From the 1930s.... Same Old Same Old.. But now we have David Noble's
Progress Without People and oter works along with those of Langdon Winner and Andreas Malm and Lewis Mumford too, I guess, to fill out these warnings... Brian Tokar's introduction^1 to a couple people's views for Technological "progess" is very helpful!!
Civilisations which have not been destroyed by external enemies have frequently suffered from internal decay.
In old days there were many civilisations and many nations still untouched by civilisation. Now, the world is becoming a unity, dominated by the industrial system which, beginning in the north of England about 150 years ago, has already spread to all the great nations and acquired control of all the main economic resources. If it decays, it cannot be regenerated from without; if it destroys itself in internecine wars, there will be no fresh races to build upon the ruins. This is a new fact of our age, which makes inferences from past history somewhat precarious.
For this reason among others, if progress is to continue, it must be more deliberately planned, more based upon social science, than the progress of former ages. We have based our daily life to such an extent upon scientific knowledge and technique that we must go on along the same road: if we leave parts of our social life at the mercy of primitive barbarism, they will destroy the other parts and bring the whole human race to destruction. There is in our time a tendency to exalt the elements of unreason which we have inherited from our barbarous past; but we cannot combine these elements with scientific technique. Those who praise them should give up industrialism, let nine-tenths of our population die of hunger, and revert to bows and arrows. If they will not face this alternative, they must become civilised in their passions, not only in their command over natural forces.
... developments in technology are more typically the outcome of particular social and economic arrangements. Some contributions that have significantly shaped my own thinking...
