Techno-progressivism
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Techno-progressivism maintains that accounts of "progress" should focus on scientific and technical dimensions, as well as ethical and social ones. For most techno-progressive perspectives, then, the growth of scientific knowledge or the accumulation of technological powers will not represent the achievement of proper progress unless and until it is accompanied by a just distribution of the costs, risks, and benefits of these new knowledges and capacities. At the same time, for most techno-progressive critics and advocates, the achievement of better democracy, greater fairness, less violence, and a wider rights culture are all desirable, but inadequate in themselves to confront the quandaries of contemporary technological societies unless and until they are accompanied by progress in science and technology to support and implement these values.
Although techno-progressivism can be seen as a third way between bioconservatism and techno-utopianism in the biopolitical spectrum, both techno-progressivism and bioconservatism, in their more reasonable expressions, share an opposition to unsafe, unfair, undemocratic forms of technological development, and both recognize that such developmental modes can facilitate unacceptable recklessness and exploitation, exacerbate injustice and incubate dangerous social discontent.
List of notable techno-progressive advocates and cultural critics
- Philosopher Donna Haraway with her accounts of cyborg theory
- Bioethicist James Hughes with his accounts of democratic transhumanism
- Futurist Bruce Sterling with his Viridian design movement
- Rhetorician Dale Carrico
- Science fiction writer Ken MacLeod
- Science journalist Chris Mooney
- Science journalist Annalee Newitz
References
- Carrico, Dale. (2004) [The Trouble with "Transhumanism": Part Two] Betterhumans.com
- Carrico, Dale. (2005) [Technoprogressivism Beyond Technophilia and Technophobia]. Amor Mundi