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Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-sufficiency and Freedom
This book debunks the prevailing view that whatever the problem, it's newer, bigger and better technology that's the solution. Over the past two centuries we have witnessed a wholesale replacement of most of the previous methods of conducting both business and daily life with new, technologically advanced, more efficient methods. What exactly is progressive or efficient about this new arrangement is hardly ever examined in if the new ways of doing things are so much better, then we must all be leading relaxed, stress-free, enjoyable lives with plenty of free time to devote to art and leisure activities. But a more careful look at these changes shows us that many of these advances are not weighing favourably in a harm/benefit comparison. The harm to the environment, society, and even to our own personalities, on an individual level, is plain to see, but is brushed off with hollow claims about efficiency and progress. Shrinking the Technosphere guides readers through the process of bringing technology down to a manageable number of carefully chosen, essential, well-understood and controllable elements. It is about regaining the freedom to use technology for our own benefit, and is critical reading for all who seek to get back to a point where technologies assist us rather than control us.
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 8, 2017
I recently read about an international survey that contrasts the "self-expression values" of the West with the "survival values" of Eastern Europe and Russia especially. For readers who have already become convinced by their own reading and analyses that "self-expression values" are on their way out and "survival values" are going to triumph, this book is an indispensable building block for conceiving of an antifragile post-Western society. It attempts to approach systems which are too massive and too invasive in Western lives for us to even start thinking about escaping, from a liberated Russian perspective.
I cannot call this book a classic because it is a bit conspiratorial in its thinking and is very much written for a critical time which I would roughly define by the dates 2017-2019. But if you want to know what you should be preparing for in these years, this book is the right place to get started. It's worth owning.
I cannot call this book a classic because it is a bit conspiratorial in its thinking and is very much written for a critical time which I would roughly define by the dates 2017-2019. But if you want to know what you should be preparing for in these years, this book is the right place to get started. It's worth owning.
July 22, 2017
Shrinking the Technosphere by Dmitry Orlov is a disturbing read, especially if you’re new to collapse literature, but it is high on my “Get a Clue” list. It shines such a light on reality that I consider it essential reading for anyone who dares to see the true workings of human affairs. Its great value is in its baseline idea averring that the sum of all technologies and cultural institutions are best viewed as a living, evolved, even sentient, organism.
“…integral entities that consist of what to the human mind appears as an infinite number of parts interacting in an infinite number of ways……artifacts— part numbers, stock keeping units, model numbers, versions, bills of materials— that have built our industrial civilization.”
This idea is complimentary, in a dark way, to James Lovelock’s idea of the earth’s biosphere being seen as a single organism (The Gaia Theory). These two supra-organisms constitute the totality of life on Earth and are, Mr. Orlov says, in a death struggle.
In nine chapters, an Introduction, and an Afterword, Mr. Orlov describes what the technosphere is, where it came from, what it does, and where it’s likely going (taking us with it). He shows us the technosphere’s pervasiveness and what it threatens (basically, all life on Earth). He offers some strategies for “wresting control” from the technosphere and describes the “Great Transition” that is already underway.
I find the technosphere concept a useful tool for evaluating our situation. It allows us to encapsulate the many components of industrial civilization into a whole that we can better comprehend. That comprehension is of a Frankenstein’s Monster, spawned by the Agricultural Revolution (see the works of Daniel Quinn and Riane Eisler) and rampaging over humanity throughout history. Seeing that rampage as the work of the technosphere, keeps us from being distracted by the multitude of oppressors: psychopathic rulers, moneyed oligarchs, capitalists, bankers, organized crime, organized religion, communism, militarism, the “breakaway civilization,” all governments, and on and on. All of these are components of the technosphere—nurtured by it and enabling of it. Viewed this way, we can readily see, in history and in current events, the root of our problems.
In Chapter Three, Mr. Orlov spends some time on a couple of other thinkers who also wrote about the technosphere without naming it as such. One is Jacques Ellul, who wrote The Technological Society (in French) over sixty years ago from a Christian viewpoint. I had never heard of the man but the quotes from his book struck me as accurate descriptions of current life.
