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(To the tune of Monty Python’s “Spam Song”): Tech, Tech, Tech, Tech…
How our obsession with technological quick-fixes results in misguided and ruinously expensive endeavors
As the old adage goes, “To a hammer, every problem is a nail.”
We live in a world of hi-tech hammers. Automobiles cause pollution and release greenhouse gasses? All Hail the Electric Vehicle!
Overwhelmed by the number of apps on your smartphone? Download an app-management app!
Suffering side-effects from the obesity-related medications you’re on? Take more medicines to mask your side-effects!
We’re all consuming vast amounts of energy to little purpose? Switch to renewables!
These are just a handful of examples; every reader will doubtless be able to think of some of their own.
The question is: why do we relentlessly look for quick-fix technology-oriented solutions to problems that have far better and far easier ways to mitigate them? Why are we consistently blind to the obvious and drawn instead to embrace the hugely expensive and largely unnecessary?
Partly it’s because of marketing. The average Westerner these days is exposed to more than 10,000 ad impressions per day and most…
