Delays in Technology Development: Their Impact on the Issues of Determinism, Autonomy and Controllability of Technology

Abstract

The paper provides a discussion of diverse delays occurring in technology development, and an explanation of reasons why, when seen holistically from outside, the process of technology development might appear as an autonomous, self-determining, uncontrollable process. When seen from inside, however, the process is far from being uncontrollable. This paradox is explained by the fact that technology development contains many processes with delays, in total amounting sometimes to fifty years; when seen from outside, such a process might appear uncontrollable, even if it is very much controllable when approached internally and in detail. Therefore, the definition and types of technology creation as well as stages of technological processes are discussed in some detail in this paper. Some aspects of the contemporary informational revolution and some recent results on micro-theories of knowledge and technology creation are also reviewed. It is suggested that one of possible ways of changing the paradigmatic attitude of philosophy of technology is to invite some such philosophers to participate in the development of modern tools of knowledge civilization era, such as software development and evaluation. The conclusions of the paper stress the need of essentially new approaches to many issues in the time of informational revolution.