Democratising the Technological Society

Abstract

Technology is an historical agent for change by changing the material conditions of human existence and extending our horizon of possibilities — it is part of the cultural stock of knowledge, devices, and resources which transforms social, economic, and political possibilities and overcomes previous limits. Technological innovation has a substantive impact on the structure and content of the development of society. The ongoing proliferation of inventions and techniques conditions human choices by reducing the difficulty of realising them and also by making new choices possible. It is quite uncontentious to claim that human existence — certainly as we know it — is dependent upon a complex, interconnected network of technological infrastructure comprised of systems, devices, and techniques. The continuation of specific forms of technology is a condition for the continuation of specific forms of social order. Technological innovations have far reaching and unforeseeable social consequences and our dependency upon technology is irreversible, dialectical, and deeply psychological. However, does it follow from these facts of our existence that the development of technology has its own “inner logic” or laws? — A life of its own, so to speak? Is technology an autonomous agent for change? Are the trajectories of technological innovation the consequence of historical necessity or human choice? The argument that I shall present below is that the trajectories of technological innovation are dialectical in the sense that they are shaped by human choices and, in turn, technology shapes human choices.