Put differently: on the improvement view, techno-optimists believe that technology makes the world a better place.On Danaher's preponderance view, they believe that it makes the world not only a better place but also a good place.Discussion note on John Danaher's "Techno-optimism: an analysis, an evaluation and a modest defence".

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