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 166
... complex , comparable to that which produced the colossal constructive transformations of the Pyramid Age in both Egypt and Mesopotamia . What I have hitherto designated with intentional looseness as the myth of the machine I now propose ...
... complex , comparable to that which produced the colossal constructive transformations of the Pyramid Age in both Egypt and Mesopotamia . What I have hitherto designated with intentional looseness as the myth of the machine I now propose ...
Page 167
... complex originally had their place and performed their indispen- sable functions . What the power complex did was to wrench these separate components from their organic matrix and enclose them in an isolated sub- system centered not on ...
... complex originally had their place and performed their indispen- sable functions . What the power complex did was to wrench these separate components from their organic matrix and enclose them in an isolated sub- system centered not on ...
Page 168
... complex increasingly underlies all these institutional structures ; and as it knits more closely together , seizing more power and governing wider areas , it tends to suppress original cultural differences that once , under feebler ...
... complex increasingly underlies all these institutional structures ; and as it knits more closely together , seizing more power and governing wider areas , it tends to suppress original cultural differences that once , under feebler ...
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 demands 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 ideological 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 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