Theodore Kaczynski

· Technological progress is carrying us to inevitable disaster. ... · Only the collapse of modern technological civilization can avert disaster. ... · What is needed is a new revolutionary movement, dedicated to the elimination of technological society. ... --from the Preface Logical, lucid, and direct, Technological Slavery is more than an expansion on the ideas set forth by Theodore Kaczynski in Industrial Society and Its Future (a.k.a. the "Manifesto"). It radically reinvigorates and reforms the intellectual foundations of an age-old and resurgent world-view: "Progress" is a myth. Wild nature and humanity (including human freedom, dignity, and autonomy) are fundamentally incompatible with technological growth. In Technological Slavery, Kaczynski argues that: (i) the unfolding human and environmental crises are the direct, inevitable result of technology itself; (ii) many of the stresses endured in contemporary life are not normal to the human condition, but unique to technological conditions; (iii) wilderness and human life close to nature are realistic and supreme ideals; and, (iv) a revolution to eliminate modern technology and attain these ideals is necessary and far more achievable than would first appear. Drawing on psychology, economics, history, anthropology, political science, and biology, Kaczynski weaves together a set of visionary social theories to form a revolutionary perspective on the dynamics of history and the evolution of societies. The result is a comprehensive challenge to the fundamental values and assumptions of the modern technology-driven world, pinning the cause of the rapidly unfolding catastrophe on technology itself, while offering a realistic hope for ultimate recovery. Note: Theodore John Kaczynski does not receive any remuneration for this book.

Revised and Expanded Edition

Technological Slavery

"There are many people today who see that modern society is heading toward disaster in one form or another, and who moreover recognize technology as the common thread linking the principal dangers that hang over us... The purpose of this book is to show people how to begin thinking in practical, grand-strategic terms about what must be done in order to get our society off the road to destruction that it is now on." --from the Preface In Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, Kaczynski argues why the rational prediction and control of the development of society is impossible while expounding on the existence of a process fundamental to technological growth that inevitably leads to disaster: a universal process akin to biological natural selection operating autonomously on all dynamic systems and determining the long-term outcome of all significant social developments. Taking a highly logical, fact-based, and intellectually rigorous approach, Kaczynski seamlessly systematizes a vast breadth of knowledge and elegantly reconciles the social sciences with biology to illustrate how technological growth in and of itself necessarily leads to disastrous disruption of global biological systems. Together with this new understanding of social and biological change, and by way of an extensive examination of the dynamics of social movements, Kaczynski argues why there is only one route available to avoid the disaster that technological growth entails: a revolution against technology and industrial society. Through critical and comprehensive analysis of the principles of social revolutions and by carefully developing an exacting theory of successful revolution, Kaczynski offers a practical, rational, and realistic guide for preventing the fast-approaching technology-induced catastrophe. This new second edition (2020) contains various updates and improvements over the first edition (2016), including two new appendices.

Why and How

Anti-Tech Revolution

In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters to media outlets outlining his goals and demanding that his 35,000-word essay Industrial Society and Its Future (dubbed the Unabomber Manifesto by the FBI)be printed verbatim by a major newspaper. He stated that, if this demand was met, he would "desist from terrorism".There was controversy as to whether the essay should be published, but Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh recommended its publication out of concern for public safety and in hope that a reader could identify the author. Bob Guccione of Penthouse volunteered to publish it, but Kaczynski replied that Penthouse was less "respectable" than the other publications. He said that he would "reserve the right to plant one (and only one) bomb intended to kill, after our manuscript has been published". The New York Times and The Washington Post both published the essay on September 19, 1995.

Industrial Society and Its Future

The Unabomber

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.

The Unabomber Manifesto

Valentín Menendez

Graphic novel adaptation of the 1995 essay "Industrial Society and Its Future" by Theodore John Kaczynski.

The Graphic Novel

Ted Kaczynski ́s Industrial Society and Its Future.

Unabomber

He was a gifted mathematician, one of the youngest people to ever teach at Berkeley, a product of the CIA's MKUltra program while a student at Harvard, a recluse and a part-time philosopher. He was also a terrorist, known to the FBI by the acronym UNABOM (UNiversity and Airline BOMBer), thus the media moniker UNABOMBER. His manifesto, "Industrial Society & Its Future" is, in part, the disturbed rantings of a neo-Luddite, as well as a critical analysis of late, modern capitalism and the ills of an over-consumptive society seemingly hell-bent on its own destruction.

Theodore Kaczynski

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