Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought

Winner, Langdon

ISBN 10: 0262730499 / ISBN 13: 9780262730495

Published by MIT Press, 1978

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication Date: 1978
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262730499
• ISBN 13: 9780262730495
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The truth of the matter is that our deficiency does not lie in the want of well-verified "facts." What we lack is our bearings. The contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments. Categories, arguments, conclusions, and choices that would have been entirely obvious in earlier times are obvious no longer. Patterns of perceptive thinking that were entirely reliable in the past now lead us systematically astray. Many of our standard conceptions of technology reveal a disorientation that borders on dissociation from reality. And as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the "data" in the world will make no difference. From the Introduction

About the Author

Langdon Winner is the Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.