| Description |
xvi, 418 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Preliminary thesis: The great innovation -- 1. Multiple progress -- 2. Social discourse -- 3. The great innovation -- Excursus on Simon, The ultimate resource -- 4. The aristocrats -- Part I. Uncertainty -- I. Ambivalence -- 1. All technical progress has its price -- 2. Technical progress raises more and greater problems than it solves -- 3. The harmful effects of technical progress are inseparable from its beneficial effects -- 4. Technical progress has a great number of unforeseen effects -- 5. Our lack of awareness -- II. Unpredictability -- 1. Introduction to unpredictability -- 2. Our failure to foresee and relative unpredictability -- 3. Conditions that make forecasting impossible -- 4. Absolute unpredictability -- 5. Foresight -- III. Double feedback -- 1. Positive feedback -- 2. Negative feedback -- IV. Internal contradictions -- 1. Thresholds of reversal -- 2. Fragility -- 3. Compensations -- Part II. Discourse -- V. Humanism -- VI. Is there a technical culture? -- 1. Imperatives and hesitations -- 2. What can we call culture? -- 3. A technical culture is impossible -- VII. Human mastery over techniques -- VIII. Rationality -- IX. A sketch of the ideologies of science -- 1. Classical ideology -- 2. The new ideology -- Excursus on science and faith -- X. Experts -- Part III. The triumph of the absurd -- XI. Technical progress and the philosophy of the absurd -- 1. Technical absurdity -- 2. Economic absurdity -- 3. Human absurdity -- 4. Conclusion -- XII. Unreason -- 1. Dissociation -- 2. Paradigms -- 3. The main areas of unreason -- 4. Complementary examples -- XIII. The costs: The new relation between technique and political economy -- XIV. What use?: The world of gadgets -- 1. Needs -- 2. The world of gadgets -- XV. Waste -- 1. Private waste -- 2. Social and collective waste -- 3. Responsibility -- XVI. The bluff of productivity -- 1. The state and science -- 2. Productivity -- 3. Entropy -- Part IV. Fascinated people -- XVII. From information to telematics -- 1. Information -- 2. Television -- 3. Telematics -- XVIII. Advertising -- XIX. Diversions -- 1. Games -- 2. Sports -- 3. The automobile -- 4. Mechanistic art -- 5. Ultimate idiocies -- XX. Terrorism in the velvet glove of technology -- Last words: -- 1. Inventing humanity -- 2. The great design |
| Summary |
M. Ellul's view of technology is that once it is let out of the laboratory, technology cannot be turned off. Technology begets more technology. The modern world, therefore, is one in which more technology is inevitable. Fixing or remediating the impact of a technology like water pollution requires--you guessed it--more technology |
| Notes |
Translation of: Le bluff technologique |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-418) |
| Notes |
Translation of: Le bluff technologique |
| SUBJECT |
Information series. Technology http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84707263 -- Social aspects. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh00002758
|
| Subject |
Technology -- Philosophy.
|
|
Technology -- Social aspects.
|
| LC no. |
90040134 |
| ISBN |
080283678X |
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