Pynchon's Luddite politics

[jbor]

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>From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>

snip 
> Does Pynchon trust computers to do the good things that people expect
> them to do? Beyond the "word processor" that he uses, I don't think
> so. He writes, dripping irony:  "With the proper deployment of budget
> and computer time, we will cure cancer, save ourselves from nuclear
> extinction, grow food for everybody, detoxify the results of
> industrial greed gone berserk -- realize all the wistful pipe dreams
> of our days."  They remain pipe dreams, despite the computer, in
> other words, he's saying.

I had actually read something a little more positive into this sentence (and
into the essay in toto): I read him as saying that these *are* potential
benefits or aspirations of technology. I don't think he is advocating
smashing the mainframes of today: his Luddism is of the "reconstructed"
variety I'd suggest.

>
> Who conducts the "research and development in artificial
> intelligence, molecular biology and robotics" that concern Pynchon in
> his Luddite essay conclusion?
snip
> In other words, reading this concluding passage in the full context
> of the essay:  far from solving the problems people want technology
> to solve (those "wistful pipe dreams"), turning corporate and
> government-funded scientists loose will instead create a new
> Frankenstein's monster, to threaten its creators -- the results will
> surprise even those top managers who think they know what they're
> doing as they manage this cutting-edge R&D.

Again, I hadn't read sarcasm or nihilistic glee into this paragraph at all.
The convergence of "artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics"
is, actually, "something to look forward to", something which *he* is
looking forward to, and *will* be "amazing and unpredictable".

I'd be interested to hear what others think about this.


>  From Pynchon's Luddite essay:
> "The word "Luddite" continues to be applied with contempt to anyone with
> doubts about technology, especially the nuclear kind. Luddites today are no
> longer faced with human factory owners and vulnerable machines. As
> well-known President and unintentional Luddite D.D. Eisenhower prophesied
> when he left office, there is now a permanent power establishment of
> admirals, generals and corporate CEO's, up against whom us average poor
> bastards are completely outclassed, although Ike didn't put it quite that
> way. We are all supposed to keep tranquil and allow it to go on, even
> though, because of the data revolution, it becomes every day less possible
> to fool any of the people any of the time.
>
> "If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will come
> -- you heard it here first -- when the curves of research and development in
> artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge. Oboy.
> It will be amazing and unpredictable, and even the biggest of brass, let us
> devoutly hope, are going to be caught flat-footed. It is certainly something
> for all good Luddites to look forward to if, God willing, we should
> live so long."
>