I think it's certainly true with a fixed population size that technology helps us gain efficiency.
I guess we just need to change what we want out of mechanisation: historically it's been; more, cheaper, convenience, etc
We need to change to: sustainable, fair, necessary
The fact is, I can buy cheap plastic crap from somewhere to entertain myself for a day and get it shipped same/next day - but I don't _need_ to, nobody does. Like sugar is addicting, so is a lot of stuff in our modern lives. New phone every 6-12 months? There are people that do this and it's possible because everything has been set up to support it because we're _so_ concerned about our addiction to this sort of thing but not how it impacts the environment or social equity and so many other things.
Our species needs to change priorities so badly, but we're too weighed down by the cruel calculus that evolution gave us.
I guess we just need to change what we want out of mechanisation: historically it's been; more, cheaper, convenience, etc
We need to change to: sustainable, fair, necessary
The fact is, I can buy cheap plastic crap from somewhere to entertain myself for a day and get it shipped same/next day - but I don't _need_ to, nobody does. Like sugar is addicting, so is a lot of stuff in our modern lives. New phone every 6-12 months? There are people that do this and it's possible because everything has been set up to support it because we're _so_ concerned about our addiction to this sort of thing but not how it impacts the environment or social equity and so many other things.
Our species needs to change priorities so badly, but we're too weighed down by the cruel calculus that evolution gave us.