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 60
... method , once it was widely applied , was that it opened an important part of the visible world to systematic public observa- tion , while the method itself , accessible to all who were competent to master it , lifted the results above ...
... method , once it was widely applied , was that it opened an important part of the visible world to systematic public observa- tion , while the method itself , accessible to all who were competent to master it , lifted the results above ...
Page 68
Lewis Mumford. scientific method , when it ceases to deal with statistical probabilities must pass from positivism to platonism . What made the new world picture so potent was that its method of deliberately ignoring the complex reality ...
Lewis Mumford. scientific method , when it ceases to deal with statistical probabilities must pass from positivism to platonism . What made the new world picture so potent was that its method of deliberately ignoring the complex reality ...
Page 181
... method they have now - pace Charles Snow ! become one . Though they run different assembly lines , they belong to the same factory . The mark of their common deficiency is that neither has given any serious consideration to the results ...
... method they have now - pace Charles Snow ! become one . Though they run different assembly lines , they belong to the same factory . The mark of their common deficiency is that neither has given any serious consideration to the results ...
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 noƶsphere 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