The Myth of the Machine: The pentagon of powerHarcourt, Brace & World, 1967 - 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 124
... habitat , for purely abstract mechanical - electronic ends . These leaders could not , in short , picture the dismaying nightmare of twentieth - century existence , in which almost no malign hallucination or psychotic impulse would be ...
... habitat , for purely abstract mechanical - electronic ends . These leaders could not , in short , picture the dismaying nightmare of twentieth - century existence , in which almost no malign hallucination or psychotic impulse would be ...
Page 309
... habitat all have happy human associations - in contrast to imprisonment , limitation of movement , sessile ... habitats . Those committed to these megastructures will conduct their existence as if in interplanetary SPACE TRAVAIL 309.
... habitat all have happy human associations - in contrast to imprisonment , limitation of movement , sessile ... habitats . Those committed to these megastructures will conduct their existence as if in interplanetary SPACE TRAVAIL 309.
Page 383
... habitat , in which human beings are isolated not merely from each other but from all other organ- isms , and may even be forbidden by housing regulations to keep a dog or a cat for company , is to unlearn and discard all the lessons ...
... habitat , in which human beings are isolated not merely from each other but from all other organ- isms , and may even be forbidden by housing regulations to keep a dog or a cat for company , is to unlearn and discard all the lessons ...
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absolute abstract achieved activities actually already ancient atom automatic automation Bacon become biological Christian civilization Comenius communication 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 ideology 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