In Technology Matters, David E. Nye makes a case for the symbiotic relationship between humans and machines. Technology keeps evolving and exists to serve humans and to help solve human problems. He spends the opening chapters of the book arguing against technological determinism, the idea that “a direct line of inevitable technological development led from the first tools to the conquest of the stars” (Nye, 15). Nye seems eager to shatter readers’ notions of what technology is and how we perceive it, finding the layperson’s concept too broad and inelegant. Humans, according to Nye, are not able to predict the technological future, as evidenced by the failed predictions of the science fiction, World’s fairs, the news media, and even experts. Instead of being driven by experts, technological developments often arise in response to consumer demands. Furthermore, these demands vary from place to place and culture to culture, a claim Nye supports by contrasting Americans’ preference for bright lighting with the European choice of dimmer lighting in applications ranging from private homes to billboard advertising. Rather than forcing either technological preference on people, cultural norms shaped the application of technology in each particular culture.
After laying out his initial premise in chapters one, two, and three, Nye backtracks in chapter four to investigate what researchers can learn from humans’ technological history. For example, he describes the competing automobile technologies of the early 20th century: steam, electric, and gasoline. Nye accurately describes the benefits of the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine over steam or electric-powered automobiles, but he credits Henry Ford’s entrepreneurial gusto and manufacturing breakthroughs with providing the “technological momentum” (59) necessary to overtake streetcars and bicycles as well. I agree with Nye that technologies become ubiquitous through “a variety of interlinked factors” (60) which debunks the notion of technological determinism. He gives brief mention of the VHS win over the competing Beta videocassette technology but neglects to mention Blu-ray winning the next-generation video disc format war against rival HD DVD. Blu-ray’s victory supports Nye’s idea of many factors contributing to technological momentum and its being “unavoidably bound up with consumption” (66). Sony’s Blu-ray technology offers 50GB of data storage to HD DVD’s 30GB along with the backing of more movie studios. Toshiba’s HD DVD, though, was the only format supported by Universal and Paramount. Consumers bought both formats throughout 2006, but Blu-ray sales slowly outpaced HD DVD, and by the summer of 2007, American consumers were firmly in the Blu-ray camp. In August of that year, director Michael Bay wrote of Paramount’s decision to release Transformers only on HD DVD that “for them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks!” (Frankel). With that, the pendulum fully swung to Blu-ray, Paramount left HD DVD, and Sony’s format had the technological momentum to win the format war.
Since technology is in part socially constructed, Nye uses his fifth chapter to explore whether it pushes societies toward uniformity or diversity. One positive aspect of this brief chapter comes in its ambiguity. While Nye seems to answer his own questions in the previous chapters, he leaves the question of the societal impact of technology somewhat up in the air, drawing no clear conclusion. He supports the “shift from viewing technology as the harbinger of standardization to viewing it as the engine of differentiation” (76) while noting the capitalist and corporate interests at work. Nevertheless, he eventually comes down on the side of technology-supported diversity by rejecting the idea that it creates “crushing uniformity and standardization” (86). Tackling farming and sustainable agriculture in chapter six, Nye again assesses the modern condition in an even handed fashion. He outlines the historical view that “technology brings greater efficiency and prosperity” (88) and traces this belief through human societies as it clashes with the inevitable obstacle of pollution from medieval French slaughterhouses to modern coal-fired power plants. Again, Nye comes down on the side of technology, but he presents historical and modern counterpoints using evidence from countries around the world with enough gusto to assure readers he is paying them more than just lip service. When he argues that “[nature’s] limits are our own” (108), he is expanding on his thesis about the indivisible relationship between people and technology. Not only is it impractical and impossible to separate humans from their technological tools, as they are an extension of our ideas, beliefs, and actions, but nature is also part of this symbiotic cocktail. Humans can and have enhanced the natural carrying capacity of the earth, reaping more from the soil than would be possible without the application of technology. Still, there may be limits to what can be agriculturally produced even with advancing technology. Quoting Joel Cohen, Nye astutely concludes that “how many people the Earth can support depends on what people want from life” (108). As he implies, the Earth’s future carrying capacity may be limited by the global push toward an Americanized notion of what constitutes an acceptable standard of living.
Nye’s next two chapters explore topics of labor and markets that hit very close to home considering recent developments in Wisconsin and current economic forecasts. Like many American states, Wisconsin has traditionally relied on farming and factory jobs to employ its citizens. Technological advances in agriculture and manufacturing have made those industries less labor intensive, and industry does not need as many people to produce the same goods. Additionally, technology has created a flat world with a borderless economy where jobs in nearly every field can be outsourced to where labor is most cost effective. For workers, this means fewer jobs available along with a surplus of labor, leaving those who are employed less leverage to negotiate for salaries and benefits. As Nye puts it, “as factory and white-collar jobs exit Western economies, new low-wage jobs seem to increase” (130). This certainly makes technology seem like an enemy, but workers quickly need to advance past that mentality to compete for existing higher wage jobs. Workers who are in great demand for the small market of prosperous jobs are “well-educated professionals who love their jobs, and even when away from the office never really leave it behind” (133). Nye offers no conclusions except that Western workers must face this reality, acquire education, and embrace technology to compete in the global marketplace. Chapter 8 touches on a similar topic of market control by questioning whether the same market that created the aforementioned global economy should be responsible for selecting technologies of the future, or if that task is better left to governments. He offers pros and cons of each and highlights specific cases where one or the other is preferred while considering democracy and free speech. There are no easy answers, and Nye provides none, so readers will probably adhere to their existing ideologies. More than other chapters, this chapter’s question can be answered by following one’s political leanings, conservatives advocating for market control and liberals preferring government intervention.
Nye continues his text with two philosophical chapters questioning whether technology adds to or detracts from humanity’s collective security and intellectualism. In chapter nine, Nye attempts to answer whether advancing technology makes the world safer or invites disaster. Many tools and technological products such as safe buildings and clean, treated water inarguably add to human safety and security, but some of these have unanticipated side effects, evidenced by asbestos and DDT. Weapons of war can aid security, but are primarily responsible for suffering and death. Advancements that experts have expected to swiftly end wars have sometimes prolonged them instead. Ironically, Nye notes that during World War I, “advanced technologies, when shared equally, led not to quick victory but to stalemate” (171). In World War II, nuclear technology enabled by the Manhattan Project may have ended the war, but it took many lives, including 107,000 by the Hiroshima bomb alone (173). Since that time, weapons technology has only advanced, and more nations and rogue groups possess advanced technology. Nye seems to share my pacifist outlook on weapons and war but offers little hope for a future devoid of an escalating arms race where safety rests perilously on human pragmatism and technical reliability. Nye’s tenth chapter addresses whether technology has expanded or hindered human thought. He extols the benefits of multitasking while acknowledging the virtues of nature and solitude. Creating a paradox, he points out that technology has both drawn us away from the physical world and brought about new ways to connect with it. Finally, he advocates “embracing [technology’s] conveniences, even wallowing it its pleasures and fleeing its sensory overload or rejecting its inauthenticity” (207).
Concluding his book, Nye discusses the future of technology in chapter eleven, pointing out historic human projections about what has since transpired. This chapter brings Technology Matters full circle, as Nye offers evidence to support his rejection of technological determinism. Some of his references seem dated, like when he refers to The Net as a “recent film” (217). Unrealistic even upon release in 1995, the technological dystopia envisioned in The Net seems silly to a modern viewer. This argument highlights the book’s strengths and shortcomings; spending so much of his text on historical and theoretical arguments, Nye manages to make the material seem insightful and forward-thinking. His arguments are well reasoned, but he spends too much of the text arguing against technological determinism long after readers can clearly see his point. As he concludes by arguing that there is “no necessary end to the symbiosis between people and machines (226), I wonder why he spent so much of the book asking questions rather than clearly supporting this thesis.
References
Nye, D. (2006). Technology matters: Questions to live with. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
