Autonomous Technology – Technics-Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought

by Langdon Winner

The book was a survey of how various thinkers (from Marx to Mumford but also people like Herbert Marcuse) have all thought about technology as a social force. I think it was very smart of Winner to point out that we do have to start taking technology seriously as a political phenomenon, and that thinking about it only as a combination of gadgets or as something completely supernatural or magical is not going to help, because human interest will always be either promoted or suppressed by technology.