After wrapping up this unit and reviewing for the midterm, students from ENVS 400 came to talk to us on Friday. They led a discussion about Love Your Monsters by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, then answered questions we had about being an Environmental Studies major or minor.
My group discussed “Evolve,” which deals with issues about the use of technology. We split off into two groups; one group argued in favor of the use of technology while the other group argued against the use of technology. My group was pro-technology, and we began by discussing the ways technology has shaped us and how we think it will shape us in the future. One point of view was that technology will not be able to shape us as dramatically or as quickly as it has in the past because of the advancement of medicine. Natural selection does not have as powerful of an effect on us as before because we have developed such an intricate system of diagnoses, medications, and hospitals. Interestingly enough, these advances are very technologically driven themselves, which might prove the importance of technology to our survival. In the past century, we seem to be shaping technology faster than it can shape us.
A recurring theme during our review of “Evolve” was the importance of scale. We all believe that some technology is necessary for our advancement, but we were interested in unpacking why certain things were acceptable to us while others weren’t. As Shellenberger and Nordhaus wrote, “the difference between the new ecological crises and the ways in which humans and even prehumans have shaped nonhuman nature for tens of thousands of years is one of scope and scale, not kind” (location 130). We connected this with “Love Your Monsters” by arguing that the scope and scale of our technological advancements have been go great and so fast that we haven’t had time to nurture and improve our inventions.
It was really interesting being able to talk to ENVS 400. They encouraged us to question, make connections, and work hard. Maybe one day I’ll be in their shoes, and instead of receiving advice, I’ll be supplying it.