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 8
... hand , as an outrageous hoax , by ' competent authorities ' on the ground that Ice Age hunters could not have had the leisure or the mind to produce the elegant art of Altamira . But mind was exactly what Homo sapiens possessed in a ...
... hand , as an outrageous hoax , by ' competent authorities ' on the ground that Ice Age hunters could not have had the leisure or the mind to produce the elegant art of Altamira . But mind was exactly what Homo sapiens possessed in a ...
Page 21
... hands made upon the walls of caves as far apart as Africa and Australia . These imprints are all the more puzzling ... hand may , even more sharply than a cairn of stones , count as the earliest public memorial to the dead . But it is ...
... hands made upon the walls of caves as far apart as Africa and Australia . These imprints are all the more puzzling ... hand may , even more sharply than a cairn of stones , count as the earliest public memorial to the dead . But it is ...
Page 331
... Hand , symbolism of , [ 9 ] ; varied functions of , 7 Hand - axe , 24 , 100 Handicraft , [ 22-23 ] ; justi- fication of , 238 ; West- ern , 256 Hands , imprints of , 21 ; pa- leolithic , 65 ; as tools , 100 Harappa , 165 Hard conditions ...
... Hand , symbolism of , [ 9 ] ; varied functions of , 7 Hand - axe , 24 , 100 Handicraft , [ 22-23 ] ; justi- fication of , 238 ; West- ern , 256 Hands , imprints of , 21 ; pa- leolithic , 65 ; as tools , 100 Harappa , 165 Hard conditions ...
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