Ex-minister warns of technology pitfalls
Ex-minister warns of technology pitfalls
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia should learn from the developed countries that have suffered from the domination of technology so as not to suffer the same negative effects, an ex-minister said yesterday.
Former education minister Fuad Hasan said that there are signs of Indonesia's growing fascination with technology, whose glorification could come at the expense of indigenous cultures.
At a ceremony marking the 27th anniversary of the Ismail Marzuki Arts Center, Fuad said that technology has now been turned into a yardstick with which the country assesses its modernization progress.
In his speech called "A Note on Technology and Technocracy", Fuad explored what he described as the "phenomenon of technocracy", which reveals the increasing domination of technology in society. The phenomenon, the professor of psychology said, turns human beings into an extension of technology.
Technocracy affects human beings individually and collectively, he said. "The pattern of human interactions has changed because of the intervention of tools...work patterns change, too, because of the substitution of humans by machines."
Standardization and uniformity of technology has replaced the human factor in work activities, he said.
Fuad said the phenomenon could reverse human life and cultures, particularly if the technology is brought about by an unbalanced flow of information.
"The transfer of information (on technology) is one sided...from well-equipped centers of information...to areas with less-equipped technology," he said.
He said the United Nations had taken stock of the trend of technocracy and established the Decade of Cultural Development in 1988 as a way to strengthen a country's cultural defense against it.
He said Indonesia should learn from other countries on how best to absorb technology without letting it dominate society. "Indonesia must anticipate by preparing society before it enters the phenomenon of technocracy," he said.
"This is not a matter of a like or a dislike of technology. Rather, (it's a matter) of how to prepare the society to implement technology effectively," he said.
"We should watch the various phenomenons accompanying technology and technocracy occurring in societies which are more advanced than us," he said.
Backwardness in technology has only one advantage, and that is "the opportunity not to repeat mistakes made by those who have advanced before us", he said.
Quoting author Jean Ladriere, Fuad said "the scientific- technological system, in its evolution toward increased self- consistency, is...tending to move further...away from man, even though it owes its development entirely to him." (01)