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 164
... transformation might be duly rationalized as a massive practical effort to fulfill human needs and increase material wealth : but beneath it was a deeply subjective and more obsessive drive toward the ' conquest ' of nature and the ...
... transformation might be duly rationalized as a massive practical effort to fulfill human needs and increase material wealth : but beneath it was a deeply subjective and more obsessive drive toward the ' conquest ' of nature and the ...
Page 165
... transformation can be read in purely technical terms , one must not overlook the shift in human motives through the increasing translation of both political and economic power into purely abstract quantitative terms : mainly , terms of ...
... transformation can be read in purely technical terms , one must not overlook the shift in human motives through the increasing translation of both political and economic power into purely abstract quantitative terms : mainly , terms of ...
Page 429
... transformation is in the making : one which will recognize that the money economy is bankrupt , and the power complex has become , through its very excesses and exag- gerations , impotent . Whether this change is as yet sufficient to ...
... transformation is in the making : one which will recognize that the money economy is bankrupt , and the power complex has become , through its very excesses and exag- gerations , impotent . Whether this change is as yet sufficient to ...
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 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 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 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