The technological system
Jacques Ellul (Author), Joachim Neugroschel (Translator), Daniel Cérézuelle, Lisa Richmond
Some 20 years after writing The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul realized how the totalistic dimensions of our modern technological milieu required an additional treatment of the topic. Writing amidst the rise of books in the 1970s on pollution, over-population, and environmental degradation, Ellul found it necessary, once again, to write about the global presence of technology and its far-reaching effects. The Technological System represents a new stage in Ellul's research. Previously he studied technological society as such; in this book he approaches the topic from a systems perspective wherein he identifies the characteristics of technological phenomena and technological progress in light of system theory. This leads to an entirely new approach to what constitutes the most important event of our society which has decisive bearing on the future of our world. Ellul's analysis touches on all aspects of modern life, not just those of a scientific or technological order. In the end, readers are compelled to formulate their own opinions and make their own decisions regarding the way a technique-based value system affects every level of human life. --From publisher's description
xvi, 362 pages ; 23 cm
9781532615252, 1532615256
1042085403
Part one : What is technology
Technology as a concept
Technology as an environment
Technology as a determining factor
Technology as a system
Part two : The charactersitics of the technological phenomenon
Autonomy
Unity
Universality
Totalization
Part three : The characteristics of technological progress
Self-augmentation
Automatism
Causal progression and absence of finality
The problem of acceleration
Conclusion : Man in the technological system
Previously published by Continuum, 1980