Winner contends that technologies are not merely aids to human activity but also powerful forces that give meaning and direction to our lives. Conditions of power, authority, freedom, and social justice are often deeply embedded in technical devices. The physical arrangements of industrial production, warfare, communications, etc. Winner illustrates the dangers of our society's unquestioning faith in technology by examining the concept of "risk" and the practice of "risk assessment" — one of the ways commonly used for choosing between competing technologies.
Examining technologies solely on the basis of risk and benefit ignores the larger moral and political dimensions, he argues. Moreover, by substituting "risk" for the more straightforward concept of "danger" current debates about issues such as environmental policy shift the burden of proof to those who resist technological innovation.
In a beautifully crafted essay called "Mythinformation," he deconstructs many of the silly arguments put forth by Internet enthusiasts about the so-called digital revolution. He describes the pervasive "computer romanticism" of our times as rooted in a "woefully distorted picture of the role of electronic systems in social life. He pointed out that such developments as the Internet have had little effect on political institutions, for example, voter turnout.
While technologies, especially the Internet, are created with the intent of connecting people, they often serve as strong disconnect between citizens and the public sphere. By resulting in limited contact with other citizens, the Internet does not contribute to creating this democratic society that is so often anticipated. Winner ended the discussion with a question: Whether society has the will and determination to set aside a broad cultural domain in which liberties are protected and civic democratic culture is nurtured in light of technological advancements.
He encouraged listeners to think about what strategies could be used in forging this democratic culture, and how technology could possibly live up to the hopes of past generations and forge our society ahead, rather than creating large societal schisms. He is considered the leading academic on the politics of technology and is also the author of numerous books and articles on social, political and environmental issues.
His views on these topics appear regularly in Tech Knowledge Revue, published in the online journal "NetFuture. Previous Story Next Story. Close Search Hamilton. About Expand Navigation. Know Thyself. Just the Facts. Our Region. Our Diverse Community.
Contact Us. Admission Expand Navigation. Our Promise. Financial Aid. Meet Our Staff. Request Information. Academics Expand Navigation. With time divided between a home in Chatham, New York and a quiet seaside cottage near Brunswick, Maine, he lives with his wife Gail Stuart and three boisterous Labrador retrievers. I regularly praise technologies that reflect reasonable practices of democracy, justice, ecological sustainability, and human dignity.
Unfortunately, a great many of the technical devices and systems that surround us are designed, built and deployed in flagrant disregard of humane, ecologically sound principles.
To an astonishing degree, today's technological society is based upon a collection of bad habits inherited from a reckless industrial past. A partial list of these habits would include:. To oppose these bad habits and the systems that embody them, as well as to suggest reasonable alternatives to them, is enough to get a person branded "anti-technology" and drummed out of town.
Again and again, we are urged to celebrate the latest so-called "innovations" regardless of the deranged commitments and disastrous consequences they often involve.
While the rise of the scholarly field of Science and Technology Studies once promised to address such matters squarely and energetically, its evolution has tended to favor research and theories offering delicately nuanced, largely disengaged, academic accounts of "technoscience" and its beguiling panoply of projects.
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