The technological bluff

In "The Technological Bluff", Jacques Ellul exposes the illusion of the perceived benefits of technological progress. This bluff is so overpowering that it ensnares most people, regardless of their social status, political ideology or religious persuasion. Providing many examples Ellul shows how the civilized world marches to the beat of Technique - defined as all the refined methods that impose absolute efficiency in every human field of activity. Technique has perfected the assembly line approach. Technique is subject to one particular blind rule, namely, to see every problem in the world as a technical problem. The saying "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail" applies to Technique unequivocally. In fact, upon finishing the book, I was left with the overwhelming impression that Technique has become a sledgehammer in the hands of madmen! While on the daily basis our politicians, corporations and the media propagate the virtues of technology, the negative aspects of it are radically concealed. You will be hard pressed to find any outspoken critics of technology in mainstream media. Ellul is not shy in describing the dominant trait of our culture in religious terms; Technocracy. Most of us are at the mercy of the Technocrats, the technological experts or, if you will, the High Priests of specialized knowledge. Ellul points out that the technological progress is inherently ambivalent (not neutral!) and that it carries with it increasingly more undesirable as well as unforeseen effects. For anyone who is familiar with the Unabomber's Manifesto (Ted Kaczynski's "Industrial Society and its Future", 1995) you might be surprised to find out that he based it in large part on Jacques Ellul's earlier book "The Technological Society", 1964. While Ellul still expressed some hope back then, in "The Technological Bluff", 1988, he concedes that it is now too late to reverse the trend of this indiscriminate procession of the technologically obsessed world towards the unknown. Ellul’s most famous and best-selling book 'The Technological Society', a dense sociological and historical study of the nature and broad-ranging impact of technique/technology on human life, was praised by author Aldous Huxley for “making the case I tried to make in Brave New World.” Technological Society was followed by The Technological System and then The Technological Bluff, but even these three big volumes barely open the Ellulian analysis that includes such studies as 'The Political Illusion', 'Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes', 'Autopsy of Revolution', 'The Humiliation of the Word', 'The New Demons', and 'Betrayal of the West'. The sheer scope of Ellul’s critical perspective warrants our admiration and respect. The Technological Bluff Contents Translator’s Preface Foreword Preliminary Thesis: The Great Innovation 1. Multiple Progress 2. Social Discourse 3. The Great Innovation Excursus on Simon, The Ultimate Resource 4. The Aristocrats PART I UNCERTAINTY I Ambivalence 1. All Technical Progress Has Its Price 2. Technical Progress Raises More and Greater Problems than It Solves 3. The Harmful Effects of Technical Progress Are Inseparable from Its Beneficial Effects 4. Technical Progress Has a Great Number of Unforeseen Effects 5. Our Lack of Awareness II Unpredictability 1. Introduction to Unpredictability 2. Our Failure to Foresee and Relative Unpredictability 3. Conditions that Make Forecasting Impossible 4. Absolute Unpredictability 5. Foresight III Double Feedback 1. Positive Feedback 2. Negative Feedback IV Internal Contradictions 1. Thresholds of Reversal 2. Fragility 3. Compensations PART II DISCOURSE V Humanism VI Is There a Technical Culture? 1. Imperatives and Hesitations 2. What Can We Call Culture? 3. A Technical Culture Is Impossible VII Human Mastery over Technique VIII Rationality IX A Sketch of the Ideologies of Science 1. Classical Ideology 2. The New Ideology Excursus on Science and Faith X Experts PART III THE TRIUMPH OF THE ABSURD XI Technical Progress and the Philosophy of the Absurd 1. Technical Absurdity 2. Economic Absurdity 3. Human Absurdity 4. Conclusion XII Unreason 1. Dissociation 2. Paradigms 3. The Main Areas of Unreason 4. Complementary Examples XIII The Costs: The New Relation between Technique and Political Economy XIV What Use? The World of Gadgets 1. Needs 2. The World of Gadgets XV Waste 1. Private Waste 2. Social and Collective Waste 3. Responsibility XVI The Bluff of Productivity 1. The State and Science 2. Productivity 3. Entropy PART IV FASCINATED PEOPLE XVII From Information to Telematics 1. Information 2. Television 3. Telematics XVIII Advertising XIX Diversions 1. Games 2. Sports 3. The Automobile 4. Mechanistic Art 5. Ultimate Idiocies XX Terrorism in the Velvet Glove of Technology Last Words 1. Inventing Humanity 2. The Great Design Bibliography M. Ellul's view of technology is that once it is let out of the laboratory, technology cannot be turned off. Technology begets more technology. The modern world, therefore, is one in which more technology is inevitable. Fixing or remediating the impact of a technology like water pollution requires--you guessed it--more technology.