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we turn stones into axes and came to see the world as a "standing reserve" for our exploitation.

Jacques Ellul wrote presciently and somewhat depressingly about the future of technology back in the 1950s. In English, his masterwork is "The Technological Society." In the original French, it's "La Technique." Technique, or any method for achieving ends with increasing efficiency, is the foundation -- like standing reserve, it's a way of seeing the world. Technology grows from it. (more)