Jeremy Diaz
Eric Drown
English 122
Eric Drown
Unabomber Essay
The article “The Unabomber Was Right” is an article I began reading in class. This article goes in depth on the occurrence of bombings committed by Ted Kaczynski and the purpose for his bombings. What I came across when reading this article was that Ted, who is currently in jail, believes technology is hurting society and that we must destroy it for the betterment of humanity. He specifically argues when technology is on the decline “we must pounce on it and kill it before it rises again.” Ted never liked technology and because of this he decided to move into a cabin in the woods away from all technology where he could embrace nature. Eventually, industrial society was moving close to his cabin and he decided he would change where he was living to a river that he enjoyed visiting. It was a two-day hike and when he arrived instead of seeing the body of water, he adored so much he was confronted with a huge road in its place. This made Ted fed up and he made it his mission to get his beliefs out into the world. This is when he began his bombings which ended in the deaths of three individuals and the injuries of many others during their occurrence. He only would agree to stop if someone were to publish a 35,000-word manifesto he had written and get his view points out there so he could possibly convince the world of his views. Unfortunately for Ted, this would be his downfall because his brother recognized his handwriting and gave him into authorities, but he was still able to get his message out there. After reading I began to wonder what his manifesto contained.
I soon learned that Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto argued against the use of technology in modern civilization and because of that he indeed wanted to rid the world of technology. Ted also mentioned that there was no way to reform these societies so instead we must destroy them completely and start new. When hearing these claims that Kaczynski was making my mind wondered to another place. I tried to envision a society in the future without technology. I asked the question is it even possible to have a society without any technology? At this point I thought the answer was no but upon further research I came to the conclusion that if one were able to come up with a strong argument to convince people the technology was bad or harmful to us then they would be able to gain a following to start moving towards their goal. But what exactly could somebody do in order to reach this point? Well the answer was Robots. People fear that one day artificial intelligence may take over our country and there is nothing that we will be able to do about it at that point.
So, if robots do take over the world then technically Ted would have been right in his argument and therefore, he could justify his actions. But how close are we really to a society where robots will take over our nation and imprison us or make us work for them. I did some research on some new robots being developed by the Boston Dynamics company and the robots they have so far are incredible. Some of the robots can jump and run while others are water proof and can run on any type of terrain. If anything were to take over, these robots seem like they would fit the job if they keep developing the way they are. There is also a robot in Russia by the name of FEDOR that can shoot guns. Aside from shooting guns it can endure some rigorous workouts like doing a lot of pushups to other physical challenges. One of the craziest abilities this robot has is the fact that it can drive a car. This robot has so many progressions already and more are to come.
What I take from this research is a lot of optimism for the robots being developed with a little skepticism. Though I want to see how much these robots can accomplish at the same time I fear that if they learn too much, they may begin to build more of themselves and start up their own army. I know this may sound silly now, but this is also what Ted feared in a way. He feared technology would take over and it already has. Children everywhere are playing with phones and tablets before they even sit down in a classroom. If this isn’t a sign for a little change then I don’t know what will be.
But now were back to the question at hand. Can we really rid the world of technology at all? I believe not. I feel that we are too dependent on all the innovations and advances society has made over the years and if we were to regress backwards all people would do is complain about how they want to be watching tv or on a phone. Also, taking away technology would also mean taking away heat to keep our houses warm. This is because before factories people didn’t have a heater in their house to keep them warm that the gas company would come fill every time it was empty. Imagine having to get firewood to keep warm after not doing it your whole life. People wouldn’t want to do that regardless of what they’d have to sacrifice. People are lazy and in fact if they could get a robot to do the work for them, they’d take it in a heartbeat. So maybe Ted’s manifesto will be the warning that nobody listened to and should’ve because it was a warning of what was to come. Or maybe Ted is just some crazy old guy who just over thought technology and what I had to offer to us. Either way we won’t know until the future.
So now I conclude that it really isn’t possible to rid the world of technology. For those asking why it’s simple. The world is one big computer with a bunch of smaller systems running inside of it. We have turned our planet into a place where new technology is developed every day and people want to keep pushing the limits more and more. We have an iPhone that unlocks every time you look at the screen because it can recognize your face. At the end of the day people are to intrigued and comfortable with technology to just let it go. Sadly, for Ted he won’t ever see his dream accomplished. The new question is will it be for the better or for the worse?
