Neil Postman's six questions about technology, plus two more

The Librarian Shipwreck in Technology Does Not Stay New for Long, a post from 2014, adds another question to Postman’s original six (a seventh one had been added in an even earlier post). IMHO, they make for a good list.

  1. “What is the problem to which this technology is the solutions?” [42]

  2. “Whose problem is it?” [45]

  3. “Which people and what institutions might be most seriously harmed by a technological solution?” [45]

  4. “What new problems might be created because we have solved this problem?” [48]

  5. “What sort of people and institutions might acquire special economic and political power because of technological change?” [50]

  6. “What changes in language are being enforced by new technologies, and what is being gained and lost by such changes?” [53]

  7. What happens when you hit this piece of technology with a rock?

  8. What will happen and who will be impacted by this piece of new technology once it becomes a piece of old technology?

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