James Toye
Dr. Johns
3/17/09
Final Project Proposal
For my final project, I plan on analyzing in depth the themes of the Unabomber Manifesto, or Industrial Society and Its Future. Written by Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, it offers reasons for turning away from technological development. The obvious counterargument is that technological development is vital and not harmful enough to mankind to stop it. For researdch, I will be using Kaczynski's essay, as well as various readings from class this semester, including the Bill Joy article, Lee Silver's book Challenging Nature, and bill McKibben's book Enough.
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2 comments:
This is a fine starting point (I had a very interesting paper on a similar topic in another class), but the thing that stands out to me is that you don't have an argument in this version. Maybe you're simply not there yet, but that's the most important thing: are you offering an unqualified rejection, unqualified embrace, qualified rejections or qualified embrace of K's critique of technology, and why? And what are the larger implications (or even the implications to yourself) of the way you orient yourself on these issues?
To be honest, what I posted was a rushed piece of work, here is a more detailed proposal. I still haven't read the Unabomber Manifesto, so I do not have an exact thesis or counterargument.
Final Project Proposal
For my final project, I will write a paper focusing on rebutting the main points of Theodore Kaczynski’s Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto. Kaczynski’s Luddite views disagree with my own of technological progression, and should provide a sharp contrast.
Thesis:
I have not yet decided on my thesis, but as I wrote in the previous paragraph, it will have to do with my own views of technological progress. I have not yet read the Unabomber Manifesto, so I cannot provide the exact themes which I will discuss.
I plan to draw on the Bill Joy article from class, Lee Silver’s Challenging Nature and Bill McKibben’s Enough.
Counterargument:
The counterargument to my thesis will be an opposition to technological progression, focusing on the themes from Kaczynski’s book.
Research:
As stated, I will be using most of the in-class material for research, as well as Industrial Society and Its Future.
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