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 314
... noösphere : a film of ' mind ' that is now spreading around the earth , forming a distinct , increasingly unified layer of conscious cerebration . This process he calls the " unification , technification , growing rationalization of the ...
... noösphere : a film of ' mind ' that is now spreading around the earth , forming a distinct , increasingly unified layer of conscious cerebration . This process he calls the " unification , technification , growing rationalization of the ...
Page 316
... noösphere would function as a single world - brain , in which individual souls would lose their identity and forfeit their uniqueness as self - directing organisms in order to exalt and magnify the process of thought itself — thought ...
... noösphere would function as a single world - brain , in which individual souls would lose their identity and forfeit their uniqueness as self - directing organisms in order to exalt and magnify the process of thought itself — thought ...
Page 318
... noösphere from which the body and form of love has disappeared , or has been vaporized into messages ? Teilhard de Chardin deceived himself . The noösphere , as he conceived it , has no place for love , any more than it has for the ...
... noösphere from which the body and form of love has disappeared , or has been vaporized into messages ? Teilhard de Chardin deceived himself . The noösphere , as he conceived it , has no place for love , any more than it has for the ...
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