The myth of the machine
The Myth of the Machine is a two-volume book by Lewis Mumford that takes an in-depth look at the forces that have shaped modern technology since prehistoric times. The first volume, Technics and Human Development, was published in 1967, followed by the second volume, The Pentagon of Power, in 1970. Mumford shows the parallel developments between human tools and social organization mainly through language and rituals. It is considered a synthesis of many theories Mumford developed throughout his prolific writing career. Volume 2 was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection.
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- Walden, by Thoreau
The Myth of the Machine, by Lewis Mumford
Cloud Hidden, by Alan Watts
Computer Lib/Dream Machines, by Ted Nelson (Technology purpose and arrow)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer
Small is Beautiful, by E. F. Schumacher
- By that definition of "radical": painful and difficult to read, but yielding enormous positive transformation, then for me Aldous Huxley's "Heaven and Hell" (which contains "Doors of Perceptions"), Erich Fromm's "To Have or to Be", Lewis Mumford's "Technics and Civilization" and his "The Myth of the Machine". YMMV, but for me all of these were "radical" in challenging my purely rational, instrumental, and I think very limited ideas of knowledge, technology and "progress" that I held as a younger scientist/engineer.
- This article doesn't actually seem to explore too much the deep origins and cultural impact of this mode of modeling.
Lewis Mumford for instance in The Myth of the Machine all the way in 1970 wrote much better about the limitations of this way of thinking, that didn't do the heavy philosophizing of Baudrillard.
The fact that models are necessary constructs, but are merely heuristics was one of Kant's main riffs (as much as I could understand), so maybe we've actually gotten worse at perceiving the limitations of models since we've lost touch with the real world over the last decades.
- For Lewis Mumford [0] maybe "Myth of the Machine" - with his concept of "megatechnics" - is more readable than the earlier "Technics and Civilisation", but his earlier insights seem ever more relevant.
For Neil Postman [1] the standard reader is "Technopoly", but for me "Amusing Ourselves to Death" is a real treat. It was literally a description of social media and modern "performance politics" 40 years too early.
- Lewis Mumford wrote some very interesting books about technology and society:
- These are good questions. Here are some reading sources to help with your exploration of the subject:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_the_Machine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technics_and_Civilization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemantics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Question_Concerning_Techno...
https://geezmagazine.org/blogs/entry/jacques-elluls-76-reaso...
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