Is Technology Good or Bad?

As early as 1969, Del Noce warned that the “religious dimension is undermined and denied by the distinctive form of thought of the technological civilization.” 

Technology instinctively reshapes a culture toward purely practical action and results. From technology’s premise that all real knowledge is limited to the senses, Del Noce argues “it follows that the only reality that counts for man is material reality.” Thus “the diffusion of the technological mentality has been accompanied by the disappearance of the words true and false, good and bad, even beautiful and ugly.” These are replaced by words like authentic, useful, efficient, and meaningful. The human horizon constricts to the here and now. The notion that man has a transcendent dignity or purpose gradually loses the vocabulary needed for its defense. 

To the Church falls the task of forcing the questions that get people to think. Humans have a bottomless appetite for idols and marvelous skill at disguising them. We start by valuing our tools. We end up worshiping them. Modern technology is Promethean. We start with a desire to improve ourselves. We end with the illusion that we can redeem ourselves without interference from the outside. 

And yet – inconveniently for our egos – the First Commandment is first for a reason. Only God is God. In placing no strange or fabricated gods before Him, we conform ourselves to reality and acknowledge our place in that reality. This is what sane creatures do. And until we do, we have no lasting peace. The foundational question is thus not whether technology, or this or that use of it, is neutral or good or bad. The real question is: Who is man? From the answer, everything else flows.

from The Catholic Thing article 'Redeemer of Man' by Francis X. Maier