| However far modern science and technology | | | | benefit from taking a lease on our eyes and |
| have fallen short of their inherent | | | | ears and nerves, we don´t really have any |
| possibilities, they have taught mankind at | | | | rights (read autonomy) left' ". |
| least one lesson: Nothing is impossible. | | | | |
| | | | "This latter point might well be taken as a |
| Today, the degradation of the inner life is | | | | warning to disengage ourselves, as soon as |
| symbolized by the fact that the only place | | | | possible, from the power system so menacingly |
| sacred from interruption is the private | | | | described: for McLuhan it leads, rather, to a |
| toilet. | | | | demand for unconditional surrender. 'Under |
| | | | electric technology', he observes, 'the |
| By his very success in inventing laboursaving | | | | entire business of man becomes learning and |
| devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss | | | | knowing'. Apart from the fact that this is a |
| of boredom that only the privileged classes | | | | pathetically academic picture of the |
| in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed. | | | | potentialities of man, the kind of learning |
| | | | and knowing that McLuhan becomes enraptured |
| For most Americans, progress means accepting | | | | over is precisely that which can be |
| what is new because it is new, and discarding | | | | programmed on a computer: 'We are now in |
| what is old because it is old. | | | | position...', he observes, 'to transfer the |
| | | | entire show to the memory of a computer'. No |
| I would die happy if I knew that on my | | | | better formula could be found for arresting |
| tombstone could be written these words, "This | | | | and ultimately suppressing human |
| man was an absolute fool. None of the | | | | development..." |
| disastrous things that he reluctantly | | | | |
| predicted ever came to pass!" | | | | Well, this is my opening movement, Your turn, |
| | | | Mr. Vaknin. |
| Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) | | | | |
| | | | Dear RCM, |
| Dear Sam, | | | | |
| | | | Good to renew our dialogues. I will get |
| We begin our series on great personalities of | | | | straight to the point, or, rather, to the |
| the 20th century with Lewis Mumford. Of | | | | points. I intend to deal with each and every |
| course, this is only an excuse to develop our | | | | one of them extensively - but, as is our |
| own ideas. Those who are interested in the | | | | habit, I am just mapping the territory. |
| ideas of "our" characters can go to the | | | | |
| nearest bookstore and read directly form the | | | | 1. Is it meaningful to discuss technology |
| fountain. Anyway, for the sake of those who | | | | separate from life, as opposed to life, or |
| are not acquainted with Mumford, I will draw | | | | compared to life? Is it not the inevitable |
| a brief biography. | | | | product of life, a determinant of life and |
| | | | part of its definition? Francis Bacon and, |
| Lewis Mumford was born in 1895 (the same year | | | | centuries later, the visionary Ernst Kapp, |
| X-rays were discovered by Roentgen and the | | | | thought of technology as a means to conquer |
| Dreyfus affair was another significant | | | | and master nature - an expression of the |
| "success"). Mumford started his career in the | | | | classic dichotomy between observer and |
| US Patent Office (overseeing "cement and | | | | observed. But there could be other ways of |
| concrete"), which gave him a first person | | | | looking at it (consider, for instance, the |
| insight into technological innovation | | | | seminal work of Friedrich Dessauer). Kapp was |
| processes. Later he made contact with his | | | | the first to talk of technology as "organ |
| late master Patrick Geddes (and other great | | | | projection" (preceding McLuhan by more than a |
| thinkers like Victor Branford). These | | | | century). Freud wrote in "Civilization and |
| encounters converted him into a generalist. | | | | its Discontents": "Man has, as it were, |
| His writing career extended over six decades | | | | become a kind of prosthetic god. When he puts |
| in which he made significant contributions to | | | | on all his auxiliary organs he is truly |
| the literature of history, philosophy, art, | | | | magnificent; but those organs have not grown |
| and architectural criticism. Perhaps best | | | | on to him and they still give him much |
| known for his work on urban planning and the | | | | trouble at times." |