The other thinker is Ted Kaczynski, the FBI-declared, Unabomber. While not condoning Kaczynski’s violent actions, Mr. Orlov finds his writings (and the man apparently writes a lot from prison) accurate in describing the technosphere. Some may see this section as controversial or off-putting, and it is tough to reconcile. Still, the quotes from Kaczynski read as insightful and without offering any violent solutions (he must have changed his mind later). There is no condoning of Kacznyski’s violence here, just a noting that some portions of his writings got it right.
Chapter Seven, “Social Machines,” describes the state of the organizations that make up our society—religion, government, business, all taking on the operating characteristics of machines and functioning to dehumanize us. This chapter contains a section on psychopaths that I found especially relevant. Mr. Orlov is not the first commentator to note that psychopaths run things, but he explains how the technosphere selects for them. And so our rulers throughout human history, from clan elders to kings to presidents, tend to be heartless and brutal.
Shrinking the Technosphere is a major contribution to collapse literature and a significant addition to Mr. Orlov’s writings. In defining the technosphere, he is showing us “the enemy” that has matured and nearly reached its end-of-life. That end, however, is frightful and humans must “wrest control” from it. The suggested strategies for doing just that is the hopeful part of this book. Indeed, it’s the only hope humanity has, because the technosphere, Satan-like, seeks to control absolutely everything.
That we can escape the technosphere’s fatal trap are suggested by this book’s subtitle: Getting a Grip on the Technologies that Limit Our Autonomy, Sell-Sufficiency and Freedom. The strategies Mr. Orlov describes are, I think, valid, and echo what other collapse thinkers have said. He adds that some kind of social “glue” is also helpful in the form of a common ideology or religion. Getting back to our human roots, he says, will shrink the technosphere. He suggests ways to do that without abandoning all of modern technology (he is an engineer and IT worker) and in ways that won’t feed the technosphere.
The subject matter of industrial civilization’s history, operation, and collapse is very dark material when approached with open mind and brutal honesty. That darkness is reaching the point of penetrating the bubbles of even the most distracted among us. The only apparent end of it all is total destruction. Mr. Orlov’s writings recognize this and don’t usually offer much hope. In Shrinking the Technosphere, he offers the only hope that is likely for humanity and for the earth, which is to make the transition from global technical complexity to local sustainability. He describes that transition in his book, The Five Stages of Collapse, which I see as a companion to this one. This book’s last chapter, “The Great Transition,” is among the most hopeful and compassionate writing I’ve seen from Mr. Orlov, and is a fitting conclusion.
Shrinking the Technosphere offers a useful way of looking at our situation. It is a “bubble bursting” view of reality that also points out some enduring life styles that, while difficult to embrace, form our best chance for survival. How to put them into effect is an exercise for the reader.
“…integral entities that consist of what to the human mind appears as an infinite number of parts interacting in an infinite number of ways……artifacts— part numbers, stock keeping units, model numbers, versions, bills of materials— that have built our industrial civilization.”
This idea is complimentary, in a dark way, to James Lovelock’s idea of the earth’s biosphere being seen as a single organism (The Gaia Theory). These two supra-organisms constitute the totality of life on Earth and are, Mr. Orlov says, in a death struggle.
In nine chapters, an Introduction, and an Afterword, Mr. Orlov describes what the technosphere is, where it came from, what it does, and where it’s likely going (taking us with it). He shows us the technosphere’s pervasiveness and what it threatens (basically, all life on Earth). He offers some strategies for “wresting control” from the technosphere and describes the “Great Transition” that is already underway.
I find the technosphere concept a useful tool for evaluating our situation. It allows us to encapsulate the many components of industrial civilization into a whole that we can better comprehend. That comprehension is of a Frankenstein’s Monster, spawned by the Agricultural Revolution (see the works of Daniel Quinn and Riane Eisler) and rampaging over humanity throughout history. Seeing that rampage as the work of the technosphere, keeps us from being distracted by the multitude of oppressors: psychopathic rulers, moneyed oligarchs, capitalists, bankers, organized crime, organized religion, communism, militarism, the “breakaway civilization,” all governments, and on and on. All of these are components of the technosphere—nurtured by it and enabling of it. Viewed this way, we can readily see, in history and in current events, the root of our problems.
