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 6
... kind of facility and the same ineptitude . When we seek for proof of man's genuine superiority to his fellow creatures , we should do well to look for a different kind of evidence than his poor stone tools alone ; or rather , we should ...
... kind of facility and the same ineptitude . When we seek for proof of man's genuine superiority to his fellow creatures , we should do well to look for a different kind of evidence than his poor stone tools alone ; or rather , we should ...
Page 18
... kind for food under any conditions , and the likelihood is that if this perversion had been as common among early men as it was among many later savages , it would have worked against the survival of the groups practicing it , since the ...
... kind for food under any conditions , and the likelihood is that if this perversion had been as common among early men as it was among many later savages , it would have worked against the survival of the groups practicing it , since the ...
Page 43
... kind of tool could bring about this close relationship with the brain ? The an- swer is almost implied in the question : namely , a kind of tool directly related to the mind , and fabricated out of its own special ' etherealized ...
... kind of tool could bring about this close relationship with the brain ? The an- swer is almost implied in the question : namely , a kind of tool directly related to the mind , and fabricated out of its own special ' etherealized ...
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