| study of technology, Mumford was co-founder | | | | |
| of the Regional Planning Association of | | | | 2. On the whole, has technology contributed |
| America and, for 32 years, wrote the "Sky | | | | to human development or arrested it? |
| Line" column on architecture for the New | | | | |
| Yorker. He served on the faculties of several | | | | 3. Even if we accept that technology is alien |
| institutions, including Stanford university, | | | | to life, a foreign implant and a potential |
| the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT, and | | | | menace - what frame of reference can |
| was appointed to the New York City Board of | | | | accommodate the new convergence between life |
| Higher Education. He received many awards, as | | | | and technology (mainly medical technology and |
| the National Medal for Literature and The | | | | biotechnology)? What are cyborgs - life or |
| National Medal for the Arts. | | | | technology? What about clones? Artificial |
| | | | implants? Life sustaining devices (like |
| His first literary work was "The Story of | | | | heart-kidney machines)? Future implants of |
| Utopias", which advanced one of the major | | | | chips in human brains? Designer babies, |
| themes of his life: the utopian | | | | tailored to specifications by genetic |
| (technological) literature and its impact on | | | | engineering? What about ARTIFICIAL |
| human development. After some other minor | | | | intelligence? |
| works (which included a beautiful book on | | | | |
| Herman Melville, 1929), he published his | | | | 4. Is technology IN-human or A-human? In |
| first great opus, "Technics and Civilization | | | | other words, are the main, immutable and |
| (1934)", one of the first historical works on | | | | dominant attributes of technology alien to |
| technology. It was even incorporated in the | | | | humans, to the human spirit, or to the human |
| curricula of technological institutes, like | | | | brain? Is this possible at all? Is such |
| Cal tech, the first technological university | | | | non-human technology likely to be developed |
| to have a historical course. This book was, | | | | by artificial intelligence machines in the |
| though with some doubts, technologically | | | | future? Finally, is this kind of technology |
| oriented. After the war, his point of view, | | | | automatically ANTI-human as well? Mumford's |
| regarding this as well as other matters, | | | | classification of all technologies to |
| changed somewhat. In 1938 he presented "The | | | | polytechnic (human-friendly) and monotechnic |
| Culture of Cities", the first work pertaining | | | | (human averse) springs to mind. |
| to the other leitmotif of his life: urbanism | | | | |
| and architecture. In the forties and fifties, | | | | 5. Is the impact technology has on the |
| Mumford produced sevearl works on the "human | | | | INDIVIDUAL necessarily identical or even |
| condition", sanity, city development and | | | | comparable to the impact it has on human |
| arts. In 1961 appeared another major work of | | | | collectives and societies? Think Internet - |
| his, "The city in History", a complete survey | | | | the answer in this case is clearly NEGATIVE. |
| of the city and its cycles. | | | | |
| | | | 6. Is it possible to define what is |
| In the "decisive years", during the sixties, | | | | technology at all? |
| Mumford wrote, in our humble opinion, his | | | | |
| major work: "The Myth of the Machine". It was | | | | If we adopt Monsma's definition of technology |
| partly based on the ideas of Oswald Spengler | | | | (1986) as "the systematic treatment of an |
| as refined by Alfred Toynbee, and, distilling | | | | art" - is art to be treated as a variant of |
| nearly sixty years of investigation, Lewis | | | | technology? Robert Merton's definition is a |
| Mumford brings to a head his radical | | | | non-definition because it is so broad it |
| revisions of the stale popular conceptions of | | | | encompasses all teleological human actions: |
| human and technological progress. "The Myth" | | | | "any complex of standardized means for |
| is a fully developed historical explanation | | | | attaining a predetermined result". Jacques |
| of the irrationalities that have undermined | | | | Ellul resorted to tautology: "the totality of |
| the highest achievements of modern technology | | | | methodsrationally arrived at and having |
| - speed, mass production, automation, instant | | | | absolute efficiency in every field of human |
