Autonomous Technology: Technics-Out-Of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought

The truth of the matter is that our deficiency does not lie in the want of well-verified facts. What we lack is our bearings. The contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments. Categories, arguments, conclusions, and choices that would have been entirely obvious in earlier times are obvious no longer. Patterns of perceptive thinking that were entirely reliable in the past now lead us systematically astray. Many of our standard conceptions of technology reveal a disorientation that borders on dissociation from reality. And as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the data in the world will make no difference. From the Introduction

Author: Langdon Winner
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 08/15/1978
Pages: 396
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 8.04h x 5.24w x 0.91d
ISBN13: 9780262730495
ISBN10: 0262730499
BISAC Categories:
- Science | General
- Social Science | Sociology | General
- Technology & Engineering | Social Aspects

About the Author

Langdon Winner is the Thomas Phelan Chair of Humanities and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.