Technology with a Human Face

Write brief answers to the following questions:

1. Why does the writer say that modern technology has become inhuman?

A: - E.F. Schumacher was born in 1911 in Germany, a British economist and an author too. His "Technology with a Human Face" is an extract collected from his famous book "Small Is Beautiful."

          The author is apt in his words, when he opines 'modern technology has become inhuman.' It is obviously fact that technology has helped us in many ways for the development. While technology has also brought us a lot of problems. It is unable to win the acceptance of all the sectors of the society.

          If technology has become a boon for elite, sophisticated, educated sectors of the society, it has also become a bane for mass, uneducated, unadvanced sectors of it. With the help of a tractor, a landlord can cultivate large area of land, but has it helped to feed the millions of agriculture labors? Not at all. Same is the case of industrial and other sectors also. In this way technology, which has enabled to create some employment, has equally generated huge unemployment in the society. This 'inhuman technology' has also unable alleviate poverty and unemployment from the society. Ironically, technology itself has become responsible for these two major problems. These two problems are not only apparent in the poor countries, but also in the so-called rich and developed countries. In this 21st century's advanced technological helm, people have almost become servants of machines.

Hence it is apt to say that technology has become inhuman.

2. How would the alternative technology suggested by the Schumacher make things better?

A: - E.F. Schumacher was born in 1911 in Germany, a British economist and an author too. His "Technology with a Human Face" is an extract collected from his famous book "Small Is Beautiful."

          Schumacher identified three-fold crisis that affect the world, which are the results of modern technology. Hence in the place of modern technology, he seeks a new life style based on what he calls 'technology with a human face'. Instead of making human hands and brains redundant, this alternative technology would help people to become far more productive than they ever have been before. The technology offered by the author enables people's brains and skillful hands to support the production with first class tools. It also nourishes the normal human pleasure and satisfaction they get out of the time they spent on work by using their physical skills. It is compatible with the laws of ecology, gentle in its use of non-renewable resources. More importantly, the technology offered by the author designed to serve human being instead of making him as the servant of machines.

3. How would society benefit if the percentage of the time people spend to actually produce things is increased?

A: - E.F. Schumacher was born in 1911 in Germany, a British economist and an author too. His "Technology with a Human Face" is an extract collected from his famous book "Small Is Beautiful."

          The author remarks that in the modern world the productive time has already been reduced to about 3.5% of total social time. In his view, the social time means twenty four hours of a day each and productive time means the time actually people engaged in real production.

          Schumacher asks people to have a goal to increase this total productive time as much as they can. If we can do so, he says that there will lie a better future for us. When we put our efforts to increase the productive time, we can employ skillful, creative and productive work of human hands and brains. Even children and old people would then be allowed to make themselves useful. We can also have a lot of time for accomplishing any piece of work. If we can increase the productive time, its therapeutic as well as educational value will also be in their abundance. No one would then want to raise the school leaving age and no one would lower their retirement age.

           With this method of increasing productive time, people do not find it difficult to work for many hours but rather they do not even realize the difference between work and leisure. Except during the time of sleeping or eating, they are always engaged in some productive work. The author says that if we can apply this method of increasing productive time, many of the 'on-cost jobs' will simply disappear. There will be little need for mindless entertainment or other comforts of technology.

4. What kind of lifestyle does the writer think we should adopt in order to survive and why does he think this going to be difficult?

A: - E.F. Schumacher was born in 1911 in Germany, a British economist and an author too. His "Technology with a Human Face" is an extract collected from his famous book "Small Is Beautiful."

          Schumacher wants us to adopt the lifestyle in which we can use our hands and brains usefully, productively and creatively. In his view, we should adopt a lifestyle in which we can increase the 'productive time' for the betterment of all the sectors of the society. In fact, he never says that technology is bad. But he urges us to utilize the scientific techniques to increase our knowledge. He urges to focus on technology that doesn't lead to the destruction of human enjoyment. We should adopt a lifestyle by depending on the technology, which Schumacher labeled as 'technology with a human face'. In his view, this new technology will certainly lighten the burden of our work, make us to stay alive and enable us to develop our potential.

          While, Schumacher thinks that now-a-days the establishment of this new intermediate technology is very difficult. He thinks so as the present 'consumer society' has totally addicted to technological materials and in their absence, finds it extremely difficult to lead life. In fact, this extreme dependence on material things is not the problem of the poor but of the rich societies.

5. What is the main difference between the system of mass production and production by the masses as indicated in the passage?

A: - E.F. Schumacher was born in 1911 in Germany, a British economist and an author too. His "Technology with a Human Face" is an extract collected from his famous book "Small Is Beautiful."

          Here Schumacher asks us to think about what he terms, intermediate technology- "production by the masses, rather than mass production." In order to highlight the production by the masses, Schumacher mentions the words of Gandhi, when he said "the poor of the world cannot be helped by mass production (total production by a nation) but only by production by the masses."

          The obvious difference between both of these is; the system of mass production is based on sophisticated machinery, high capital investment and human labor-saving technology. While the system of 'production by the masses' uses priceless resources that are possessed by human beings. Their clever brains and skillful hands support the production with first class tools. The technology of mass production is naturally violent, ecologically damaging and suffers from the scarcity of nonrenewable resources. On the other hand, the production by the masses is compatible with the laws of ecology, gentle in its use of non-renewable resources. More importantly it is designed to serve the people instead of making him the servant of machines.

         Thus, after making this comparison, we can say that the production by the masses is obviously very handy to all the sectors of the society.