| communication, and remote control. These have | | | | activity" (1964). H.D. Lasswell (whose work |
| inevitably brought about pollution, waste, | | | | is mainly media-related) proffered an |
| ecological disruption and human | | | | operative definition: "the ensemble of |
| extermination. And he makes a comparison - | | | | practices by which one uses available |
| part historical and part artistic - between | | | | resources to achieve certain valued ends". It |
| the state machine of the Pyramid Age and the | | | | is clear how unclear and indefensible these |
| global cybernetic techno-machine of our | | | | definitions are. |
| "strange days" (the Pentagon of Power). | | | | |
| | | | 7. The use of technology involves choices and |
| As the generalist work of Mumford covers | | | | the exercise of free will. Does technology |
| practically all fields of knowledge, I | | | | enhance our ability to exercise free will - |
| propose to you to focus our dialogue on the | | | | or does it detract from it? Is there an |
| problem of technology and life (with some | | | | inherent and insolvable contradiction between |
| linkage to his other major field: urbanism). | | | | technology and ethical and moral percepts? |
| Indeed, this is a hot topic nowadays (the | | | | Put more simply: is technology inherently |
| "mad cow disease" issue). | | | | unethical and immoral or a-moral? If so, is |
| | | | it fatalistic, or deterministic, as Thurstein |
| Highlights of this theme are: | | | | Veblen suggested (in "Engineers and the Price |
| | | | System")? To rephrase the question; does |
| - Mumford discussion of cybernetics and the | | | | technology DETERMINE our choices and actions? |
| "automation of automation" (Wiener) | | | | Does it CONSTRAIN our possibilities and LIMIT |
| | | | our potentials? We are all acquainted with |
| - Mumford's polemics with McLuhan and the | | | | utopias (and dystopias) based on |
| audio-visual tribe - a humbug, in LM words | | | | technological advances (just recall the |
| | | | millenarian fervour with which electricity, |
| - And especially, his proposal to change the | | | | the telegraph, railways, the radio, |
| actual mega-technology into the life | | | | television and the Internet were greeted). |
| plenitude of organic polytechnology - | | | | Technology seems to shape cultures, |
| anticipating the ecological views of today. | | | | societies, ideals and expectations. It is an |
| | | | ACTIVE participant in social dynamics. This |
| As you are interested in technological media | | | | is the essence of Mumford's "megamachine", |
| (i.e. your essay on the Internet), here is a | | | | the "rigid, hierarchical social |
| first strike courtesy Mr. Mumford: | | | | organization". Contrast this with Dessauer's |
| | | | view of technology as a kind of moral and |
| ".... It is to replace human autonomy in | | | | aesthetic statement or doing, a direct way of |
| every form by an up-to-date electronic model | | | | interacting with things-in-themselves. The |
| of the megamachine. The mass media, he | | | | latter's views place technology neatly in the |
| demonstrates, are 'put out before they are | | | | Kantian framework of categorical imperatives. |
| thought out'. In fact, 'their being put out | | | | |
| tends to cancel the possibility of their | | | | 8. Is technology IN ITSELF neutral? Can the |
| being thought out at all". Precisely. Here | | | | the undeniable harm caused by technology be |
| McLuhan gives the whole show away. Because | | | | caused, as McLuhan put it, by HUMAN mis-use |
| every technical apparatus is an extension of | | | | and abuse: "[It] is not that there is |
| man´s bodily organs, including his brain, | | | | anything good or bad about [technology] but |
| this peripheral structure, by Mcluhan´s | | | | that unconsciousness of the effect of any |
| analysis, must, by its very mass and | | | | force is a disaster, especially a force that |
| ubiquity, replace all autonomous needs or | | | | we have made ourselves". If so, why blame |
| desires: since now for us 'technology is a | | | | technology and exonerate ourselves? |
| part our bodies', no detachment or divorce is | | | | Displacing the blame is a classic |
| possible. 'Once we have surrendered our | | | | psychological defence mechanism but it leads |
| senses and nervous systems to the private | | | | to fatal behavioural rigidities and |
| manipulations of those who would try to | | | | pathological thinking. |