The Autonomy of Technique as a Social and Historical Description

Abstract

This article explores the social and historical conditions under which “people changing technology” overshadows that of “technology changing people” through its influence on human life, society, and the biosphere. Social construction and determinism are thus two sides of the same coin. However, both ignore the inseparability of thoughts and action from lives, lives from communities, and communities from their historical journeys. This hides from view the possibility of technology becoming a secular myth, in the sense of cultural anthropology. The current discipline-based intellectual and professional division of labor treats the living world as if it were structured the way technology is. As a result, human life has become “digitized,” since the process of industrialization transformed human life and society to make the computer and information revolution both possible and necessary. It has also misdirected our sense of responsibility for technology.