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Topic: Technological determinism

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	Technological determinism - Facts, Information, and Encyclopedia Reference article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Technological determinism is a term that encompasses a wide range of ideas in practice, from technology-push or the technological imperative to a strict sense that human destiny is driven by an underlying logic associated with scientific laws and their manifestation in technology.
		Most interpretations of technological determinism share two general ideas: that the development of technology itself follows a path largely beyond cultural or political influence, and that technology in turn has "effects" on societies that are inherent, rather than socially conditioned.
		Technological determinism stands in opposition to the theory of the social construction of technology, which holds that both the path of innovation and the consequences of technology for humans are strongly if not entirely shaped by society itself, through the influence of culture, politics, economic arrangements, and the like.
	www.startsurfing.com /encyclopedia/t/e/c/Technological_determinism.html (140 words)

	Technological determinism by Mary Anne Winslow - OutsourceDataProcessing.com (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Technological determinism is a theoretical and methodological set according to which the level of development of science, technology, information and technology of big scale production defines social and economical development as a whole.
		Technological Determinism has been often dismissed in the past, but in the society of the present, it has a gained newfound accreditation with the introduction of modern technology.
		But as mentioned, there are different modes of determinism for this theory, and it is the "Soft technological determinism" which makes the most sense to me. It is less extreme and allows the possibilities of other factors to determine the trend of the future.
	www.outsourcedataprocessing.com /weblog/index.php?/archives/293-Technological-determinism-by-Mary-Anne-Winslow.html (1050 words)

	» Technological Determinism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		The theory of Technological Determinism relates to the studies conducted by Marshall McLuhan who states that we are living in a new age of technology that...
		Technological Determinism state that media technology shapes how we as individuals in a society think, feel, act, and how are society operates as we move...
		Technological determinism is the theory that technology is an autonomous force..
	technologicalmomentum.info /info/Technological-Determinism (329 words)

	[No title]
		The notion of technological impacts is simple to comprehend and has permitted the field to in- terpret technology in the context of society and culture, but it has also contributed to a simplistic and inflexible view of the re- lationship between technology and society.
		The expression "technological impacts" is a metaphor that implies that technology is a discrete force with a discernible direction and influence.
		There are variations of determinism and technological determinism, often distinguished by the ex- tent of human intervention considered possi- ble, the importance of technical constraints, the relative autonomy of technology, and questions of the historical development of technology (e.g., Constant 1989; Ellul, 1954/1964; Gille, 1978/1986b; Hickman, 1990a, 1990b; Ropohl, 1983; Wilkinson, 1964; Winner, 1977).
	www.infomotions.com /serials/jot/jot-v3n01-pannabecker-technological.txt (4280 words)

	Technological Determinism: Technology-led Theories
		According to technological determinists, particular technical developments, communications technologies or media, or, most broadly, technology in general are the sole or prime antecedent causes of changes in society, and technology is seen as the fundamental condition underlying the pattern of social organization.
		Technological determinists interpret technology in general and communications technologies in particular as the basis of society in the past, present and even the future.
		Karl Marx is often interpreted as a technological determinist on the basis of such isolated quotations as: 'The windmill gives you society with the feudal lord: the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist' ('The Poverty of Philosophy', 1847), and determinism certainly features in orthodox Marxism.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet02.html (338 words)

	INF5010: Technological Determinism
		Technological determinism is the theory that technology is an autonomous force that changes society.
		So we conclude that arguments in favor of technological determinism based on a claim that it is in some sense more scientific than alternatives are fatally flawed.
		Technological determinism is a prime example of such a simplistic principle.
	www.ifi.uio.no /in-sats/1.shtml (1646 words)

	Alternatives to Technological Determinism
		Marcuse: The technological system (technological rationality) has absorbed all- culture, politics and the economy.
		The problem may well be political- the image of autonomous technology leads to the hegemony of the technocrat.
		Technological "man" is like someone dependent on a powerful drug.
	www.umsl.edu /~rkeel/280/tecsoc3.html (333 words)

	[No title]
		When we say that a person is held justly responsible for a crime, or that they deserve praise or reward for an heroic act of self-sacrifice, we mean th at they were the author and cause of that act in such fashion that they had it in their power not to perform the act.
		Determinism is the philosophical doctrine that claims that all behavior results from preceding events or natural causes.
		Heilbroner with his soft determinism and concern with broad historical trends stands on one side, while most of the other contributors are much more concerned to show the contingencies, particularities, oppositions, disjunctures and variabilities in technological change.
	lycos.cs.cmu.edu /info/determinism--ideas.html (495 words)

	Technological Determinism & Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
		If one agrees with this view of a technologically determined teleology, then the pragmatic conservatives might be better described as pragmatic socialists, since their policy actions, by advancing the "modernization" of China, are creating the conditions that make the attainment of communism (at some unspecified date in the future) possible.
		The rightists were determined not to continue making the same mistakes and they recognized that any policy orientation would have to be accepted by a wide range of economic agents to be effective.
		And as for the technological determinist argument, well, there is plenty of evidence of advancing technology in Chinese firms and households, although I am often perplexed at the slowness of the government bureaucracy and the banks when it comes to innovating new technology.
	www.mtholyoke.edu /courses/sgabriel/economics/china-essays/8.html (4739 words)