In Chapter Three, Mr. Orlov spends some time on a couple of other thinkers who also wrote about the technosphere without naming it as such. One is Jacques Ellul, who wrote The Technological Society (in French) over sixty years ago from a Christian viewpoint. I had never heard of the man but the quotes from his book struck me as accurate descriptions of current life.
The other thinker is Ted Kaczynski, the FBI-declared, Unabomber. While not condoning Kaczynski’s violent actions, Mr. Orlov finds his writings (and the man apparently writes a lot from prison) accurate in describing the technosphere. Some may see this section as controversial or off-putting, and it is tough to reconcile. Still, the quotes from Kaczynski read as insightful and without offering any violent solutions (he must have changed his mind later). There is no condoning of Kacznyski’s violence here, just a noting that some portions of his writings got it right.
Chapter Seven, “Social Machines,” describes the state of the organizations that make up our society—religion, government, business, all taking on the operating characteristics of machines and functioning to dehumanize us. This chapter contains a section on psychopaths that I found especially relevant. Mr. Orlov is not the first commentator to note that psychopaths run things, but he explains how the technosphere selects for them. And so our rulers throughout human history, from clan elders to kings to presidents, tend to be heartless and brutal.
Shrinking the Technosphere is a major contribution to collapse literature and a significant addition to Mr. Orlov’s writings. In defining the technosphere, he is showing us “the enemy” that has matured and nearly reached its end-of-life. That end, however, is frightful and humans must “wrest control” from it. The suggested strategies for doing just that is the hopeful part of this book. Indeed, it’s the only hope humanity has, because the technosphere, Satan-like, seeks to control absolutely everything.
That we can escape the technosphere’s fatal trap are suggested by this book’s subtitle: Getting a Grip on the Technologies that Limit Our Autonomy, Sell-Sufficiency and Freedom. The strategies Mr. Orlov describes are, I think, valid, and echo what other collapse thinkers have said. He adds that some kind of social “glue” is also helpful in the form of a common ideology or religion. Getting back to our human roots, he says, will shrink the technosphere. He suggests ways to do that without abandoning all of modern technology (he is an engineer and IT worker) and in ways that won’t feed the technosphere.
The subject matter of industrial civilization’s history, operation, and collapse is very dark material when approached with open mind and brutal honesty. That darkness is reaching the point of penetrating the bubbles of even the most distracted among us. The only apparent end of it all is total destruction. Mr. Orlov’s writings recognize this and don’t usually offer much hope. In Shrinking the Technosphere, he offers the only hope that is likely for humanity and for the earth, which is to make the transition from global technical complexity to local sustainability. He describes that transition in his book, The Five Stages of Collapse, which I see as a companion to this one. This book’s last chapter, “The Great Transition,” is among the most hopeful and compassionate writing I’ve seen from Mr. Orlov, and is a fitting conclusion.
Shrinking the Technosphere offers a useful way of looking at our situation. It is a “bubble bursting” view of reality that also points out some enduring life styles that, while difficult to embrace, form our best chance for survival. How to put them into effect is an exercise for the reader.
February 22, 2017
The worst book I've ever read. The worst. Goodreads needs a 0 option for this particular form of hell. Not all book club selections are fabulous but please, let's not sink so low again!
February 17, 2017
A useful investigation into the idea of a sentient technosphere as a construct to understand the world as it comes through the peak of everything.
I felt the book suffered from a lack of concrete examples of ways to eliminate the influence of the technosphere from our lives, and would benefit from some stories from the community of smart people Dmitry Orlov has gathered around him.
I also found the scattered topics didn't form a cohesive approach to the central shrinking theme. Each topic loosely tied to the idea of technosphere, but ranged from lifestyle blocks in the Siberian outback, western meddling in Russian politics via Color Revolutions and the psychopathic behaviour of modern bureaucratic organisations.
