Technological Questions and Issues:

Technological Determinism

Introduction

While technology is often described as the most important influence upon society, it remains a subject which has undergone little study. This situation is gradually changing, however, with politicians, sociologists, industrialists and educationalists alike recognising that technology lies at the very heart of society. Indeed, technological determinism, effectively the opposite of social determinism, is a theory which points to technology as being the force which shapes society.

Technological Determinism
Technological determinists hold that:

Like the weather, technology is autonomous

It causes social change

There are examples where technological change may be seen as literally outside of society: a primitive people might come into contact with a more advanced people and be affected by their more advanced technology. And there are times when technology may be seen as only metaphorically outside society: although literally they are members of society, scientists and technologists work independent of society, making discoveries and creating new devices which when introduced into that society have profound effects.
Some who would argue that technology is autonomous usually see it as the cause of one problem or another. Yet, different people see technology as causing different problems. Since World War II scientists have seen technology as a moral dilemma where their work can have profound effects on the human race and on the planet. Sociologists see the problem as the increasing complexity and rate of change which technology is bring about in society; technological changes, they argue, outpace the ability of individuals and societies to adapt. To others, technology is seen as a dominating force over society, posing a threat to human freedom.

Technical Change as Causing Social Change
To state one example, television is a technology which could be argued to have had a major effect upon society, causing a complete new pattern of leisure to emerge, and “shrinking” the world to the extent that national differences are no longer so pronounced.

References:
“Autonomous Technology” by Langdon Winner, MIT Press (1977)
“The Social Shaping of Technology” by MacKenzie and Wajcman, Open University (1985)

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Technological Determinism

Introduction

Technological Determinism

Technical Change as Causing Social Change

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