Technology as a Political Problem

It is an undeniable fact that a central feature in the history of Western modernization has been an ever increasing reliance on technology in the production of goods, in services, information processing, communication, education, health care, and public administration. This reliance was anticipated and enthusiastically embraced by the early founders of modernity (Bacon and Descartes, especially), and finally (much later than they would have predicted) became a reality in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Moreover, increasing technological power proved an especially valuable asset in liberal democratic societies. The great surplus wealth made possible by such power appeared to allow a more egalitarian society, even if great inequalities persisted; representatives of such technical power could exhibit, publicly demonstrate and so justify their power in ways more compatible with democratic notions of accountability; and a growing belief in the “system” of production and distribution as itself the possible object of technical expertise seemed to make possible the promise of a great collective benefit, given proper “management,” arising from the individual pursuit of self-interest promoted by market economies.

Since that time such an increasing dependence on technology has been perceived to create a number of straightforwardly political problems and publicly recognized controversies. Commentators came to see that this reliance also had certain social costs, created difficult ethical problems, and began to alter the general framework within which political discussions took place.