Overall, I enjoyed the read. Orlov has a good no-nonsense voice that comes through in this book. It's a good addition to the literature of Peak Everything, although not the book I would give to someone as an introduction to those ideas.
I felt the book suffered from a lack of concrete examples of ways to eliminate the influence of the technosphere from our lives, and would benefit from some stories from the community of smart people Dmitry Orlov has gathered around him.
I also found the scattered topics didn't form a cohesive approach to the central shrinking theme. Each topic loosely tied to the idea of technosphere, but ranged from lifestyle blocks in the Siberian outback, western meddling in Russian politics via Color Revolutions and the psychopathic behaviour of modern bureaucratic organisations.
Overall, I enjoyed the read. Orlov has a good no-nonsense voice that comes through in this book. It's a good addition to the literature of Peak Everything, although not the book I would give to someone as an introduction to those ideas.
February 15, 2022
It talked a lot about the "technosphere" which is a term describing the "industrial complex" in other terms. It did give a few very brief overviews of solutions, many only hinted at. Mostly it gave a mindset for thinking about the issues and minimizing dependence on the technosphere.
But it didn't really give a list of basic technologies or anything like that. And the author turned out to be somewhat of a hypocrite himself choosing the boating life, even though conventional sailboats are highly dependent on fossil fuels and the existence of technology. They also have a tendency of sinking fairly often.
Anyhow it did give a good overview of the technosphere and how it tries to hold people. But it missed some of the more obvious solutions such as living like the indigenous with permaculture food forests.
The closest it had was living like indigenous slavic people in siberia, but it totally missed the part about growing fruit and nut trees. Also he was confused thinking that animals are high in fat and one of few sources of it. Animals are actually high in protein, nuts are high in fat.
But it didn't really give a list of basic technologies or anything like that. And the author turned out to be somewhat of a hypocrite himself choosing the boating life, even though conventional sailboats are highly dependent on fossil fuels and the existence of technology. They also have a tendency of sinking fairly often.
Anyhow it did give a good overview of the technosphere and how it tries to hold people. But it missed some of the more obvious solutions such as living like the indigenous with permaculture food forests.
The closest it had was living like indigenous slavic people in siberia, but it totally missed the part about growing fruit and nut trees. Also he was confused thinking that animals are high in fat and one of few sources of it. Animals are actually high in protein, nuts are high in fat.
February 28, 2022
In Italiano “Restringere la Tecnosfera”, questo manuale del russo Dmitry Orlov, del Club Orlov, famoso per le sue teorie sul collasso, con mia sorpresa non è mai stato tradotto in italiano. Per questo, dopo averne letto l’introduzione, che ho subito tradotto per il mio blog, ho chiesto a Giorgio Rosso, editore di Macroedizioni (con cui ho avuto la fortuna di fare amicizia all’evento SAND in Umbria) se poteva inviarmi una scheda di valutazione tecnica da riempire con le motivazioni per cui ritenevo questa pubblicazione adatta per le sue edizioni (in particolare pensavo alla collana Arianna).
Ciò accadeva 5 mesi fa, poi, rendendomi conto che quello non era il periodo giusto per impegnarmi in una lunga traduzione, mi sono proposto di rimandare l’idea almeno ad un momento successivo alla lettura integrale dell’opera in inglese.
Avendo già tradotto l’introduzione in italiano, non mi dilungherò oltre su questo manuale. Vi confido solamente che esso contiene dei “segreti”, delle soluzioni pratiche per me di alto valore, che intendo applicare alla mia vita a partire da alcune piccole scelte del quotidiano fino ad arrivare a realizzare il mio sogno di vivere libero, in armonia con la natura, in un’abitazione del tutto autosufficiente.
