Technological Determinism and Society

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Table of Contents

Background and Relevance
Literature Review
References

Modern humanitarian knowledge calls the current period the era of the second industrial revolution. It has become obvious to many researchers today that understanding social processes is inextricably linked with understanding the problems of scientific and technological progress. This is due to the fact that if earlier the influence of technology was largely limited to the production of material goods, today this influence permeates the entire life of a person. The qualitative changes in social relations that scientific and technological progress entails confirm the need for a socio-philosophical understanding of these processes. New social realities are getting inevitably altered by the continuous development of technologies, or even created by it – such as cancel culture, for example.

Technological determinism, in its essence, is based on a natural scientific approach that promises to reveal the laws of technological functioning or evolution. In turn, the ability to reveal the laws of technology serves as a condition for effective influence on technology itself. Thus, in a broad sense, technological determinism is understood in modern sociology as a specific method of explaining social processes and phenomena. According to it, changes in technology have been and, most likely, will be the primary basis for changing institutions, practices, and ideas. However, a question arises: to what extent and how exactly does technological advancement influences the direction of social development? Moreover, could it also be bilateral in nature, meaning that society, in turn, influences the course of this advancement? This paper argues that the social reality is the ultimate driver behind any and all technological development, as it constantly creates a specific demand the technological development has to follow and fulfill.

Background and Relevance

The term “innovative technologies” has become very popular with time; however, it has an ambivalent character. On the one hand, innovative technologies give hope for solving the urgent problems of mankind; on the other hand, they are characterized by the unpredictability of the consequences of their application. The reality shows that innovative technologies constantly create new risks for society, which is why it is crucial to address this topic. Despite the wide range of opinions of modern researchers who adhere to the concept of technological determinism, all their theories have a single methodological basis. It lies in the understanding of technology as a certain entity that has long gone out of the control of society.

A striking example of the influence of technology on social processes is the automotive industry. The car was created by man to satisfy a set of needs, for example, in a sense of superiority over other subjects. The fact that more and more people have a car leads to a worsening of the criminogenic situation and the environmental situation. The satisfaction of some needs through technology leads to the emergence of other needs, which are again satisfied with the help of technology – alarm systems, exhaust gas neutralizers, and others. The huge influence of technology on society is undeniable, but no matter what concepts of technology modern scientists create, society will not do without it. And as long as technology exists, new concepts of technological determinism will be created, contributing to the relevancy of the issue.

Literature Review

There is a significant body of research covering the topic of technological determinism, especially as a philosophical concept. For this research, three studies were chosen as the most relevant and connected to the sociological aspect of changes brought by technological advancement. Each of the articles reviews specific aspects of the complex relationship between technology and society, differentiating perspectives and drawing various conclusions from their findings.

Boyd and Holton (2017) discuss in their work how robotics and artificial intelligence – the directions science places the most faith upon nowadays – participate in social and economic transformation of the world. Boyd and Holton (2017) focus “on the economic, political and historical dynamics of technological innovation, and its consequences for employment and economic re-structuring, mediated through sovereign and discursive power” (p. 331). The study conducted by Brey (2018) follows the question of technology’s influence on the society; however, the author aims at the qualitative evaluation of the consequences of technological advancement on a “good” society. Brey (2018) argues that “the goodness of society can be defined as a number of values, thus impacts of technology can be analyzed as either contributing to, or detracting from, the realization of such values” (p. 39). Finally, Hauer’s (2017) research concentrates specifically on the technology’s contribution to the emergence of the new media, and how changes in the processes of information and knowledge distribution have changed the society.

References

Boyd, R., & Holton, R. J. (2017). Technology, innovation, employment and power: Does robotics and artificial intelligence really mean social transformation?Journal of Sociology, 54(3), 331–345.

Brey, P. (2018). The strategic role of technology in a good society. Technology in Society, 52, 39–45. Web.

Hauer, T. (2017). Technological determinism and new media. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2(2).

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Technological Determinism and Society

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