Lewis’ Megamachine

11::February::2012 12:05 → permalink

From our present vantage point, we can see that the inventors and controllers of the Megamachine, from the Pyramid Age onward, have in fact been haunted by delusions of omniscience and omnipotence — immediate or prospective. Those original delusions have not become less irrational, now that they have at their disposal the formidable resources of exact science and a high-energy technology. The Nuclear Age conceptions of absolute power, infallible computerized intelligence, limitless expanding productivity, all culminating in a system of total control exercised by a military-scientific-industrial elite, correspond to the Bronze Age conception of Divine Kingship. Such power, to succeed on its own terms, must destroy the symbiotic cooperations between all species and communities essential to man’s survival and development. Both ideologies belong to the same infantile magico-religious scheme as ritual human sacrifice. As with Captain Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick, the scientific and technical means are entirely rational, but the ultimate ends are mad.

Mumford, L., 1973. Technics and the Nature of Man. In C. Mitcham & R. Mackey, eds. Philosophy and Technology: Readings in the philosophical problems. New York, NY: The Free Press.

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