	Meatball Wiki: TechnologicalDeterminism
		Technological Determinism, while not an official theory, is a concept that purports that not only is technology development on an inevitable path of progress--independent of society--but additionally states that these advancements have a major effect on the shape of society.
		Often technological determinism is accused of abdicating responsibility for the scientists who develop technologies, as if these advances were inevitable and predetermined.
		Determinism then appears as only a simplified history, building links between the easy and obvious parts of history rather than accounting for the large parts of real history (history in the making) that get forgotten and left behind once no longer relevant to explain the future.
	www.usemod.com /cgi-bin/mb.pl?TechnologicalDeterminism (1085 words)

	Technological Determinism in American Culture MERRITT ROE SMITH excerpted from Does Technology Drive History? The ...
		Referred to as "technological determinism" by 20th-century scholars, disbelief affirms the changes in technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes and any other factor.
		The intellectual heritage of technological determinism can be traced to the enthusiasm and faith in technology essay liberating force expressed by leaders of the 18th-century enlightenment Act.
		While technological determinism initially sprouted in Europe, it found even more fertile ground and the newly independent United States-primarily because Americans were so taken with the idea of progress.
	www.mindfully.org /Technology/Technological-Determinism-America2jun94.htm (1377 words)

	CSE 275: Chapter 2. Technological Determinism
		It is the converse of technological determinism, and it is also false; if you think you have an instance, it probably means you are looking at just one part of a much more complex situation, and ignoring some of its significant technical aspects.
		A myth that is closely related to technological determinism is that technological progress is inevitable, and inevitably leads to social progress.
		Of course, media determinism is a form of technological determinism, and hence a form of reductionism; it can be hard or soft; and it is oversimplified, misleading, and in fact it is wrong.
	www.cs.ucsd.edu /users/goguen/courses/275f00/s2.html (1865 words)

	Technological Determinism: Deterministic Language (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		As an interpretive bias, technological determinism is often an inexplicit, taken-for-granted assumption which is assumed to be 'self-evident'.
		The assumptions of technological determinism can usually be easily in spotted frequent references to the 'impact' of technological 'revolutions' which 'led to' or 'brought about', 'inevitable', 'far-reaching', 'effects', or 'consequences' or assertions about what 'will be' happening 'sooner than we think' 'whether we like it or not'.
		Approaches which reject extreme technological determinism (broadly involving 'social context' models) tend to be characterized more by terms such as 'human agency', 'social constraints', 'social opportunities', 'socio-cultural contexts', 'control', 'purposes', 'access', 'power' and so on.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet12.html (268 words)

	Cloning as test-case of autonomous technology
		Autonomous technology, or technological determinism, if you prefer, always presupposes that ethics as a guiding force in modern society is powerless.
		Technological determinism can be explained in different ways, but it always presupposes that ethics as a guiding force in modern society is powerless; otherwise, evidently, there would be no determinism.
		Social technological determinism, on the contrary, views technology as a "social construct." Because the final image of a technology is underdetermined by natural factors, constructivism regards technology to be of primarily political character.
	scholar.lib.vt.edu /ejournals/SPT/v3n1/vandervalk.html (3311 words)

	Technological Determinism: Reductionism
		Technological determinism focuses on causality - cause and effect relationships - a focus typically associated with 'scientific' explanation.
		It is impossible to isolate a single cause for any social process and to prove that it is the primary determinant (for instance, it is highly problematic to isolate the potential cognitive influences of literacy from those of schooling).
		Technological determinists often seem to be trying to account for almost everything in terms of technology: a perspective which we may call technocentrism.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet03.html (910 words)

	fischer-williams.html
		Consequently, it falls upon the reader to determine the extent to which the theorists genuinely disagree, or are simply highlighting different aspects of a similar model.
		Williams writes, "While we have to reject technological determinism, in all its forms, we must be careful not to substitute for it the notion of a determined technology" (2003:133).
		Fisher believes that such an approach, in addition to remedying faults with determinism, permits one to acknowledge that people have different, even contradictory purposes; that technology has second or third quarter consequences, some of which are unintended; and that there are collective consequences and externalities' in technology use.
	reagle.org /joseph/2004/seminar/fischer-williams.html (1282 words)

	Spartanburg SC \| GoUpstate.com \| Spartanburg Herald-Journal (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Technological determinism is a reductionist doctrine that a society's technology determines its cultural values, social structure, or history.
		Technological determinism has been summarized as 'The belief in technology as a key governing force in society...' (Merritt Roe Smith), '...
		Technological determinism has been largely discredited within academia, especially by science and technology studies.
	www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=Technological_determinism (251 words)

