| Commentary/Opinion Who
"Owns" Technology?
 I
am not an archaeologist. I've never surveyed a site
nor catalogued artifacts; and I am an Egyptologist
only by definitions of the most ephemeral sort. My
only serious engagement in the subject of Egyptology
was in the late 1950s when I spent my Saturday
afternoons away from my Navy electronics schooling
leafing through the pages of the
Book of the Dead at a local public library.
I probably understood less than two percent of the
material, but I wasn't experiencing "common
understanding." I had a sense that I was dealing
with something much bigger than my everyday Navy
life. Being motivated by mere facts and passing
exams (or receiving research grants) have their
limits, but an imagination stirred by wonder does
not. Now, nearly sixty years later, my waning
interest in electronics is kept barely alive by an
occasional opportunity to make a few dollars writing
about it. But the wonder--the excitement--of those
days leafing through a translation of the Book of
the Dead will never diminish. It's the kind of
stuff that disserves the attention of serious
lifelong learners.
Clearly, the academic world would not consider me to
be an archaeologist or a member of its subset,
Egyptologist. I don't either. However, I have the
advantage of a certain perspective on
people--academics and technologists in
particular--that is born of decades of observation
and direct participation in other venues. So I
believe I am in a position to do some critical
assessment of contemporary archaeology and
Egyptology in particular.
The overarching, universal perspective today is that
cultures existing prior to the 19th century were
primitive. (You can mark the date about anywhere you
want. It makes no difference). To refer to the
technology of Ancient Egypt as "primitive" is a
reflection of ones ignorance that is born of
arrogance--two characteristics that make for really
bad science. Our pervasive, 21st-century Western
perspective on science and technology not only
limits and distorts our understanding of ancient
cultures, but also erects barriers to scientific and
technological progress in our own time. |
