Anti-Tech Revolution (2015)

Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How is a 2016 non-fiction book by Ted Kaczynski.

Publication history

In 2016, the first edition was published. A second edition was published by Fitch & Madison in 2020.

Book structure

There are four chapters and six appendices in the book:

Chapters:

The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control

Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself

How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid

Strategic Guidelines for an Anti-Tech Movement

Appendices:

In Support of Chapter One

In Support of Chapter Two

Stay on Target

The Long-Term Outcome of Geo-Engineering

Thurston's View of Stalin's Terror. State Terrorism in General.

The Teachings of Jesus Christ and Their Effect on Society

Synopsis

This book is split up into two parts: The first two chapters of this book argue for the need for a revolution to bring about the end of the technological system, while the second two chapters detail how a movement against the technological system should organize itself to achieve its goal.

In Chapter 1 of this book, Kaczynski argues against the notion that humans can rationally steer the development of society for numerous reasons, including but not limited to: the problems of complexity, chaos, competition among groups that seek power under the influence of natural selection, issues in deciding leadership and what values should be prioritized, and problems of succession.

Chapter 2, "Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself", develops the author’s theory of "self-propagating systems"—systems that compete against each other for power without any regard for the long-term consequences, since any self-propagating systems that take the long-term into account will lose their competitive edge and be out-competed by self-propagating systems that do not. Kaczynski ultimately argues that since the technological system itself is a self-propagating system composed of self-propagating subsystems that competes for power in the short-term without regard for the long-term negative consequences, that the logical conclusion of the continued growth of the technological system is the complete destruction of the biosphere, wiping out all complex lifeforms.

Chapters 3 and 4 provide guidelines for a movement that would seek to bring about the collapse of the technological system before its continued progression leads to a much larger disaster for humanity and the biosphere.

Contents

Chapter 1: The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control

The first chapter of the book presents various reasons why human societies cannot be subject to rational human control:

Chapter 2: Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself

The second chapter of the book presents the following seven propositions:

Proposition 1: In any environment that is sufficiently rich, self-propagating systems will arise, and natural selection will lead to the evolution of self-propagating systems having increasingly complex, subtle, and sophisticated means of surviving and propagating themselves.

Proposition 2: In the short term, natural selection favors self-propagating systems that pursue their own short-term advantage with little or no regard for long-term consequences.

Proposition 3: Self-propagating subsystems of a given supersystem tend to become dependent on the supersystem and on the specific conditions that prevail within the supersystem.

Proposition 4: Problems of transportation and communication impose a limit on the size of the geographical region over which a self-propagating system can extend its operations.

Proposition 5: The most important and the only consistent limit on the size of the geographical regions over which self-propagating human groups extend their operations is the limit imposed by the available means of transportation and communication. In other words, while not all self-propagating human groups tend to extend their operations over a region of maximum size, natural selection tends to produce some self-propagating human groups that operate over regions approaching the maximum size allowed by the available means of transportation and communication.

Proposition 6: In modern times, natural selection tends to produce some self-propagating human groups whose operations span the entire globe. Moreover, even if human beings are some day replaced by machines or other entities, natural selection will still tend to produce some self-propagating systems whose operations span the entire globe.

Proposition 7: Where (as today) problems of transportation and communication do not constitute effective limitations on the size of the geographical regions over which self-propagating systems operate, natural selection tends to create a world in which power is mostly concentrated in the possession of a relatively small number of global self-propagating systems.

From these propositions, the author suggests that the logical conclusion of the development of the worldwide technological system is that planet Earth will become a dead planet by Holocene extinction.

The author also analyzes various historical cases according to his seven propositions.

Chapter 3: How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid

The third part of this book presents four postulates and five rules for every radical movement to consider if it wants to achieve success. From these postulates and rules, the author concludes that the anti-tech movement should aim to bring about the total collapse of the worldwide technological system by any means necessary.

Postulate 1. One cannot change a society by pursuing goals that are vague or abstract. Instead, one has to have a clear and concrete goal. As an experienced activist put it: "Vague, over-generalized objectives are seldom met. The trick is to conceive of some specific development which will inevitably propel your community in the direction you want it to go."

Postulate 2. Preaching alone—the mere advocacy of ideas—cannot bring about important, long-lasting changes in the behavior of human beings, unless in a very small minority.