NOTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Ellul's main goal is to clarify the function of technique in

the modern world and highlight the need for regulation.

According to Ellul, several interconnected circumstances

led to the development of the approach in the 18th
century.

First off, it has a lengthy history of technological growth,

with advancements made after 1750 expanding on earlier
discoveries and paving the way for important innovations.

Second, population growth created demands that needed

to be met by technical development. In addition to
creating a market for technique, this population growth
also produced the necessary human capital to fuel it.

Thirdly, the economic climate was both stable and

dynamic, which facilitated focused research and the quick
uptake of technical advancements.

Fourthly, the social structure grew more flexible,

removing limitations from the past and enabling technical
advancement.
Finally, a distinct technological goal that was supported
by elite groups like the bourgeoisie rose to prominence.

According to Ellul, is what caused a pronounced

"alignment of the entire society with a conspicuous
technical objective" to arise in the 1750s and gave rise to
the technique.

Ellul lists eight traits that characterise the method:

The first is its rationalism, which integrates mechanics

within a logical framework.

The formation of artificiality, which eliminates

spontaneity and irrationality, subordinates the natural
world, and prevents its restoration, is the second.

The method is also self-directed and only concerned with

effectiveness.

Without considering important human choices, it pursues

the most efficient course of action.

The method also exhibits self-amplifying, automated,

irreversible development that follows a geometric
progression. It presents technical problems that can only
be solved through technology, creating vicious loops.
The method adopts its velocity and course. Technique
also implies monism, the inseparability of the positive and
negative qualities.

The technique has both positive and negative aspects, as

well as positive and negative aspects that are both helpful
and harmful.

While Ellul separates technique from the individual

machines that contribute to its reign, he maintains that
machines represent an ideal state for the forces that
govern technique.

We lack the efficiency and predictability of machines.

Therefore, Ellul says, technique is the social adaptation
that exists in transforming the messy lives of humans so
that they better fit into a world controlled by machinery.

To illustrate the ways in which technique poisons

humanity, Ellul describes a particular advent of modern
society that still plagues many educators today:
standardized tests.

Standardized tests, Ellul asserts, represent a mechanized

way of measuring learning and education, despite the fact
that true education evolves from experience and other
factors that do not stem from a mechanical understanding
of the world.

"Social plasticity, Ellul explains, is a collective willingness

to abandon long-held religious or communal traditions
and taboos in favor of a society that prizes individual
prosperity above all else.

Ellul adds, technique both stems from and creates social

plasticity.

For example, when technology is introduced into societies

that haven't yet abandoned many of their collective
traditions, these traditions are quickly abandoned.

Finally, Ellul define what he means by "technique,"

attaching to it seven distinct characteristics.

First, technique is rational because technology propagates

a scientific way of thinking in that it is through science
that more machines may be developed.

Second characteristic is artificiality because technology

often suppresses the natural in order to thrive.

Third is automatism, which Ellul relates to efficiency.

Fourth is self-augmentation, in that technology builds on
itself.

Fifth is wholeness, as individual machines work in concert

toward common goals such as the aforementioned
efficiency.

Sixth characteristic is universalism, meaning that there is

no corner of the universe immune to technology's reach.

Seventh characteristic is autonomy, meaning that

technology does want it wants, regardless of what human
as.

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS;

 Appropriate technology-sometimes known as

"intermediate" technology, is more of an economic
concern.
 Refers to trade-offs between expensive, central
technologies used by rich countries and those that
 emerging nations find to be the most practical to use
given a surplus of labour and a lack of resources.
 Persuasion technology-Definitions or presumptions
of progress or growth in economics are frequently
linked to one or more presumptions regarding the
economic influence of technology.
 Alternative concepts, such as uneconomic growth or
gauging well-being, have emerged as a result of
challenging dominant beliefs about technology and its
value.
 These two, along with economics itself, are frequently
referred to as technologies, more precisely as
persuasion technologies.

SOCIOLOGICAL FACTORS AND EFFECTS;

The application of technology affects a society's values.

Values have an impact on how technology is implemented.

There are (at least) three central, interconnected values

that guide technical advancements and are guided by
them:
  Mechanistic worldview: The idea that the universe
can be broken down into distinct components and
comprehended.

This is an uncommon instance of reductionism nowadays.

 The "neo-mechanistic worldview" asserts that

nothing in the universe is beyond the capacity of the
human mind to comprehend.

In addition, even if everything is bigger than the sum of its

parts (even if we only take into account the information
involved in their assembly), even this excess must, in
theory, be understood by human intellect at some point.

The absence of any divine or essential principle or

essence.

 Efficiency is a value that was once reserved for

machines but is now applied to all facets of society.

As a result, each component is required to reach an

ever-increasing percentage of its maximum
performance, output, or capacity.

 Social progress: The conviction that social progress

exists and is, for the most part, beneficial.
Nearly all societies before the Industrial Revolution and
the consequent expansion of technology held a cyclical
philosophy of social change, as well as a cyclical view of all
of history and the cosmos.

ENVIRONMENT;

A lot of trash is recycled in industrial operations, some are

still released into the environment, which has detrimental
ecological effects such as contamination and a lack of
sustainability.

While some technologies put the environment first, the

majority are primarily built for ergonomic or financial
advantages.

As social prosperity has grown historically, emphasis has

been drawn to intangible goods like clean air and water,
allowing for a cleaner environment and more efficient
industry.

The loss of nonrenewable resources (such as petroleum,

coal, and ores) as well as an increase in air, water, and
land pollution are obvious repercussions.
With each new technological development, a new type of
trash, such as poisonous, radioactive, and electronic waste,
emerges.

The lack of a workable method for large-scale, quick

pollutant removal is a serious problem. In nature,
organisms recycle one another's waste, but there is no
analogous mechanism in technology

Illustration; plants produce oxygen during photosynthesis,

which oxygen-breathing organisms use for metabolism. As
a waste product, carbon dioxide is then produced by
plants, which they then use to create sugar and produce
oxygen once more.

Technology garbage, however, lacks a similar organic

recycling procedure.