Peter B. Seel

Digital Universe


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has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option, but a necessity imposed on all human activity.14

       The favorable effects of technology are “inseparable” from the negative ones

       These effects have “contradictory elements” that are “indissolubly connected”

       The adoption of technology by society “raises more problems than it solves”

       Technological adoption creates “unforeseeable effects”16

      Ellul also viewed the mass media as complicit in the evolution of the technological society:

      Ellul wrote extensively about the role of propaganda in perpetuating the modern technological state and viewed mass media as playing a central role in its dissemination. He also alludes in this quote to the ubiquity of communication technology in creating a “constant environment” where we are bombarded daily with media messages. Ellul made these observations about mass media before his death in 1994 and we can only imagine his critical assessment of contemporary 24-7 media access and what he would have thought about the role of Twitter in making every user into a “broadcaster.”

      Ellul also provides unique insights as part of his philosophical analysis of the relationship between technology and theology. His perspective is that contemporary society “worships” technology – that technology has been deified, or made godlike, as science collided with religious scriptures. The debate over evolution that began with the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859, and continues with conflicts over teaching an alternative concept of “intelligent design” in schools, is but one example of this collision. Many technology users today lament the “complexification” of once-simple tasks as operating television remote controls, as there are often more than one. Swearing at a complicated “intelligent” appliance is not emblematic of a worshipful act.