“Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences.”-- Lewis Mumford (1934)
Mumford wrote these words in his Technics and Civilization, a book about the historical and sociological impact of technology on culture. As we are currently living through a monumental paradigm shift, we tend to lose sight of previous technologies and their dramatic influence on humankind and the planet. The clock, the printing press, the steam engine, to name a few, transformed the way people live, work and play. What Mumford is implying in the above quote is critical reflection on technology, particularly in terms of its impact on humanity. Where are the contemporary voices of the people? Where are the critics? Are they out there and not heard? Are they quelled by the "mediaocracy"? Or are they, like the characters in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, pacified by the soma of technology? Where are the Huxleys, the Orwells, the Mumfords?
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