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Noam Chomsky Quotes about Technology

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Governments will use whatever technology is available to combat their primary enemy - their own population.

Governments will use whatever technology is available to combat their primary enemy - their own population.

Technology, Government, Enemy

"NSA surveillance is an attack on American citizens, says Noam Chomsky" by Fiona Harvey, www.theguardian.com. June 19, 2013.

Technology is basically neutral. It's kind of like a hammer. The hammer doesn't care whether you use it to build a house, or whether a torturer uses it to crush somebody's skull.

Crush, Technology, Skulls

"Noam Chomsky on the Purpose of Education" by Maria Popova, www.brainpickings.org. March 13, 2012.

Technology provides means for expression and interchange and so on, so yes it should be free and open, but there are a lot of constraints on how its used.

Mean, Technology, Expression

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Technology is usually fairly neutral. It’s like a hammer, which can be used to build a house or to destroy someone’s home. The hammer doesn’t care. It is almost always up to us to determine whether the technology is good or bad.

Home, Technology, House

Predatory capitalism created a complex industrial system and an advanced technology; it permitted a considerable extension of democratic practice and fostered certain liberal values, but within limits that are now being pressed and must be overcome. It is not a fit system for the mid-twentieth century.

Technology, Practice, Political

Noam Chomsky (2010). “The Chomsky Reader”, p.153, Pantheon

Modern science and technology can relieve men of the necessity for specialized, imbecile labor. They may, in principle, provide the basis for a rational social order based on free association and democratic control, if we have the will to create it.

Technology, Men, Order

Noam Chomsky (2003). “For Reasons Of State”, p.404, Penguin Books India

We're looking at the dawn of a new arms race. For example, Germany technically opposes the US space militarization program, but is bound to get involved. Otherwise it will be left behind in the development of advanced technology. Germany understands that very well. The US understands it too, and they fully expect that Germany and other countries that they want on board will go along with the program.

Country, Technology, Space

Source: www.madre.org

Those are possibilities for technology, which don't tend to be used, because of the way power is concentrated. There are all kinds of possibilities, including for coercion. In China, technology is used to control and coerce. Here too, to an extent, but not to that extent.

Technology, Coercion, Way

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Desktop publishing was a big innovation that meant small groups or even poor societies could do their own publication without the capital investment in a major printing press. That's a big difference. Same is true of more advanced technologies - it can offer plenty of liberatory possibilities - can - but whether it does or not or whether it serves for coercion depends on socioeconomic decisions.

Technology, Differences, Decision

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

The possibility of interpersonal communication has increased substantially with contemporary technology. But as compared with the major changes, which were long ago, these are not huge.

Communication, Technology, Long Ago

Source: brightestyoungthings.com

Technology can also be used so that private individuals will have access to the way centralized decisions are being made.

Technology, Decision, Way

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Long before the technology revolution there was declassification of documents and I've spent quite a lot of time studying declassified internal documents and written a lot about them. In fact, anybody who's worked through the declassified record can see very clearly that the reason for classification is very rarely to protect the state or the society from enemies. Most of the time it is to protect the state from its citizens, so they don't know what the government is doing.

Technology, Government, Long

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

The development of space technology, including space warfare today, is similar in its technological-industrial significance to the development of navies a hundred years ago.

Technology, Space, Years

Source: www.madre.org

Human needs are served by a sustainable lifestyle, almost by definition, if humans include coming generations. And a shift to such technologies as high-speed rail instead of maximizing fossil fuel use, and solar energy, is not "relentless resource extraction."

Technology, Energy, Needs

Source: www.counterpunch.org

There is little doubt that a significant part of any serious solution will require advances of technology, but that can only be part of the solution. Other major changes are necessary.

Technology, Doubt, Littles

"Global Warming and the Future of Humanity: An Interview With Noam Chomsky and Graciela Chichilnisky". Interview with C.J. Polychroniou, www.truth-out.org. September 17, 2016.

Like most technology, the internet has mixed effects. It's a neutral instrument.

Technology, Internet, Instruments

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Technologies can be liberating, but it can also be a tool of coercion and control.

Technology, Tools, Coercion

Source: www.truth-out.org

Its true that contemporary technology permits decentralization, it also permits centralization. It depends on how you use the technology.

Technology, Use, Permit

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Contemporary technology could be used to eliminate ownership and management of corporations. It could be used to provide - lets say Apple computers. In principle information technology could be used to provide direct information to the work force on the ground so that they could democratically decide what the company would do, eliminating the role of management. It could be used for that. People aren't developing technology for that purpose.

Technology, Apples, People

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

I think there are all kinds of intrusions into private rights that make use of contemporary technology.

Technology, Thinking, Rights

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

Technology can be used that way and it can also be used in other ways.

Technology, Way, Used

Interview with Jegan Vincent de Paul, chomsky.info. August 15, 2012.

[Internet] is kind of like a hammer. The technology itself doesn't determine how its used. It depends on the social, cultural and economic context in which the technology is made available.

Technology, Hammers, Kind

Source: chomsky.info

NAFTA and GATT are quite similar. They both have highly protectionist elements. They're kind of a mixture of liberalization and protection designed to expand the power of transnational corporations. They're very basically investor's rights agreements. One crucial part in both is the "intellectual property right," which is a funny way of saying that corporations, like pharmaceutical companies, will have near-monopolistic rule over future technology. This now includes product as well as process rights.

Technology, Rights, Agreement

Small changes can magnifiy. The possibility of interpersonal communication has increased substantially with contemporary technology. But as compared with the major changes, which were long ago, these are not huge.

Communication, Technology, Long Ago

"The Secret of Noam: A Chomsky Interview". Interview with Jeff Jetton, brightestyoungthings.com. March 9, 2011.

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