About techne/nous

 
As the summary says: this blog is--broadly speaking--about technology and some of the historical, social, and intellectual issues related to it. My graduate training was in the history of technology, so I come by this interest honestly (or at least, with no more duplicity than any other person scarred by American higher education).

The title derives from my attempt to examine technological issues in humanitarian--intellectual and spiritual--terms (and the fact that most of the more obvious title were already taken). Both terms--techne and nous--have a rich tapestry of meanings, and that's the reason I use them. In impossibly crude summary, techne is the ancient Greek term for art or craft, nous the ancient Greek for intellect (or perhaps, beginning). I want to suggest that technology cannot be divorced from considerations which I suspect most folks would think are far removed from it--intellect, spirit, the commonweal. My intellectual framework for all of this is probably best summarized as being against technological determinism.

Finally, since this is after all my blog, I will also use it as a platform to say whatever the hell I want about politics, society, and any general idiocy to be found in our modern life.