Skip to content

Free thinker Quote by Dmitry Orlov

“THE TECHNOSPHERE DOESN’T particularly care whether you live or die, or whether you are happy or miserable. Its goal is to control you and to make you serve its purposes, which are to grow, to control everything and to dominate the biosphere. How it achieves this control is a matter of what is most…” quote by Dmitry Orlov
Download Open image
““THE TECHNOSPHERE DOESN’T particularly care whether you live or die, or whether you are happy or miserable. Its goal is to control you and to make you serve its purposes, which are to grow, to control everything and to dominate the biosphere. How it achieves this control is a matter of what is most efficient. If you are one of its faithful servants, then the best way to make you do your job well is to incentivize you—to give you high status, ample pay and lots of perks. But if you are a lowly menial grunt in its service who, unfortunately, cannot yet be replaced by a shiny new robot, then low pay and low status suffice, and destroying your autonomy and self-reliance while fostering your dependency is the key to making you perform. If you are a technologically useless person but harmless—an artist, a philosopher, writer, poet, free thinker—then the technosphere simply can’t see you, because what you do is not measurable in units the technosphere can understand. But if your thinking turns out to be dangerous or harmful to the techno-sphere—because you are someone who tries to break the chains of dependency and to find ways to live outside of the technosphere, or to undermine it in some other way—then it will consider you as nothing less than a terrorist!””

Dmitry Orlov

About This Quote

Source Book: The Future of Humanity, 2020

The technosphere treats humans as resources, rewarding compliance and punishing independence, and labels dissenters as threats.

In simple terms: Tech controls people, rewarding obedience, punishing independence.

Key Takeaway

Recognize and protect autonomy.

Themes

control dependency technology power surveillance

Mood

cautious critical defiant

Type

philosophical political warning

When to use this quote

  • workplace
  • government policy
  • creative professions
  • activism
  • AI development

Key Concepts

technological determinism social engineering economic incentives

Questions to Reflect On

  • How can we safeguard creative independence?
  • What safeguards prevent tech from labeling dissent as terrorism?
A Different Perspective

It may overlook non‑quantifiable contributions, but still marginalizes critical thinkers.

2.0 out of 5 (5 ratings)

More by Dmitry Orlov

Explore all 10 Dmitry Orlov quotes

More Free thinker quotes

Browse all 46 Free thinker quotes