Anti-Tech Revolution

            In Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, Kaczynski compellingly argues for why rational control over the development of society is forever impossible.  Rather than being guided by “reason,” Kaczynski shows that a universal process analogous to biological natural selection operates autonomously on all dynamic systems and that this process primarily determines all significant historical developments.  Furthermore, Kaczynski argues for why the direct consequences of uncontrollable technological growth necessarily leads to a disastrous disruption of the natural equilibrium of global biological and human social systems.

           Based on this new understanding of social and biological change, and by way of an extensive historical and theoretical examination of prior social movements and revolutions, Kaczynski argues that there is only one route available to effect substantial influence on the course of human development to avoid the disaster that technological growth entails: a revolution against technology and industrial society. To this end, Kaczynski offers a practical, “grand-strategic” prescription for the only realistic way to significantly alter the course of society to prevent the fast-approaching technological disaster.

The overall goal for any organization, whether it is social, political or environmental, should be clear and simple. It can't be something vague, like 'promoting democracy' or 'protecting the environment.' The goal also needs to be irreversible; once achieved, it can never be taken away. An example is when women got the right to vote in the early 20th century. After it happened, any politician was going to have a very hard time taking it away from them. No matter how democratic an organization claims to be, there will be times when not every issue can be placed before the entire membership for a vote. There needs to be an inner core of committed members with the authority to make such decisions.

Throughout history, many people have suggested that human society needs to be 'planned' or 'controlled,' for various reasons. A huge, chaotic thing like human society can not be controlled to any great extent. At most, it can be "nudged" in one direction or another. Who decides in what direction human society should go? What is a 'good' outcome? Assume, just for a moment, that it is possible to control human society. Assume that there is a computer system big enough to handle the trillions of equations that need to be solved. Who is in charge, a person or a small group? Who gets to decide who that person, or people, should be? Can a lack of ego be guaranteed?

A number of writers, including Ray Kurzweil, are looking forward to the day when human immortality, or the coming of human cyborgs or the uploading of a person's brain to a computer become reality. The author asserts that these are nonsense. For instance, immortality will only be available to the one percent, not to everyone.

This book is heavy history and social science, so it is not for everyone. The reader will get a lot out of it. This is very highly recommended." — Midwest Book Review

Kaczynski first published Industrial Society and Its Future in 1995 by mailing out letters to targets and news outlets, proclaiming that he would stop his bombing campaign if they published his essay word-for-word. In 1996, the 'Unabomber,' as Kaczynski was called, was finally arrested. He is imprisoned for life.

Even in prison, Kaczynski has continued to write. The ambitious title of latest book Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How would suggest that Kaczynski, after years of deliberating in prison, has found and published the solution to the uncertainty of a technological future. The solution he proposes in this work, however, is not so clear-cut.

He differentiates his book’s arguments from those of an engineering textbook, prefacing: '[a]n engineering textbook provides precise rules which, if followed mechanically, will consistently give the expected results. But no such precise and reliable rules are possible in the social sciences. The ideas in this book therefore need to be applied thoughtfully and creatively, not mechanically or rigidly.' Flexibility and thoughtfulness are themes throughout the book, most prevalent in the first essay, in which Kaczynski argues for continuous, short-term intervention to adapt with societal changes, rather than a stagnant, long-term plan.

Kaczynski treats human society as a self-propagating system, which he defines in his second essay as 'a system that tends to promote its own survival and propagation.' From this definition, he proposes that 'natural selection will lead to [their] evolution' in complexity and will favor 'self-propagating systems that pursue their own short-term advantage.' This evolution, he argues, has led human society to propagate across the globe, fostering a technological system that will eventually self-destruct due to the increased instability arising from greater complexity. Kaczynski counters technophiles through well-reasoned arguments, creating formidable justifications for his beliefs.

The third essay proposes a series of postulates and rules to address problems that past revolutions have perpetrated. Kaczynski’s cautionary advice serves as a warning to how a revolution can become warped without a clear goal. He addresses concerns of acquiring common agreement with the term “democratic fallacy” in his final essay, arguing that it is not the number of people but rather the 'dynamics of social movements' that determine the outcome of democratic elections. Although they can read as somewhat idealistic, these postulates are solid arguments backed by historic trends.

The final essay, like the first, emphasizes the importance of 'flexibility.' The difficulty in predicting long-term actions means that the 'consistent short-term intervention' he brings up in his first essay is crucial for success. What reads as closest to tangible instructions is, ironically, Kaczynski’s prediction of how a successful revolution could be accomplished — that within a society, there will inevitably be a day in which 'a failure of the system' gives a group of committed revolutionaries a chance to rise up while the established authorities are left in disarray. Although logical and somewhat clear-cut, the question remains of how feasible this solution is, as it seems idealistic. As it is a reactive rather than a proactive solution, only time will tell if a group of revolutionaries will take on the challenge. 

In the end, Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How is Kaczynski’s well-reasoned, cohesive composition about how revolutionary groups should approach our mercurial future. His essays are dense with material and references, organized in a format akin to mathematical proofs, with postulates and propositions, reflective of Kaczynski’s background as a mathematician.

His more elaborate arguments focus more on the 'revolution' than on the 'anti-tech,' distilling ideas based on the flaws and merits of past social movements. If you are expecting an immediate remedy, you may want to give this book a pass. Otherwise, I recommend that you read this compelling perspective on how we can frame our struggles in a technological society, with considerations applicable to any social movement, neo-Luddite or not." — Ivy Li, The Tech - MIT Student Newspaper