Technology and Human Productivity: Challenges for the Future

The editors have assembled a collection of original essays offering a holistic view of how technology shapes the modern world. Consideration is given to several major issues, such as the dehumanizing effects of technology, which tends to objectify social life; the emphasis on productivity and the accumulation of material goods; and the intricacies involved in creating a responsible technology that would establish more socially sensitive principles, values, and beliefs. Technology is examined not simply as machinery, but as a procedure that can be used to define every aspect of social existence, and the book demonstrates how to bring about the changes that are necessary to remedy this alienating situation.

JOHN W. MURPHY is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. His present interests include social philosophy and sociological theory.