Abstract
Jacques Ellul is a scholar difficult to classify. His more than 40 books and hundreds of articles have contributed to theology, sociology, history, and economics. Today in the era of the Internet, global communications, and the dominance of technology, Ellul is often dismissed as a techno-catastrophist or misleading heretic. Also labeled a Christian “neo-luddite,” Ellul did indeed produce an analysis of contemporary technology as potentially leading to catastrophe – and few people are pleased by such criticism, especially when the economy appears to grow without limits and there are more and more goods for consumption. In a “low cost” culture technological criticism is not an easy sell. Until recently we lived in a world of the Apocalypse Postponed (Eco 1994).
I do not know what meaning classical scholarship may have for our time except in its being ‘unseasonable,’ that is, contrary to our time, and yet with an influence on it for the benefit, it may be hoped, of a future time.
Frederich Nietzsche
On the Use and Abuse of History for Life
The real issue is that humans are no longer in charge. We need to dismantle the machines themselves. This can be done in a very peaceful manner. Hack into their system, publish their crimes through Wikileaks-type initiatives and then delete their real-time trading killing networks for good.
Geert Lovink and Franco Berardi
A Call To the Army of Love and To the Army of Software
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Notes
- 1.
Thanks to STS groups in Spain and through the involvement of scholars such as Carl Mitcham and Langdon Winner, Ellul has become part of the Spanish repertoire on philosophy of technology. Indeed, Ellul has been extensively translated into Spanish. Ten books (including The Technological System) and some essays of have been translated as recently as 2011. See Florensa Giménez (2010), Sanchís Serra (2009, 2011).
- 2.
Computer scientists, mathematicians, engineers, even linguists, are now part of the financial casino. And they along with technologists are responsible for the present crisis. As Leinweber says: “The Hall of Shame for those guilty of incompetent engineering features collapsing bridges, flaming dirigibles, exploding spacecraft, and melting reactors. We can add a new wing for overly complex [financial] derivatives, modelled in exquisite detail by myopic nerds with Ph.D.’s who got lost in the ever more complex simulations but ignored the basic principles, and their lavishly paid bosses who ignored the warnings from the best of them so they could be even more lavishly paid” (Leinweber 2009).
- 3.
Flash trading is a “controversial computerized trading practice offered by some stock exchanges. Flash trading uses highly sophisticated high-speed computer technology to allow traders to view orders from other market participants fractions of a second before others in the marketplace. This gives flash traders the advantage of being able to gauge supply and demand and recognize movements in market sentiment before other traders.” http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/flash-trading.asp#ixzz1fwpbTuky. Accessed 10 December 2011.
- 4.
“We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! ‘Surely, comrades,’ cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, ‘surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?’” (Orwell 1945: 14)
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Acknowledgements
This paper was possible thanks to the national project “Science, technology and society: A multi-linear analysis on communities of knowledge and action in cyberspace,” and Hidden Innovation: Change of Paradigm in Innovation Studies, FFI2011-25475 sponsored by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, code FFI 2009-07709.
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Alonso, A. (2013). An Unseasonable Thinker: How Ellul Engages Cybercultural Criticism. In: Jerónimo, H., Garcia, J., Mitcham, C. (eds) Jacques Ellul and the Technological Society in the 21st Century. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6658-7_9
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