Customer Reviews

The Axemaker's Gift

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

A succinct account of how throughout history technology hasled the human race down certain avenues to the exclusion of others,and how these paths further narrowed our destinies, and created further roads not taken.

Textbook examples include how the invention of the telescope and the printing press gave rise to discoveries and social trends that weakened the authority of Rome through a revision of cosmology and the spread of literacy, and how the stethescope set in motion of a new age of medicine that succeeded in rendering the patient virtually irrelevant to the diagnostic process.

Thus Burke and Ornstein's book is an excellent history, but one that fails the book's subtitle, in that it deals only fitfully with how these technological developments have been harmful in constructing our picture of the world. Surely the most compelling examples of technology's deleterious effects on both culture and the physical environment exist in the 20th centrury, yet the authors choose only to deal with this period in the penultimate chapter. Moreover, their recommendations in the final chapter seek to cure the ills created by technology with ... more technology. The use of a high-tech information "web" as a purely awareness-heightening prophylactic against the ravages of technology is something of a naive choice. The same "It'll change the world" claims made for the telephone are currently being made for the Internet: in view of this we should not forget that "despite the liberating dreams of the telenova", as Mark Slouka has pointed out, "piped water remained a dream for millions". Thus it is somewhat bizarre that writers who devote one chapter to pointing out how much of the world is starved, illiterate, or underdeveloped, proceed in the next chapter to pose as a solution a global networked society.

Despite these cavils, however, you'll likely not find a more concise or readable summary of the evolution o! f techology from the club to the Pentium. Those more intere! sted in how modern techonolgy has damaged culture and society would be better off reading Neil Postman's excellent book "Technopoly".

Burke and Ornstein provide a fascinating historical narrative, but never seem to really justify their implicit claim that roads not taken due to technological advance and correlated reliance on linear rationality might have been preferable. Their focus on unforseen consequences of technologies coupled with a critique of political technocracy in varied forms seems a good framework for understanding our present global woes(though not at all a new approach--refer to any of John Dewey's writings on culture from the 20s and 30s). Their contrasting of natural and unnatural modes of human behavior and cognition, though, seem philosophically untenable(the natural being our Paleolithic hard-wiring, the unnatural any cultural addition), as do their prescriptions for solving our ecological/political problems. They advocate direct democracy in small communities with access to excellent education, health, and new arational information systems, a formula almost identical to the old Greek axemaker notion of the Polis(except arational as opposed to hyper-rational). Why the direct democracy of these hypothetical communities would be more accepting of other communities, more willing to recognize the need to share/conserve resources and think in global/holistic ways, more intelligent in their recognition of the deleterious potential effects of new technologies is not clear. "Expert" knowledges have clearly brought horrible consequences in the past few centuries, but the Cultural Revolution brought more tragedy than the AMA ever has. Hegel, axemaker icon though he was, wrote that the Owl of Minerva only spreads her wings at dusk, by which he meant that as mere humans we are always condemned to only understand history retroactively, if at all. We can, of course, do a better job of evaluating technologies in more democratic ways with more of an eye to a sustainable future. Insofar as Burke and Ornstein point to this path, I applaud them.

Technology began as soon as humans determined to use tools. Burke and Ornstein call these people the axemakers. The axemakers' talents offered us a bargain, and we took it, despite its multifarious effects. "In our ancient past, the all-powerful axemaker talent for performing the precise, sequential process that shaped axes would later give rise to the precise, sequential thought that would eventually generate language and logic and rules, which would formalize and discipline thinking itself" (p. xii). Accordingly, with every invention and modification of technology, humans learned to adapt to the effects of that change. The authors of this book argue that for the first time in human progress, "we can consciously take our development in our own hands and use it to generate talents that will suit the world of tomorrow"

Easy reading--interesting -- consistent message. The authors may bend the historical discussions to maintain the metaphor, and how well its double edge works. Language, a primary gift, diminished the elders' responsibility to teach, but offered the opportunity to learn from many sources, past and present. For today's leaders, a warning remains clear: Evaluate what is new and its consequences before rushing to embrace it. The Axemaker continues to hone a double edge of hope and hurt. Burke and Ornstein call upon us to take care -- to avoid the "cut and control" concepts that separate people, ideas, scientific thought, emotional well-being, and society. Technology can work for us if we seek the wholeness of life.

Burke's examination of the technologists' mentality, and the effects of such thinking on the construction of culture is very intriguing. However, much of the parallels that he draws, or developments he seeks to explain, are speculative, tenuous, or accidental at best. For this reason the book reads like a pop science article from Omni magazine: seeking to be entertaining rather than truly scholarly.

