Friday, February 17, 2006

buddha and motorcycles

Pirsig's approach to technology reform is interesting. Borgmann, however, finds a flaw in the idea that you can engage with technology. As is pointed out in his book, technology has become more and more obscure and difficult for the layman to comprehend. Persig may have been able to turn the repair of his motorcycle into a focal practice, but especially recently the knowledge to repair anything has become so specialized as to be almost impossible.

Another problem that Pirsig's theory faces is the tendency for technology to isolate an individual from others. You can share in the repairing and riding of a motorcycle (or at least an old school one) but sharing a computer with another is difficult.

Technology has become so obscure and isolated as to become almost impossible to convert into anything remotely focal and meaningful.

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