Tools for Conviviality

In the first, man as an individual can exercise authority on his own behalf and therefore assume responsibility. In the second, the machine takes over–first reducing the range of choice and motivation in both the operator and the client, and second imposing its own logic and demand on both. Survival depends on establishing procedures which permit o

2. The Rediscovery of Language

This objective knowledge is viewed as a commodity which can be refined, constantly improved, accumulated and fed into a process, now called “decision-making.” This new mythology of governance by the manipulation of knowledge-stock inevitably erodes reliance on government by people.

The Demythologization of Science

Overconfidence in “better decision-making” first hampers people’s ability to decide for themselves and then undermines their belief that they can decide.

Multiple limits to overefficiency must be expressed in language that is simple and politically effective.

People who have unlearned how to decide about their own rights on their own evidence become pawns in a world game operated by mega-machines.

There are two ranges in the growth of tools: the range within which machines are used to extend human capability and the range in which they are used to contract, eliminate, or replace human functions.

This cognitive disorder rests on the illusion that the knowledge of the individual citizen is of less value than the “knowledge” of science. The former is the opinion of individuals. It is merely subjective and is excluded from policies. The latter is “objective”–defined by science and promulgated by expert spokesmen.

three formidable obstacles: