from - Big Think article - Dan Carlin on humanity’s uncontrollable “Prometheus complex” - https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbigthink.com%2Fthinking%2Fdan-carlin-on-humanitys-uncontrollable-prometheus-complex%2F&group=world

for - progress trap - Prometheus complex - adjacency - progress trap - Prometheus complex - Gaston Bachelard - Gaston Bachelard - French philosopher

adjacency - between - progress trap - Prometheus complex - Gaston Bachelard - adjacency statement - Prometheus complex and progress traps have much in common: - both look at the shadow side of innovation - The mythology of Icarus geting too close the sun is one common to both - Bachelard wrote a pith work on the analysis of the element of fire, in which he introduced the concept of the Prometheus complex - https://philpapers.org/rec/OSEPCA

for - quote - Prometheus complex - progress trap

quote - Prometheus complex - progress trap - (see below)

• Our hands and our brains will,
  • perhaps unconsciously
• drift towad the very thing we're debating if we should do
• author - Jenny Thomson

for - quote - Prometheus complex - progress trap

quote - Prometheus complex - progress trap - (see below)

• As the rational, intellectual part of ourselves wrestles with the decision,
  • a deeper Promethean part of ourselves has pressed it (the red button) already
• author - Jenny Thomson

for - progress trap - Prometheus complex - Dan Carlin - Gaston Bachelard - philosopher

summary - This short article brings up an interesting connection between - the Prometheus complex, - a term coined by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard and - progress traps, - the unintended consequences of progress - The key insight is that human beings may have an Achilles Heel - the desire to know, even at the cost of harm - could be such a powerful impulsive urge - that we throw caution to the wind and - Icarus mythology may be a self-fulfilling prophecy - This also echos the views of my colleague Gyuri Lajos, - that invention for invention sake possesses this very dark side. - This is an important adjacency - as it questions the ethics of knowledge for knowledge sake - As we know from - the history of - progress and its shadowy counterpart, - the progress trap - our impulsive urge to invent has harmful impacts on everyone, - and these continually compound with time

for - impulsive urge - invention - adjacency - progress trap - impulsive urge to invent - Prometheus complex - Gyuri Lajos perspective

Adjacency - between - progress trap - impulsive urge - Gyuri Lajos perspective - Prometheus complex - adjacency statement - It would seem that the the Prometheus complex - is an apt description of that which Gyuri objects to in innovation, namely - innovation for innovation sake - in other words, the impulsive urge merely to know - even if it brings a terrible price

for - definition - Prometheus complex

definition - Prometheus complex - All those tendencies which impel us to know - as much as our fathers, more than our fathers - as much as our teachers, more than our teachers - author - Gaston Bachelard

for - quote - Dan Carlin - quote - progress trap - Prometheus complex - Dan Carlin

quote - progress trap - Prometheus complex - (see below)

• [I wonder] whether or not human society actually has the agency that we think we have
  • to not invent something if we think it might be bad.
• If you look down the technological road in the distance and see something horrible, could humankind go,
  • ‘Oh, you know what? We’re just not going to go there.’
• I’m not sure we have that agency.

comment - Deep Humanity praxis proposes that a new discipline of Progress traps is what is needed to do exactly this - Give us a meta perspective so that we can assess future harm and damage as - AN ACTIONABLE FORESIGHT, not a - TREATABLE HINDSIGHT