Miller Cites Shrewd Sophistication As Liability of Modern Technocracy

Samuel H. Miller, Dean of the Divinity School, said last night that in an increasingly technological society, man must "achieve an integrity of a new and higher complexity." Dean Miller spoke on "The Effect of Technology on the Human Spirit" at the final session of the second annual Lemann Lectures.

"It is possible to lose large areas of sensitivity in a seemingly sophisticated culture," Dean Miller said. "We must transcend the shrewdness of our present sophistication if we are to maintain the dimension of human reality."

Increased specialization has caused the separation of the various elements of our culture, according to Dean Miller. He cited our "dislocation from nature," and the substitution of a specialized committee for an integrated community.

"A technique is a way of doing something without being personally involved," he said. "I suspect that a 'technical society' is a contradiction in terms."

Addressing himself to the topic of the series, "Can We Design the Future," Dean Miller said that probably no program could be established to produce a healthier society. "We must start from the individual. We must cease being technical specialists alone."

He emphasized the need for well-rounded individuals, and disagreed with a statement from the floor that "technology is irrelevant." We must, he said, integrate technology into our society.

Dean Miller also put faith in the "perversity of man." He said that if the world became too perfect by means of its technology, people would simply revoit, refuse to avail themselves of the enslaving apparatus. "You see people doing that already," he said.

Another floor speaker questioned Dean Miller's idea of "dislocation from nature." He said that in his work with primitive Brazilian Indians, he had found them quite unconscious of nature.

"Nature is a myth, invention of the elite. Let us hurry the advance of technology, that others may be free to enjoy the myth."