The Myth of the Machine: The pentagon of powerHarcourt, Brace & World, 1970 - Technology and civilization An in-depth look at the forces that have shaped modern technology since prehistoric times. Mumford criticizes the modern trend of technology, which emphasizes constant, unrestricted expansion, production, and replacement. He contends that these goals work against technical perfection, durability, social efficiency, and overall human satisfaction. Modern technology fails to produce lasting, quality products by using devices such as consumer credit, installment buying, non-functioning and defective designs, built-in fragility, and frequent superficial "fashion" changes. "Without constant enticement by advertising," he writes, "production would slow down and level off to normal replacement demand. Otherwise many products could reach a plateau of efficient design which would call for only minimal changes from year to year." |
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Page 79
... Descartes could not of course foresee that this one - sided effort to ' conquer nature ' would bring a special danger , the closer it approached realization : that of dispossessing and displacing man himself . But though we must now ...
... Descartes could not of course foresee that this one - sided effort to ' conquer nature ' would bring a special danger , the closer it approached realization : that of dispossessing and displacing man himself . But though we must now ...
Page 82
... Descartes ' contemporary Gassendi saw the weakness of his position . " You will say , " he wrote Descartes , “ I am mind alone . . . . But let us talk in earnest , and tell me frankly , do you not derive from the very sound you utter in ...
... Descartes ' contemporary Gassendi saw the weakness of his position . " You will say , " he wrote Descartes , “ I am mind alone . . . . But let us talk in earnest , and tell me frankly , do you not derive from the very sound you utter in ...
Page 83
... Descartes ' God even as a hypothesis , returned to the world of dreams to discover how much of the human reality Descartes had rejected in adhering strictly to those waking moments favorable to rational investigation . What Descartes ...
... Descartes ' God even as a hypothesis , returned to the world of dreams to discover how much of the human reality Descartes had rejected in adhering strictly to those waking moments favorable to rational investigation . What Descartes ...
Contents
NEW EXPLORATIONS NEW WORLDS | 3 |
RETURN OF THE SUN GOD | 28 |
THE MECHANIZED WORLD PICTURE | 51 |
Copyright | |
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absolute abstract achieved activities actually already ancient atom automatic automation Bacon become biological Christian civilization Comenius communication contemporary cosmic culture Descartes destruction dream economy economy of abundance effect electronic energy environment established evolution existence experience exploration extermination fact fantasies final forces Francis Bacon functions further future Galileo habitat Henry Adams idea ideology immense increase industrial institutions intelligence invention Kepler knowledge labor limited machine man's mass production mechanical world picture megamachine megatechnics ment merely method military mind mode modern moral myth nature nineteenth century noösphere Norbert Wiener nuclear observed once original Patrick Geddes physical planet plenitude political absolutism population possible potentialities power complex power system practical present progress purpose Pyramid Age quantity reality result scientific scientists social society space subjective symbolic technical Technics and Civilization technocratic tion totalitarian transformation turn ultimate utopia whole York