But, of course, life doesnt work this way: not all technologies are created equal. The criterion is efficiency in achieving a single goal or a narrow range of objectives; side effects and human costs are ignored. Its true that if we take the example of the automobile, Elluls claim is borne out: the secondary effects include fatalities and planet-threatening pollution, consequences that are arguably more disastrous for the world than the lack of the automobile would have been. He was created for a living environment, but he dwells in a lunar world of stone, cement, asphalt, glass, cast iron, and steel. This is where the so-called Ellul Understanding Curve comes into play. (Propaganda in all its forms is a major point of interest for Ellul and the subject of one of his other well-known books.). Paul Tillich, The Person in a Technological Society, in Social Ethics, ed. I describe a world with no prospects but I have the conviction that God accompanies man throughout history. He added: I believe that what I have to say about Christianity is open to everyone including non-believers. Contextualists also point to the diversity of science-technology interactions. - According to Jacques Ellul's pessimistic arguments: a. Technique is global, monolithic, and unvarying among diverse regions and nations. Not only is it difficult to explain Elluls primary arguments to those who have not read him; it is difficult even for those who have read him to get a handle on what theyve taken in. (Ellul never set foot in the U.S., the country where he enjoyed his widest readership. The research material is based on the ideas of the French respective philosopher Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), who in the Russian encyclopedic literature is positioned primarily asa philosopher and. One respondent, the Jesuit priest and English professor Walter Ong, who would later become best known for his work on orality and literacy, agreed with much of Ellul's essay but said that "he makes technology a Samuel Matlack is managing editor of The New Atlantis. In practice, few did. Niebuhr Cites the example of liberal theologians of the nineteenth century who had little to say concerning sin, revelation, or grace. . If we are convinced that nothing can be done to improve the system, we will indeed do nothing to try to improve it. By Vicki Robin, Fran Korten, Resilience.org, Fran Korten is former executive director, publisher and contributing editor for YES! Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society, trans. They are capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive, and they add to unemployment in many parts of the world. Third, technology can be the servant of human values. ^l)|{-13;+-n{x'J?ouGD O Zc +Sio&xA6|rJ O!&sk+G4R&K The media backlash against Silicon Valley and its peevish moguls, however, typically ends with nothing more radical than an earnest call for regulation or a break-up of Internet monopolies such as Facebook and Google. Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977) and The Reactor and the Whale (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986). 49. arguments about Western technological development and its ambiguities, especially the aftermath of . Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit from Each Other, in The Social Construction of Technological Systems, ed. J. Neugroschel (New York: Continuum, 1980), and The Technological Bluff, trans. 4. All aspects of a new technologythe destructive as well as the productivewill inevitably be used, according to Ellul, and we will often tap into the destructive uses first because it is easier, and more lucrative, to fashion a blunt weapon than a socially beneficial tool. Some Third World authors have been beenly aware of technology as an instrument of power, and they portray a two-way interaction between technology and society across national boundaries. The first group usually assumes a free market model. One of his heroes is Benjamin Franklin, who proposed technological ways of coping with the unpleasant consequences of technology.12 Florman holds that environmental and health risks are inherent in every technical advance. The views expressed in the third section presuppose a social conflict model. 18. In order to avoid misunderstanding it may be useful to mention again what I mean by Technique often wrongly called Technology (cf. 10. Technology leads to rational and efficient organization, which requires fragmentation, specialization, speed, the maximization of output. Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility: The Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), p. x. In Elluls viewone I find hard to refutehuman beings in the modern era seem to be living their lives in service to this ever-evolving technique, rather than the other way around. Organized knowledge allows us to include technologies based on practical experience and invention as well as those based on scientific theories. The reverse contribution of technology to science is also often evident. I admire these critics for defending individuality and choice in the face of standardization and bureaucracy. In addition, the bicycle carried cultural meanings, affecting a person's self-image and social status. The impact of technology sin society is particularly important in the transfer of a technology to a new cultural setting in a developing country. In an urban industrial society, a person's options are not as limited by parental or community expectations as they were in a small-town agrarian society. 7. For others, the great benefit of Elluls workincluding his theological writingsis that it provokes debate and further inquiry. Cf. This position holds that social change (including the redirection of technology) is possible, but it is difficult because of the structures of group self-interest and institutional power. Note that contextualism allows for a two-way interaction between technology and society. Ellul warned that if each of us abdicates our human responsibilities and leads a trivial existence in a technological society, then we will betray freedom. Ellul also defined the key characteristics of technology. 47. Similarly, nuclear power has well-documented negative secondary effects, but can the same be said for solar power? And even with all the luxuries and tools technique has brought to our work and home lives, we can feel no real security because there is always the possibility that automation or some other aspect of technique will render us redundant. Technology has been an almost exclusively male preserve, reflected in toys for boys, the expectations of parents and teachers, and the vocational choices and job opportunities open to men and women. We should err on the side of caution, adopting policies designed to avert catastrophe rather than to maximize short-run benefits. Membership is free. Elluls issue was not with technological machines but with a society necessarily caught up in efficient methodological techniques. 3. There is something satisfying in the way Ellul presents his assertion like a mathematical formula. But they do not consider the institutional structures of economic power and self-interest that now control the directions of technological development. Melvin Kranzberg, a prominent historian of technology, has presented a very positive picture of the technological past and future. Technological progress creates unpredictable devastating effects. But citizens can also influence the direction of technological development. EDUCATION VIRTUALIZATION PROSPECTS IN PESSIMISTIC LIGHT OF TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM BY JACQUES ELLUL . By Andrew Nikiforuk, originally published by The Tyee, By now you have probably read about the so-called tech backlash.. In presenting virtually no solution to the problems he has just spent 436 densely packed pages exploring, Ellul creates a crisis for the reader, as the authors of Understanding Jacques Ellul put it. Advertising creates demand for new products, whether or not they fill real needs, in order to stimulate a larger volume of production and a consumer society. 