Technology is less important than you think to change culture.
If we changed all the technology from Japan’s or Europe’s rail systems with ours, in Japan and Europe, they’d have their now-crappy trains on crappy tracks to dilapidated stations running on time and the US would have its now super-advanced trains running late and missing stops.
If we changed the people instead, the US would start running its trains on time and Japan’s would run late.
Think of that next time someone tries to solve a social problem like the environment with technology. I’ll take culture over technology any day. I’d rather have both, but American culture needs fixing more than technology. Our technological innovations exacerbate our cultural problems because technology augments the values of the people and culture wielding it. In the US, that means waste.
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