Is technology the whore of capitalism?

From Huffington Post comes a movie review for War, Inc. that asks a fascinating question.

The promise of technology was to relieve us of onerous labors, leaving us more time for delight and relaxation. Instead, technology has provided new onerous labors to replace the old, placed greater production demands on the laborer, or left unemployed and poor those it has rendered unnecessary to production.

What the hell, Technology? Why did you break your promise?

Come to think of it, where did you get off making such a ludicrous promise in the first place? How exactly was free time going to be redistributed in a world of every-man-for-himself capitalism?

What da hell wuz you thinkin'?

Here's his thought provoking answer to his own question

Did technology really think we would all be socialists by now? Silly goose. Is that why it made those promises it couldn't keep?

Read the rest. It's an interesting idea.

He speculates about the influence of technology in the development of capitalism (and war). Technology makes it cheaper to produce with fewer workers but that savings disappears into a capitalists pocket. Our ancestors seemed to think that technology would encourage social equality. A lot of technogeeks today would agree. So far it doesn't seem to be working. Instead technology encourages capitalism. Which encourages inequality. Which encourages war. Which encourages technology...

I never realized that my lost leisure time has been out making war.