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Title: The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul ISBN: 0394703901 Publisher: Random House (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1967 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.45
Rating: 5
Summary: IMpacts of Technology on human relationships
Comment: I first read this book in college in 1971. It has had more lasting impact upon my view of the world than any other book I read at that time. I go back to it every now and again. Anyone interested in the effects of globalization and the drive to faster and faster technological change and the maximizing of shareholder value should read this book. We are driven to compartmentalize our relationships to become efficient, the ultimate law of technology. Our relationships with our families, our neighbors, our communities, our friends and our government are impacted by the drive for efficiency.
Rating: 4
Summary: A revelation of the effects of technique on modern man
Comment: This book put me in mind of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and The Last Man. Both document the ascendance of the person who is a rational and insecure seeker of comfort, afraid of passion and psychologically tiny: the individual with a small "i". Ellul is pessimistic. Our plight is due to our complete immersion in technique, the end of which is "the one best way" and efficiency. Against this there is no appeal and human spirituality and individualism are left behind as the "mass man" is created. This is the person who seeks only pleasure and entertainment and doesn't see his/her loss of uniqueness, beguiled by the products of technology and the promise of material progress. Technology is the answer to all things and the destroyer of all that is not technique. This is not due to a malign intent but simply the result of technique itself. There is no escape from technique, it permeates our world. An excellent example is the writer who, though wanting to express a different perspective is forced through the sieve of the techniques of the publishing business in order for the composition to see the light of day. Ellul makes a strong and frightening case. The one major oversight, for which we cannot blame one who wrote in 1964, is the power of the Internet for individual expression. He would, however, likely maintain that although this is an outlet for expression, the individual's voice is still lost in a cacaphony of other voices, as a result of the techniques of computer communication. Not an easy read, this book is an intellectual delight. Ellul's ideas are even more powerful today for the fact that they have not been contradicted but reinforced in the 35 years since he wrote.
Rating: 5
Summary: Extremely Prescient!
Comment: This book reads like it was written in 1998 but it was written in 1964! Basically all the current ills that humanity must endure with his technology are all elucidated decades before other supposedly astute "intellectuals" knew what was even going on! He uses the example of man using "technique" to show how we use technique in everything we do from education to politics and how over time technology shall overwhelm any attempts to control it and how a totalitarian state is all but inevitable. Extremely well written and researched. It really should be cited by more authors and read more widely. I would definitely recomend this book to anyone who wishes to learn more about the technological society in which they live.
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Title: Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul ISBN: 0394718747 Publisher: Random House (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1973 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford ISBN: 015688254X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman ISBN: 0679745408 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: April, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy by Carl Mitcham ISBN: 0226531988 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: August, 1994 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays by Martin Heidegger, William Lovitt ISBN: 0061319694 Publisher: Harpercollins (Short Disc) Pub. Date: January, 1982 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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