Much of society is trapped in antiquated thought patterns: narrow and hierarchical perspectives; deterministic, linear or emotive methods of reasoning; cause and effect perceptions of relationships; and shallow understandings of human spirit.
Computers help reinforce the mindset that has contributed to the disproportionate impact that Western societies have had on the degradation of the habitat through a Cartesian epistemology that reinforces instrumental problem solving. This ignores the importance of culture as a dimension of the current crisis and distracts from the real challenge, namely to begin to understand the difficult task of changing the conceptual and moral foundations of current cultural practices that reinforce current societal and environmental problems. There is as yet little understanding of how to reverse the demands made by cultures whose belief systems represent the environment as a natural resource and human choices as limited only by lack of data. The Cartesian mindset strengthens the myth of an anthropocentric universe and reinforces the objectification of the world. This establishes the rational process as a basis for procedural and constructionist thinking that facilitates an instrumental and explicit problem-solving approach to a world that is posited as mechanistic in nature.