	Technological Determinism: Theoretical Stances
		A moderate version of media determinism is that our use of particular media may have subtle influences on us, but that it is the social context of use which is crucial.
		Strong (or hard) technological determinism is the extreme stance that a particular communication technology is either a sufficient condition (sole cause) determining social organization and development, or at least a necessary condition (requiring additional preconditions).
		Weak (or soft) technological determinism, more widely accepted by scholars, claims that the presence of a particular communication technology is an enabling or facilitating factor leading to potential opportunities which may or may not be taken up in particular societies or periods (or that its absence is a constraint) (Finnegan 1988, p.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet11.html (1656 words)

	Technological Determinism: Conclusion
		For instance, Ruth Finnegan is strongly critical of technological determinism, but she feels able to accept that 'writing...
		Being critical of technological determinism is not to discount the importance of the fact that the technical features of different communication technologies facilitate different kinds of use, though the potential applications of technologies are not necessarily realized.
		Whilst concluding that the evidence does not appear to support the strong case for technological determinism, the sociologist Ruth Finnegan suggests that 'there is something to be said for it as a way of illuminating reality for us.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet13.html (381 words)

	Technological Determinism: Progress
		But the notion of technological 'revolutions' and their associated 'eras' are only another manifestation of technological determinism.
		As he puts it, 'the notion is that a kind of invisible hand guides technology ever onward and upward, using individuals and organizations as vessels for its purposes but guided by a sort of divine plan for bringing the greatest good to the greatest number.
		However, technological determinists are not always enthusiastic and optimistic: Ellul is the best example of one who is strongly pessimistic.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet10.html (833 words)

	Roland: War & Technology:4
		Because this thesis verges on technological determinism, it calls for a brief examination of that concept and its applicability in this case.
		Technological determinism is at least as old as Karl Marx.
		This is the determinism that breeds new mandarins and Pentagon capitalism.
	www.unc.edu /depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_4/roland4.html (2444 words)

	CMC Magazine: Shaping and Being Shaped (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-05)
		Whatever the specific technological "revolution" may be, technological determinists present it as a dramatic and "inevitable" driving force, the "impact" of which will "lead to" deep and "far-reaching" "effects" or "consequences." This sort of language reflects an excited, prophetic tone which many people find inspiring and convincing but which alienates social scientists.
		Technological determinism is, of course, particularly widespread at present with regard to computers and the Internet.
		Either way, extreme forms of technological determinism have been criticized for leaving us feeling politically helpless, suiting the purposes of those with real power in society by performing the conservative function of preserving the socio-political status quo.
	www.december.com /cmc/mag/1996/feb/chantone.html (234 words)

	Catching the Technology Wave: A Historical Analysis of the Technological Context of Technical Communication
		Since the technological boom that led to the rapid development of the field of technical communication, we seem to be constantly chasing the latest and greatest technology, eternally one step behind.
		This definition of technological determinism affords us a basis for analyzing the effects of technology on society and more specifically, on the field of technical communication.
		[1] Although this assumption of the soft view of technological determinism provides a convenient platform for technical communication, it in no way suggests that the intricacies of the technological determinism genre can be reduced to such a simple conclusion.
	orange.eserver.org /issues/4-1/davis.html (4022 words)

	Technological Determinism: Technological Neutrality
		Some critics argue against technological determinism on the grounds that technology is 'neutral' or 'value-free' (neither good or bad in itself), and that what counts is not the technology but the way in which we choose to use it.
		Although this stance is sometimes associated with critics of technological determinism, Michael Shallis notes that an (instrumental) belief in the neutrality of technology is also commonly associated with technological determinism.
		Some theorists who posit technological autonomy are also amongst the wider group of those who have insisted on the non-neutrality of technology, arguing that we cannot merely 'use' technology without also, to some extent, being influenced or 'used by' it.
	www.aber.ac.uk /media/Documents/tecdet/tdet08.html (1149 words)

	Critique of McLuhan’s Technological determinism viewpoint or lack of one thereof @ infosophy: Socio-technological ...
		While McLuhan does not necessarily fit the profile of a technological determinist, he appears to be supporting the view that the human society is helpless and must, or eventually ought to...
		The shortcoming of this argument is that McLuhan does not address the process of technological innovation, despite the fact that this very process of innovation provides the explanation of how various technologies come to be constructed via and through the complex process of interplay of various social, human, and non-human entities in our society.
		In case of McLuhan’s technological determinism viewpoint or lack of one thereof, the process of technology innovation and social constructionism of media technologies is totally excluded.
	www.kmentor.com /socio-tech-info/archives/000282.html (1373 words)

	winnerauto
		He discusses technological determinism and argues that there are some historical contingencies that are important to recognize.
		If we agree that "the technological base of a society is the fundamental condition affecting social existence and...that changes in technology are the single most important source of change in society," then technological determinism is a persuasive idea.
		In Chapters 5 and 6 Winner builds a theory of the technological society which "gives the technological element its due without falling into either reductionism or eclectic compromise." (177) He offers characteristics that are useful for measuring and mulling the features of such a society: among them are size, concentration, and interconnection.
	www.lehigh.edu /~cmp8/worksinprogress/summary/winnerauto.html (1374 words)

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