Jonah Goldberg, What is Your Major Malfunction?
By Brad’s Battlestar Galactica article reminded me of this gem (discovered by Scott) from Jonah Goldberg,written in response to episode 2-17:
In a society scientifically so much more advanced, it seems to me that the issue would no longer be controversial one way or the other. Either contraceptive technology would have “solved” the problem. Or moral dogma about abortion’s acceptable parameters would have been long established.
I’m left to wonder exactly what Jonah is thinking about when he’s imagining a technological fix for the abortion problem, but that’s not really the funny part. Ron Moore has left us some subtle hints indicating that he’s not optimistic about the ability of technology to solve basic societal problems. These hints include the low level of much Colonial technology, the vulnerability of high tech equipment to Cylon attack, the emphasis on religion as an enduring element of the human experience, and, last but not least, the fact that he’s produced a show about KILLER ROBOTS WHO OVERTHROW AND TRY TO EXTERMINATE HUMANITY. This speaks to a certain skepticism regarding the impact of technological progress on human happiness…
Cross-posted at Tapped.