Just as Marx deftly outlined how capitalism threw up new social classes, political institutions and economic powers in the 19th century, Ellul charted the ascent of technology and its impact on politics, society and economics in the 20th.
It is an object in itself, an independent reality with which we must reckon.” It is no longer merely a means and an intermediary. “Technique has taken substance,” wrote Ellul, and “it has become a reality in itself. The list is endless because technique, or what most of us would just call technology, has become the artificial blood of modern civilization. He wrote of technique, about which he meant more than just technology, machines and digital gadgets but rather “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency” in the economic, social and political affairs of civilization.įor Ellul, technique, an ensemble of machine-based means, included administrative systems, medical tools, propaganda (just another communication technique) and genetic engineering. The problem, however, is much graver, and it is telling that most of the backlash stories invariably omit any mention of technology’s greatest critic, Jacques Ellul.Įllul, the Karl Marx of the 20th century, predicted the chaotic tyranny many of us now pretend is the good and determined life in technological society. The media backlash against Silicon Valley and its peevish moguls, however, typically ends with nothing more radical than an earnest call for regulation or a break-up of Internet monopolies such as Facebook and Google. Without shame, technical wonks now talk of building artificial scientists to resolve climate change, poverty and, yes, even fake news.
The average teenager now works about two hours of every day - for free - providing Facebook and other social media companies with all the data they need to engineer young people’s behaviour for bigger Internet profits.
The Foundation for Responsible Robotics recently created a small stir by asking if “sexual intimacy with robots could lead to greater social isolation.” Meanwhile computers and other gadgets have diminished our attention spans along with our ever-failing connection to reality. By now you have probably read about the so-called “tech backlash.”įacebook and other social media have undermined what’s left of the illusion of democracy, while smartphones damage young brains and erode the nature of discourse in the family.
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