Another "sigh" emerged from this reader towards the final chapters. Seems Burke too has fallen into the politically correct mode of analysis, in overtly warning the readers of the 'limited vantage point of Western science and reason'. Yawn...rather than being one of several valid congnitive styles, the Western scientific tradition is the most effective intellectual program/strategy to date, amongst any culture. If you are interested in the anthropological effects of technology, try reading something from an anthropologist. I can readily recommend Ernest Gellner (Plough, Book, and Sword.).

Burke's book is cute, entertaining, and full of juicy nuances. In linking the tool-making mentality with the creation of mathematics, logic, and the alphabet ( a masculine system of communication, in the essence of Burke's words, which suffocated the more feminine oral traditions), Burke demonstrates he is more interested in extrapolating some half-supported ideas than in true research.

Its a good read, but it is hard to take seriously.

Attempting to give a complete overview of technologies advances and how they have changed us as a society over the history of man is a daunting task. But the authors seemed to cover it quite well, from a historical standpoint anyway. The problem lies in their opinions that are stated as fact, and their only occasional support for positive outcomes of technology, while focusing more on it's downfalls, and it's negative effects on the long-term.

While the long-term is important, if we were to take away all the advances that the authors prove harmful, we would be a hunter/gatherer society. I do like the ending chapters look to a positive future through the fast and easy access to knowledge systems and information on a deregulated level. Though they were somewhat vague on how all the world would be able to access this knowledge, pointing to future inventions that do not yet exist.

A good read, but keep in mind that it's an opinion based book, one way of looking at technologies effect on society.

Don't look for close attention to science or any objective assessment of facts here.

As a Kiwi, I stopped reading when i got to the bit about New Zealand Maori, p256. I'd already decided this is a sensationalist eco-weenie guilt trip, but the descriptions of parts of NZ as "a virtual desert" blamed on Maori burnoffs, and how settlers "often" found ploughing difficult because of the number of moa bones, I gave up. I'm a greenie from way back but I like to stick to reality when defending the environment

the suggested solution of a "web supported" world full of small democrartic communities is such hairy-armpit, dope-smoking, hippy rubbish I found myself laughing out loud. I'm fascinated to know who is going to design and construct and distribute the servers to enable this web-supported world, let alone who is going to host and maintain them

Burke got the wealth and attention that enabled this book through the medium of television, and i bet he tours the world for book launches on jumbo-jets. i wonder if the irony of that is lost on him.

It is very difficult to build jumbos or LSI processor chips as a cottage industry

pure twaddle

The book is a brief but decent historical overview of technology and its negative effect on the world. They don't really state anything new in this area that has not been covered in more detail by other writers.

If you are new to this topic the book is a fine place to start. However if you have been keeping up with whats going on and the possible solutions you won't find anything new or useful here. Also if you are looking for what you can do locally in your community or society as a whole there is nothing for you.

The only problem I have with the book is their solution to the problem which is even more technology! Like most tech enthusiats they are incapable of seeing the side-effects of implementing new technology on society. Evidently they have fogotten Eistein's famous quote on this: "You cannot solve a problem with the same thinking that created the problem to begin with."

Also their coverage of the internet and computers is pretty simplistic at best. Especially the effects it will have on future generations.

If you are interested in this topic you might want examine:

The Future Does Not Compute - Stephen Talbot

If you are ready to pay attention, and I mean really pay attention, The Axemaker's Gift will alter your perception of the world --- specifically humankind's relationship to the natural world --- forever. In the relatively few pages of this book, James Burke and Robert Ornstein take us on a journey from humankind's beginning to present day, maintaining all along the way their metaphor of the double-edged axe (Every advance has a price).

Books like The Axemaker's Gift (New World, New Mind by Ornstein and Paul Erlich is another) go beyond interesting reading. This material is important. We need to read it; we need to think carefully about it; and we need to act on the sharp (pun intended) insights provided.

The subject matter is essential, the point of view realistic, even if a little dark, and the authors make The Axemaker's Gift an interesting and enjoyable read. As a non-fiction author, I am always impressed with the ability to make serious matters fun, without losing the message.

My recommendation: read it, enjoy it, learn from it.

As a future technology teacher, this book really brings out the points that I would like students to contemplate. As you can see from the rest of the reviews, their work does provoke quite a discussion. However, it is definitely not the last book you'd want to put down on the subject, but a great overview and set of opinions to get you started. I only wish my professors would invest in it.

There was nothing earth shattering new in this series that has not been covered by the author before. I thought this suggestion at the end about use "web of knowledge" were interesting. But those looking for a more in depth study of subjects of this nature would be better served in getting "The day the Universe Changed" by the same authour