Technological Determinism

From Robo Culture Wiki

Technological Determinism is a concept that sees the effects of technology as being the principle determinant of cultural change. In simple terms, technology drives and inevitably defines cultural change. Technology has effects and these effects are the determining factor responsible for cultural change.

When examining the relationship between culture and technology, the prevailing tendency sees the relationship as one of cause and effect. In Culture & Technology: A Primer by Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. McGregor Wise, the authors illustrate how technology has been a central consideration in the development of modern ‘culture’, and especially in the Western world, technological determinism often organizes the way we understand and act in the relationship between technology and culture. ^[1]

Technological determinism is an articulation of the strongly held cultural belief that technology is central to defining what culture is. The significance of technologies is understood in terms of the effects they have; and those effects are the primary determination of cultural change. Langdon Winner, in Autonomous technology, outlines two main hypotheses on which technological determinism depends:

1. belief that the technical base of a society is the fundamental condition affecting all patterns of social existence
2. belief that technological change is the single most important source of change in a society ^[2]

Ultimately the technological determinist view espouses the belief that technology is THE central defining characteristic of what it means to be human. At the same time, technological determinism allows for the potential of autonomous technology... this underlying idea -- that technology develops independently in an irreversible (and unstoppable?) outward expansion -- is perhaps the most concerning aspect within the overall concept.

Slack and Wise point to how often technological determinist statements are expressed in popular discourse to illustrate the subtle power of technological determinism. It is easily accepted that technology is not only the means, but the ends as well. It may be argued that the driving force behind each major cultural shift throughout history is the pursuit of perfecting some ‘technology’; and this stage of development and in this sense technology is the ultimate effect. Technology shapes culture and concurrently culture is organized to give technology the central role. While this might seem an extreme position, consider human development throughout the ages… from the Stone Age to our current Digital Age, technology is seen as the causal agent responsible for such major cultural shifts.

Contents 1 Criticism 2 Technological Momentum 3 See Also 4 External Links 5 References

[edit] Criticism

While technological determinism may "feel" real in contemporary experience, it is arguably far from hard fact. The argument in favour of authorship is easily made… people create and use technologies, not the other way around. Inventions like the television and cars did not simply appear. Technologies can not (and do not) autonomously determine effects. Social Determinism, effectively the opposite argument from technological determinism, sees that new technologies are developed as a result of economic forces; it is cultural practice that shapes technological development.

Andrew Feenberg, in his article "Subversive Rationalization: Technology, Power and Democracy with technology" argues against the idea of technological determinism with his proposal of 'Democratic Rationalization'. He suggests that constructivist studies of technology will lead us to realize that there is not a set path by which development of technologies occur but rather an emerging of similar technologies at the same time leading to a multiple of choices. These choices are made based upon certain social factors and in examining them we will see that they are not deterministic in nature ^[3]

[edit] Technological Momentum

While it may be easy to deconstruct a technological determinist position, the sense of technological momentum is real. Thomas Hughes makes a case for “technological momentum” – once technologies are in place, a powerful sense of inertia pushes the further development and use of technology. ^[4] However the pull toward momentum falls short of full-blown technological determinism.

[edit] See Also

Cultural Determinism

Social Determinism

Technological Somnambulism

[edit] External Links

Technological Determinism - wikipedia.org

Daniel Chandler's Technological Determinism

[edit] References

1. ↑ Jennifer Daryl Slack and J. McGregor Wise, Culture and Technology: A Primer, (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2005, 2007), 43-45.
2. ↑ Langdon Winner, Autonomous technology: Technics-out-of-control as a theme in political thought, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977), 76.
3. ↑ Andrew Feenberg,"Democratic Rationalization" in David M. Kaplan, Readings in the Philosophy of Technology (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), 212.
4. ↑ Thomas P. Hughes, “Technological momentum”. Merrit Roe Smith and Leo Marx (eds.), Does technology drive history? The dilemma of technological determinism, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,1994),101-113.