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NOTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY
Ellul's main goal is to clarify the function of technique in the modern world and highlight the need for regulation. He begins by outlining the history and characteristics of the method. According to Ellul, several interconnected circumstances led to the development of the approach in the 18th century. First off, it has a lengthy history of technological growth, with advancements made after 1750 expanding on earlier discoveries and paving the way for important innovations. Second, population growth created demands that needed to be met by technical development. In addition to creating a market for technique, this population growth also produced the necessary human capital to fuel it. Thirdly, the economic climate was both stable and dynamic, which facilitated focused research and the quick uptake of technical advancements. Fourthly, the social structure grew more flexible, removing limitations from the past and enabling technical advancement. Finally, a distinct technological goal that was supported by elite groups like the bourgeoisie rose to prominence. The convergence of these variables, according to Ellul, is what caused a pronounced "alignment of the entire society with a conspicuous technical objective" to arise in the 1750s and gave rise to the technique. Ellul lists eight traits that characterise the method. Two of these are obvious. The first is its rationalism, which integrates mechanics within a logical framework. The formation of artificiality, which eliminates spontaneity and irrationality, subordinates the natural world, and prevents its restoration, is the second. The method is also self-directed and only concerned with effectiveness. Without considering important human choices, it pursues the most efficient course of action. The method also exhibits self-amplifying, automated, irreversible development that follows a geometric progression. It presents technical problems that can only be solved through technology, creating vicious loops. The method adopts its velocity and course. Technique also implies monism, the inseparability of the positive and negative qualities. The technique has both positive and negative aspects, as well as positive and negative aspects that are both helpful and harmful.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
Appropriate technology, sometimes known as "intermediate" technology, is more of an economic concern and refers to trade-offs between expensive, central technologies used by rich countries and those that emerging nations find to be the most practical to use given a surplus of labour and a lack of resources. Persuasion technology: Definitions or presumptions of progress or growth in economics are frequently linked to one or more presumptions regarding the economic influence of technology. Alternative concepts, such as uneconomic growth or gauging well-being, have emerged as a result of challenging dominant beliefs about technology and its value. These two, along with economics itself, are frequently referred to as technologies, more precisely as persuasion technologies. SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS AND EFFECTS
By altering expectations and reality, the application of technology affects a society's values. Values have an impact on how technology is implemented. There are (at least) three central, interconnected values that guide technical advancements and are guided by them: - Mechanistic worldview: The idea that the universe can be broken down into distinct components and comprehended. This is an uncommon instance of reductionism nowadays. The "neo-mechanistic worldview" asserts that nothing in the universe is beyond the capacity of the human mind to comprehend. In addition, even if everything is bigger than the sum of its parts (even if we only take into account the information involved in their assembly), even this excess must, in theory, be understood by human intellect at some point. The absence of any divine or essential principle or essence. - Efficiency is a value that was once reserved for machines but is now applied to all facets of society. As a result, each component is required to reach an ever-increasing percentage of its maximum performance, output, or capacity. - Social progress: The conviction that social progress exists and is, for the most part, beneficial. Nearly all societies before the Industrial Revolution and the consequent expansion of technology held a cyclical philosophy of social change, as well as a cyclical view of all of history and the cosmos.