Technology/instrumentalism

About

The technological instrumentalist position (aka technological instrumentalism) states that technology has no ends of its own and exists only to accomplish human ends. Technology in completely under the control of humanity and human history is shaped by humans, not technology.

People make decisions about what technology they will use and how they will use it. Societies collectively do the same thing. For example, the Japanese banned the use of firearms for hundreds of years in order to preserve their traditional culture. The Amish choose not to use modern technology for religious reasons, even though they are surrounded by modern American communities. Nations put legal restrictions on the use of certain technologies such as weapons. These examples suggest that technology is completely under human control.

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia: no exact page as of 2011-07-09; see wikipedia:Technological determinism#Technology as neutral