Essay: Technics and Society – Mumford

In “Technics and Society” Mumford proposes a new form of natural selection that revolves around a newly advanced technological society – in which “survival of the fittest” is altered to be the survival of the richest. Economic success achieved by titans of industry through technological dominance secures their position at the top of a hypothetical food chain, with those working in poor conditions under these titans who struggle to pay for necessities and commodities offered by technology fall at the bottom of this chain. This analysis of human evolution and progress and the societal implications present with these is an exemplary case study in the field of STS as it analyzes “the ways in which technical and social phenomena interact and influence each other.”
Natural selection is no longer comprised of just biology as those who can afford to avoid disease, war zones, and extreme poverty escape the lethality of economic Darwinism. I believe Mumford’s analysis on the degenerative qualities early industrialism offered to the cleanliness of society and the standard of living is quite interesting because it disposes of the traditional idea that technology is solely beneficial and progressive. Those who fail to succeed and rise to the top in our socio-economic society experience the squalor that accompanies ‘progress’ most directly.
A comparison of early technology and more recent technological phenomena work to question the belief that the value of technology is strictly positive, with the downfalls of technology most experienced by those who struggle to acquire technology and its accompanying benefits. Progress, although harming those who struggle due to it, holds its value in the passing of time and evolution no matter the harm; as “progress was motion towards infinity… motion for motions’ sake.” (ibid.)
However, technological society is highly beneficial to those who can manipulate it to their best ability. Progress’ economic side increases technological progress due to incentivized mechanical improvements to heighten production and innovation to produce new desires or necessities. (ibid, 185) Capitalism has churned out business mogul after business mogul, who hold large amounts of individual wealth and success but are also able to provide technological goods to the market and employ those in positions lower than them who offer value in labor and provide technological goods to the market effectively perpetuating progress through these actions.
The growing economic factors in a technological society have effectively created a new social order in which, as previously mentioned, loosely mimics Darwinism. Businesses and laboring individuals who suffer in our “New Economy” (a product of technological progress and productivity) fall to the bottom of the social order and experience economic depression. To rise from socio-economic shortcomings, individuals will again lend their labor to those upperclassmen who facilitate business and progress; infinitely caught up in the “struggle for existence.”