The Myth of the Machine, Volume 1An 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 75
... association , that shape and character constitute its meaning to other higher organisms that encounter it . A lion says ' lion ' by its own presence far more emphatically than the word ' lion ' even if shouted : and the lion's roar , an ...
... association , that shape and character constitute its meaning to other higher organisms that encounter it . A lion says ' lion ' by its own presence far more emphatically than the word ' lion ' even if shouted : and the lion's roar , an ...
Page 91
... associations of ' festal play ' and religious rite into the richly structured world of definable meanings and ... association with ritual , promoted the first flowering of language . Matter - of- fact prose appears in early texts ...
... associations of ' festal play ' and religious rite into the richly structured world of definable meanings and ... association with ritual , promoted the first flowering of language . Matter - of- fact prose appears in early texts ...
Page 173
Lewis Mumford. intimate association that fostered domestication , came into existence : now based on an abstract impersonal order : counting ... association with older organic vitalities - with an even more THE CULT OF KINGSHIP 173.
Lewis Mumford. intimate association that fostered domestication , came into existence : now based on an abstract impersonal order : counting ... association with older organic vitalities - with an even more THE CULT OF KINGSHIP 173.
Contents
PROLOGUE | 3 |
THE MINDFULNESS OF MAN | 14 |
IN THE DREAMTIME LONG AGO | 48 |
Copyright | |
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abstract achieved activities agriculture ancestors ancient animal Aurignacian became beginning Benedictine Bertrand Gille brain Bushmen Çatal Hüyük cave cave paintings century cities civilization command complex consciousness cosmic creature cultivation divine domestication dream earliest economy economy of abundance effective effort Egypt Egyptian environment established esthetic evidence existence fact functions gods Homo sapiens human culture hunter hunting images institution interpretation Iron Age king kingship labor language later Leonardo London machine Magdalenian magic means megamachine ment merely mesolithic Mesopotamia military mind mode modern myth nature needed neolithic Oakes Ames observation once organization original paintings paleolithic paleolithic art pattern performed physical plants play possible practice primitive production rational religion ritual royal sacred sacrifice sexual significant social society species speech stone Sumer Sumerian survival symbolic technical thousand tion tool-making traits village watermill weapons whole words York