Dyson provides an alternative to the fairly pessimistic views about technology we've been considering recently.

Q:  Is his optimistic take on technology plausible?

Technology as a 'Mixed Blessing'

"The technology of household appliances made servants unnecessary and, at the same time, the children of the servant class began to go to college and make the transition to the middle class.  The transition was not painless, but ... [i]t was a big step on the road to social justice." (140)

However, "The technology of household appliances, likewise, brought a step backward to the stratum of society to which my mother belonged, the women of the middle class. ... The middle class women of the 1950s were far less liberated than their mothers." (141)

Dyson's Vision

"My purpose is to help push technology in a new direction, away from toys for the rich and toward necessities for the poor." (144)

Dyson's scheme is built on the thought that a significant number of people would choose to live in (& 'gentrify') what are now poor, rural areas provided that these areas could be made into "sources of wealth." (145)

This, he claims, can be done through 3 developing technologies.

"poverty can be reduced by a combination of solar energy, genetic engineering, and the Internet." (144)

(i) Solar Energy

(Note:  When Dyson talks about solar energy, he typically has in mind 'indirect' solar energy, e.g., growing sugar for use in making ethanol based fuels.)

Solar energy is potentially a source of energy available virtually anywhere in the world (& best available in some of the poorest areas on the planet).

But "What the world needs is not high-cost subsidized solar energy, but solar energy cheap enough to compete with oil." (146)

How can we achieve this?

By genetically engineering crops that convert solar energy to fuel more efficiently.

(ii) Genetic Engineering

(a) We could engineer plants that convert sunlight into fuel more efficiently. ("in the range of 10 percent rather than 1 percent") (147)

(b) "An energy crop could be a permanent forest with trees that convert sunlight to liquid fuel and deliver the fuel directly through their roots." (147)

We could also use genetic engineering to create plants that produce other sorts of things - e.g., "silicon chips for computers and gasoline for cars.  Economic forces will then move industries from cities to the country." (147)

(iii)  The Internet

"The Internet is essential to enable businesses and farms in remote places to function as part of the modern global economy." (147)

Towards this end, we need a "truly global Internet." (147)

Suppose we accomplish all these things. What will happen then?

"the solution of these three problems will bring about a worldwide social revolution" (148)

"as the villages become rich, they will attract people and wealth back from the cities." (148)

[Philosophy 2801]