Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political ThoughtThe truth of the matter is that our deficiency does not lie in the want of well-verified "facts." What we lack is our bearings. The contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments. Categories, arguments, conclusions, and choices that would have been entirely obvious in earlier times are obvious no longer. Patterns of perceptive thinking that were entirely reliable in the past now lead us systematically astray. Many of our standard conceptions of technology reveal a disorientation that borders on dissociation from reality. And as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the "data" in the world will make no difference. From the Introduction |
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Contents
| 2 | |
| 18 | |
| 44 | |
| 57 | |
| 73 | |
| 88 | |
Chapter 3 | 107 |
The Search for a New Ethic | 130 |
Master and Slave Revisited | 187 |
Transformation and Incorporation | 208 |
Reverse Adaptation | 226 |
The Technological Imperative and the State | 251 |
Chapter 7 | 279 |
The Loss of Agency in Technological Systems | 295 |
Technology as Legislation | 317 |
Notes | 336 |
Other editions - View all
Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought Langdon Winner No preview available - 1978 |
Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought Langdon Winner No preview available - 1978 |
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action activity actually advance argues autonomous become begins Books century choice civilization complex conception concern consequences continue course critical culture described determinism direction economic effects Ellul ends example existence fact forces function give given hand human Ibid idea important individual industrial influence institutions intelligence interesting issue kind knowledge limited living logical machine Marx material matter means mechanism ment merely modern nature notion operation organization original particular persons planning political position possible practice present Press Price problem production progress question rational reason relationships require responsibility result role rule scientific scientists seen sense situation social sort specific structure suggests taken tech technical technique technological society theory things thinking thought tion traditional trans true understanding University whole writings York
Popular passages
Page 293 - ... intends only his own security ; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain ; and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest, he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.
Page 279 - Art goes yet further, imitating that rational and most excellent work of nature, man ; for by art is created that great leviathan, called a Commonwealth, or State, (in Latin Ciutas) which is but an artificial man...
Page 78 - This mode of production must not be considered simply as being the reproduction of the physical existence of the individuals. Rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part.
Page 44 - As he grew accustomed to the great gallery of machines, he began to feel the forty-foot dynamos as a moral force, much as the early Christians felt the Cross.
Page 79 - Social relations are closely bound up with productive forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change their mode of production; and in changing their mode of production, in changing the way of earning their living, they change all their social relations. The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist.
Page 9 - Olympic games, and so on. What is common to them all? — Don't say: 'There must be something common, or they would not be called 'games'" — but look and see whether there is anything common to all. — For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relationships, and a whole series of them at that.
Page 136 - The end of our Foundation is the knowledge of causes and secret motions of things, and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible.
Page 293 - By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security ; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
Page 57 - Darwin has interested us in the history of Nature's Technology, ie, in the formation of the organs of plants and animals, which organs serve as instruments of production for sustaining life. Does not the history of the productive organs of man, of organs that are the material basis of all social organization, deserve equal attention?
Bibliographic information
| Title | Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought Autonomous Technology Political science |
| Author | Langdon Winner |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | MIT Press, 1978 |
| ISBN | 0262730499, 9780262730495 |
| Length | 396 pages |
| Subjects | › Technology & Engineering / Social Aspects |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |