A Counter-Narrative

Abstract

An alternative narrative in non-fiction disputes the story of technological enthusiasm. Dissenting authors demythologize the dominant narrative, arguing that technology neither liberates nor enhances, but enslaves and diminishes us. This story challenges and exposes technological idealism as fantasy and illusion, as a preposterous, patently false myth. As this counter-narrative argues, our individual, seemingly innocuous technologies combine to form a vast, autonomous system which we cannot control, but instead controls us. The structures and values of technology—at odds with those of the human being—govern and transform our thoughts and actions. Technology is exposed as a means of organization and instrumentation, especially of power and domination over human beings. In the event, we become a function of the technology we use, are subjugated and dehumanized by it.