Attitudes toward nature

In another class of mine, "Cross Cultural Awareness," we are studying the set of assumptions and values that make Americans distinct. One of the most recent things we looked at was the American attitude toward nature, which can be understood better when one understands American values. Generally, we believe that nature is inanimate (only we are truly animated) and opposed to humanity. Over and over again, we see that nature is treated as something to be overcome or defeated. In our textbook we read, "Advocates of a giant dam on the Colorado River system spoke in the 1950s of that eternal problem of subduing the earth and of conquering the wilderness." Despite the growing environmental movement which seems to be moving in the direction of working with nature instead of opposing it, there is still a large group that takes an adversarial approach.

Just this evening, I was stuck with this attitude. Somebody was showing the trailer to a documentary called "Transcendent Man," a movie about Ray Kurzweil. One main idea is "singularity," a level of extremely high technological advancement. The individual showing the video began discussing the idea of man meshing with machine as a manifestation of singularity. Then, he said, computers could solve biological viruses. In this state, we would thus become true masters of nature. The very idea of "solving" viruses seemed very odd to me. Here we see an example of the idea that nature is something to be defeated. Also seen is the idea that technology itself is somehow opposed to nature, a black and white view that we can have either technology or nature, but never both.

This made me think of The Ecology of Eden because Eisenberg talks a lot about technology. For one thing, he has shown that technology can be quite destructive. But despite this, I don't think he is arguing against technology. Instead, he is seems to be arguing that we need to use technology in different, less destructive ways. If we can change the perception that nature is something to be defeated, perhaps we can do this.

-Tyler Wake