PROBLEMATIQUE OF TECHNOCENTRIC SOCIETIES
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2642 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences |
- “The contemporary problematique is the result of a still prevailing value system based on expansion, competition , domination and exploitation”(unstated source)
It would seem that every historical expansive socio-cultural system rested on this typical behavior .
Moreover, the success of most former empires seem to have been due to adequate subsystems of communications , exchange , and administrative organization in coincidence with a certain superior state of technical development or in accordance with some specific characteristics of the environment (Island, plains, deserts, etc.)
Older examples have been the military use of horses, the invention of gunpowder, the introduction of good instruments for oceanic navigation, of the steam engine and the internal combustion engine.
In a sense all of the successful human groups , states or empires have been made possible by some technical superiority.
However, in our contemporaries societies, technical progress - especially thought the use of highly concentrated energy led to the absolute dominance of technical subsystems within the general organization . In the older societies, even the quite limited power of techniques always ended in some crisis, be it for their insufficiencies, be it for more or less widespread abuse against the human or natural environment.
Technique tends to act as a magnifying lens and empowering device on anything it is applied to.
As our modern societies are hypertechnified, a better evaluation of the impact of technique on all human systems and subsystems seems to be in urgent need to enter our systems research agenda.
See also
Club of Rome, Commons, Criticality, FEEDBACK (POSITIVE), TECHNOSPHERE, THRESHOLD OF STIMULATION