TECHNOLOGY WITH A HUMAN FACE E. F. Schumacher

E.F. Schumacher was an economist of international repute and the author of the book titled “Small is Beautiful”: A study of economics as if people mattered. This essay “Technology with a Human Face” is taken from his book “Small is Beautiful”. In this essay Schumacher expresses his fear and concern about the inhuman nature of modern technology which is taking the world from crisis to crisis and says that a new type of technology called self-help technology is needed so that everyone including old men and children can work with their clever brain and two skilful hands with great satisfaction.

 Schumacher says that the laws and principles of technology are different from those of human nature. The system of nature is based on self-balancing, self-adjusting and self-cleansing. But technology does not have any self-limit principle. As a result modern world faces three crises simultaneously. Modern technology destroys human life and Nature. Secondly non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels are running short and finally it creates pollution and global warming.

Schumacher says that industrialisation of twenty five years could only bring illusory success because the two big problems of unemployment and poverty could not be solved and even in the developed countries unemployment problem is very serious. He says that the primary task of technology is to reduce the burden of man’s work so that he can enjoy life and relax. But modern technology is eliminating skilful, productive and creative work of human hands and brains. Modern technology is gigantic, highly complicated and needed huge capital investment. Only the rich can afford to run modern factories. These labour saving machines makes the rich richer and poor poorer and unemployment and poverty increases all over the world.

Thomas Aquinas, the great Italian philosopher and theologian defines man as a being who wants to enjoy doing work with his hands and brains. But in the modern world such work is being done by machines. Such work has become very rare and one has to be immensely rich enough to get such creative, productive and useful work. Instead people get fragmented work which is so boring that workers suffer from neurosis.

Schumacher says that only less than one sixth of the total population of the world is engaged in actual production of goods. It means that the proportion of “total social time” spent on actual production is only 3.5 per cent. The other 96.5 per cent of ‘total social time’ is spent in other ways including sleeping, eating, watching television, doing jobs that are not directly productive, or just killing time. Karl Max, the founder of Communism and author of Das Capital had foreseen this tragedy. He said that production of too many useful things, lead to too many useless people. All this confirms our suspicion that modern technology is showing an increasingly inhuman face.

 We have so far, possessed a vast accumulation of new knowledge which include splendid scientific techniques to increase this knowledge further and immense practical experience in its application. This is called truthful knowledge. But so far, we have made an unwise and destructive use of our technology because we never get enjoyment in our work. Therefore Schumacher suggests an idea that the productive time of 3.5% of total social time to be increased to 20% of total social time. If this wonderful idea is put into practice, even children and old people would be able to do creative, productive and useful work and they can enjoy doing it with their clever brain and two skilful hands. The therapeutic and educational value of such enjoyable and useful work will be blessing for all people in the world. Then no one wants to raise the school leaving age or to lower the retirement age. Everybody would welcome the opportunity of working usefully, creatively with his own hands and brains in his own time at his own pace and with excellent tools. People who work in this way do not know the difference between work and leisure because the work itself is full of pleasure and enjoyment!

 Schumacher is a great admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and tries to follow his teaching in the scientific ideas about the new life-style he has visualised in this essay.

 Gandhiji said that the poor of the world cannot be helped by mass production, only by production by the mass. According to Schumacher, a new technology with a human face should be introduced. The present inhuman technology is based on mass production with highly capital investment and high energy input where workers are mere slaves of work and the rich owner makes huge profit. This system should be changed and a new technology with a human face should be introduced. Instead of mass production, the new system is based on production by the masses. All people, young and old can work with their skilful hands and clever brains with first class tools in their own time and speed and then work would be great pleasure for them.

 In concluding his essay, Schumacher says that the technology of production by the masses is called “the intermediate technology” because this technology is far superior to the primitive technology of old days, but at the same time much simpler, cheaper and freer than the super technology of the rich. The intermediate technology can also be called ‘self- help technology or democratic or people’s technology. This technology is making use of the best of modern knowledge and experience, suitable for the laws of ecology, gentle in its use of natural resources and designed to serve human being instead of making him the servant of machine.

Kjt/16-03-2013