All "technology" (using the broad definition) is a manifestation of human ideas and the evolution of those ideas over time. Human thought preceded the creation of prisons or the repurposing of existing structures as prisons. And even the idea of a "prison" has to be collapsed into a broader category of "secure building", which is a technology that emerged because of just how useful it is to have a robust place to live in and avoid the elements, intruders, etc.
To frame prisons as "inherently oppressive" is to pretend that a prison is not just another building with the label "prison" on the outside built to a certain specification of security. Much like a church is just a building where people gather to practice their faith. I realize that these buildings have some unique features that are optimized for their particular purpose, but at each level you drill down, those technologies almost universally co-emerged because of other human needs.
These buildings do not have intrinsic essences, nor were the underlying techniques of engineering used to build them solely developed for the purpose of incarcerating people or praying to various gods.
> The adoption of a technology is done by the decision of a human
And so is the inception of the original idea that led to the establishment of the technology. The tools we build are a manifestation of collective human consciousness at any given point in time. That goes not just for the ways we use technology, but also for the technologies we invent and decide to build in the first place.
The call is coming from inside the house. The thing we need to be focusing on is our own nature, and how we tend to oppress each other. This is a problem not solved by assigning technology with properties like "oppressive". Technology is not oppressive. People are.
> Nobody's claiming that computers have imposed themselves on society...
Oppression is generally something that humans do to other humans (I agree that they use tools along the way). By saying that computers are inherently oppressive, you're implying that computers are somehow imposing themselves on society. If a human has to be involved for the oppression to occur, the computer is by definition not inherently oppressive.
To frame prisons as "inherently oppressive" is to pretend that a prison is not just another building with the label "prison" on the outside built to a certain specification of security. Much like a church is just a building where people gather to practice their faith. I realize that these buildings have some unique features that are optimized for their particular purpose, but at each level you drill down, those technologies almost universally co-emerged because of other human needs.
These buildings do not have intrinsic essences, nor were the underlying techniques of engineering used to build them solely developed for the purpose of incarcerating people or praying to various gods.
> The adoption of a technology is done by the decision of a human
And so is the inception of the original idea that led to the establishment of the technology. The tools we build are a manifestation of collective human consciousness at any given point in time. That goes not just for the ways we use technology, but also for the technologies we invent and decide to build in the first place.
The call is coming from inside the house. The thing we need to be focusing on is our own nature, and how we tend to oppress each other. This is a problem not solved by assigning technology with properties like "oppressive". Technology is not oppressive. People are.
> Nobody's claiming that computers have imposed themselves on society...
Oppression is generally something that humans do to other humans (I agree that they use tools along the way). By saying that computers are inherently oppressive, you're implying that computers are somehow imposing themselves on society. If a human has to be involved for the oppression to occur, the computer is by definition not inherently oppressive.