Culture and Technology: A Primer

From genetically modified food to weapons of mass destruction, we live in an age of intense debate about technology’s place in our culture. While the technologies have changed, these debates go back hundreds of years, and their assumptions have become deeply entrenched in our culture.
Culture and Technology is an essential guide to the fascinating history of these debates, and offers new perspectives that give readers the tools they need to make informed decisions about the role of technology in our lives. In clear and compelling language, Slack and Wise untangle and expose the cultural assumptions that underlie our thinking about technology, stories so deeply held we often don’t recognize their influence. The book considers the perceived inevitability of technological advance and our myths about progress. It also looks at sources of resistance to these stories from the Luddites of the 19th century to the Unabomber in our own time. Slack and Wise help readers sift through the confusions about culture and technology that arise in their own everyday lives.
This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the place of technology in our lives. It is a primer for beginners, and an invaluable resource for those who have pondered these issues before.

The Authors: Jennifer Daryl Slack is Professor of Communication and Cultural Studies in the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University. She is the author of Communication Technologies and Society (1984) and editor of The Ideology of the Information Age (with Fred Fejes, 1987), Thinking Geometrically (by John Waisanen, Peter Lang, 2002), and Animations (of Deleuze and Guattari) (Peter Lang, 2003).
J. Macgregor Wise is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Arizona State University. He is the author of Exploring Technology and Social Space (1997).