citazioni :
" Scientific curiosity now comes down to being curious about just how much additional prestige one can get from using some fancy new gadget […] Physics and chemistry rule; biology is only high-profile if it can be reduced to biochemistry. "
" La curiosità scientifica ora si riduce all’essere curiosi soltanto di quanto maggiore prestigio uno possa trarre dall’utilizzo di nuovi gadget stravaganti […] La fisica e la chimica dominano; la biologia è di alto profilo solo se può essere ridotta alla biochimica. "
Titolo originale : Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-Sufficiency and Freedom
Edizione : New Society Publishers ; 2016
Ciò accadeva 5 mesi fa, poi, rendendomi conto che quello non era il periodo giusto per impegnarmi in una lunga traduzione, mi sono proposto di rimandare l’idea almeno ad un momento successivo alla lettura integrale dell’opera in inglese.
Avendo già tradotto l’introduzione in italiano, non mi dilungherò oltre su questo manuale. Vi confido solamente che esso contiene dei “segreti”, delle soluzioni pratiche per me di alto valore, che intendo applicare alla mia vita a partire da alcune piccole scelte del quotidiano fino ad arrivare a realizzare il mio sogno di vivere libero, in armonia con la natura, in un’abitazione del tutto autosufficiente.
citazioni :
" Scientific curiosity now comes down to being curious about just how much additional prestige one can get from using some fancy new gadget […] Physics and chemistry rule; biology is only high-profile if it can be reduced to biochemistry. "
" La curiosità scientifica ora si riduce all’essere curiosi soltanto di quanto maggiore prestigio uno possa trarre dall’utilizzo di nuovi gadget stravaganti […] La fisica e la chimica dominano; la biologia è di alto profilo solo se può essere ridotta alla biochimica. "
Titolo originale : Shrinking the Technosphere: Getting a Grip on Technologies that Limit our Autonomy, Self-Sufficiency and Freedom
Edizione : New Society Publishers ; 2016
January 23, 2025
The technosphere is an alternative reality which most of us are actualizing to varying degrees. This reality is like a supra-organism, the antithesis of the biosphere's Gaia hypothesis. It feeds upon the biosphere and continues to grow until there is no biosphere remaining.
Orlov is brilliantly insightful and sees a much bigger picture than most. He also provides some examples on how to decrease our dependence upon this technosphere, gaining us both independence and freedom.
This book has earned my rare rating of five stars. I will assuredly read it again, along with other works by Orlov.
Orlov is brilliantly insightful and sees a much bigger picture than most. He also provides some examples on how to decrease our dependence upon this technosphere, gaining us both independence and freedom.
This book has earned my rare rating of five stars. I will assuredly read it again, along with other works by Orlov.
June 29, 2017
fascinating... bat-shit crazy manifesto that's a lot more pro-Putin and anti civil society than it is anti-technology as the title would suggest.
March 29, 2018
Rise up and strike a blow!
May 21, 2019
Interesting and thought provoking book.
November 10, 2021
One of the more depressing collapse books I've read this year. Orlov not only makes collapse seem extremely grim, but the alternative, the continued dominance of the techno sphere even worse.
February 1, 2017
Marvelously provocative, Orlov thinks & writes the unthinkable. This is about the big picture of climate disruption & resource depletion & what to expect from worst-case scenarios which may already be inevitable. Orlov divides the human environment into the biosphere - composed of all natural & living things which supports life - & the technosphere which is the sum total of human invention & argues that the technosphere is the enemy of the biosphere & will inevitably work towards its destruction. There is much in the book which is frightening & distasteful & yet I recommend it highly & consider it essential.
April 9, 2017
A strange but interesting contribution. While a bit (wildly) conspiratorial in his thinking at times, Orlov's discussion of technological society as a sentient-like system is very useful for analyzing elements of global capitalism, and he discusses (albeit briefly) some very interesting and useful concepts for self-sufficiency, such as his distinction between flows and artifacts in personal possessions and his exploration of Nature-Like Technologies and the use of that phrase in the Russian political lexicon. Unfortunately, many elements of the book reveal haste or lack of application in its writing. Still, I do not regret investing the relatively short amount of time required to read this, and I might recommend it for others, with caveats.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews