Anyone reading him?>The last century, we all realize, has witnessed a radical transformation in the entire human environment, largely as a result of the impact of the mathematical and physical sciences upon technology. This shift from an empirical, tradition-bound technics to an experimental mode has opened up such new realms as those of nuclear energy, supersonic transportation, cybernetic intelligence and instantaneous distant communication. Never since the Pyramid Age have such vast physical changes been consummated in so short a time. All these changes have, in turn, produced alterations in the human personality, while still more radical transformations, if this process continue unabated and uncorrected, loom ahead.>In terms of the currently accepted picture of the relation of man to technics, our age is passing from the primeval state of man, marked by his invention of tools and weapons for the purpose of achieving mastery over the forces of nature, to a radically different condition, in which he will have not only conquered nature, but detached himself as far as possible from the organic habitat.>With this new ‘megatechnics’ the dominant minority will create a uni-form, all-enveloping, super-planetary structure, designed for automatic op-eration. Instead of functioning actively as an autonomous personality, man will become a passive, purposeless, machine-conditioned animal whose proper functions, as technicians now interpret man’s role, will either be fed into the machine or strictly limited and controlled for the benefit of de-personalized, collective organizations.
>>25599828Read Technics and Civilization earlier this year; have a copy of The City in History (and his little book on roads) which I'll read probably just after the holidays. Impression is that he's a peerless diagnostician, but, unfortunately, his solutions more than a little suspect. Had he lived he would have amended these (to some extent) no doubt. Dude's eyes were wide open
>>25599828What /lit/ probably does not know (at large) is that he was near the van of the Melville revival: a 'social' Melvillian if ever one was