43. 1965), and The Responsibility of the Christian in a World of Technology, in Science and Religion, ed. A . 10, ed. Machines have released us from much of the backbreaking labor that in previous ages absorbed most of people's time and energy. Behavior and particular choices no longer have much significance. Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) French philosopher; Holds that technology is progressive and beneficial in many ways, it is also doubtful in many ways. However, he also believes that it is inevitable and irreversible, meaning that we cannot simply choose to go back to a pre-technological age. Economic institutions treat nature as a resource for human exploitation. H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), See also Carl Mitcham, Technology as a Theological Problem in the Christian Tradition, in Theology and Technology, ed. They can sell their labor as a commodity, but their work is not a meaningful form of self-expression. In subsequent chapters we will examine each of these specific claims as well as the general attitudes they reveal. His attempts at culture, freedom, and creative endeavour have become mere entries in techniques filing cabinet.. Frederick Ferr (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1990). Bernard Gendron, Technology and the Human Condition (New York: St. Martins Press, 1977). But Ellul does not spell out such a transformation because he holds that the outcome is in God's hands, not outs, and most of his writings are extremely pessimistic about social change.24, The political scientist Langdon Winner has given a sophisticated version of the argument that technology is an autonomous system that shapes all human activities to its own requirements. His most influential sociological book with the English title, The Technological Society, was originally entitled in French, Technique, the Stake of the Century, for example. By that I mean that hope is transmissible, even without reference to a given God.. Policy will influence the impact on two key dimensions: diffusion and consequences. Technique encompasses the totality of present-day society, wrote Ellul. The industrialized technical employment of technique became a monster in the urbanized and technological society of the twentieth (20th) century, the stake of the century as Ellul termed it. Fourth, large-scale technologies typical of industrial nations today are particularly problematic. by James McElroy. Teilhard affirmed the value of secular life in the world and the importance of human efforts in building the earth as we cooperate in the creative work of God. The deployment of technology is primarily a function of the marketplace. 2. This will be a future-oriented society, the age of the professional managers, the technocrats.9 A bright picture of the coming technological society has been given by many futurists, including Buckminster Fuller, Herman Kahn, and Alvin Toffler.10, Samuel Florman is an articulate engineer and author who has written extensively defending technology against its detractors. One reader who definitely did not push through the Ellul Understanding Curve was Theodore Kaczynskibetter known as the Unabomber. But they offer hope that technology can he used for more humane ends, either by political measures for more effective guidance within existing institutions or by changes in the economic and political systems themselves. Joan Rothschild (New York: Pergamon Press, 1983) see also articles by Cheris Kramarae, Anne Machung, and others in Technology and Womens Voices, ed. 23. The fact of the matter is that when one begins to read Ellul, understanding increases. When technology is treated as merely one form of cultural expression among others, its distinctive characteristics may be ignored. Magazine. Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. He thinks that both the optimists and the pessimists have neglected the diversity among different technologies and the potential role of political structures in reformulating policies. This is close to the definition given by Arnold Pacey in The Culture of Technology (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983), p. 6. The optimists stress the contribution of technology to economic development. Views of the Interactions of Science, Technology, and Society. Two decades of bombing and sabotage ensued, culminating in the publication-by-extortion of Kaczynskis manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future, which contained clear echoes of Elluls themes. Pace adds living things among the ordered systems (in order to include agriculture, medicine, and biotechnology), but I suggest that these are already included under the rubric of practical tasks. Frederick Ferr. Values are built into particular technological designs. 44. Narrow Criteria of Efficiency. I will argue that new policy priorities concerning agriculture, energy, resource allocation, and the redirection of technology toward basic human seeds can be achieved within democratic political institutions. In a technological society a dam performs better than a running river, a car takes the place of the pedestrians and may even kill them and a fish farm offers more efficiencies than a natural wild salmon migration. <>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.32 841.92] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> La technique's advances through a combination of its own logic and Man's greed/quest for power. stream 32. He rejected any note of despair, which would cut the nerve of constructive action. They are concerned about individual rights and the dignity of persons. He argues that urban industrial societies offer more freedom than rural ones and provide grater choice of occupations, friends, activities, and life-styles. <>>> A new technology may displace some workers but it also creates new jobs. 24. The rich are usually more anxious about their future than the poor. We will find many technologies in which one group enjoys the benefits while another group is exposed to the risks and social costs. 1. He, too, warned about the promise of leisure provided by the mechanization and automatization of work. They see run-away technology as an autonomous and all-embracing system that molds all of life, including the political sphere, to its requirements. 16. 8, 9, and 10. Peter G. Makukhin , It is impossible to have confidence in men who apparently lack these faculties. 5. P. Hans Sun, Notes on How to Begin to Think about Technology in a Theological Way, Theology and Technology, ed. This third position seems to me more consistent with the biblical outlook than either of the alternatives. Differing models of social change are implied in the three positions. They see it as a source not only of higher living standards but also of greater freedom and creative expression. The case for the social construction of technology seems to me much stronger. His subsequent books, especially The Political Illusion (1965) and Propaganda (1962), further develop and refine elements . Some see it as the beneficent source of higher living standards, improved health, and better communications. But this misses the mystery of human existence, which is known only through involvement as a total person. He agrees with the pessimists that various technologies reinforce each other in interlocking systems, and he acknowledges that large-scale technologies lead to the concentration of economic and political power.
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