Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1992

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 3

Chapters 4-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-11

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 6 Summary: “The Ideology of Machines: Medical Technology”

This chapter is one of two that examine the way technology begins to dominate society once it is invented and implemented. Postman compares the use of medical technology in the US and Britain to show how the former was more predisposed to accepting it and how technology ultimately changed American medical practice. From the start, he argues, Americans have dealt aggressively with nature in general, attempting to conquer it to suit their needs, and this approach applies equally to medical care.

Then the boom in inventions during the 19th century increased the use of

machines used in medicine, beginning with the relatively simple example of the stethoscope. Invented in 1816, it introduced an objective method of diagnosing patients, whereas subjective methods had been used before. At first, this was the source of some pushback by physicians, who felt that such a device interposed between them and their patients would result in a loss of personal connection. Finally, “the culture reoriented itself to ensure that technological aggressiveness became the basis of medical practice” (102). That is, the technology employed by medicine ended up changing how medicine was practiced in the US.

The author provides statistics to show how much American doctors rely on technology. The catch is that once a new machine or method becomes available, its use becomes almost automatic. He explains that doctors order unnecessary procedures simply to deflect malpractice suits; if something goes wrong and they failed to use every available technological weapon—whether it’s warranted—they’re likely to get sued. This fact leads to complications of its own, sometimes causing harm: “As early as 1974,” Postman writes, “a Senate investigation into unnecessary surgery reported that American doctors had performed 2.4 million unnecessary operations, causing 11,900 deaths and costing about $3.9 billion” (105). Thus, the tail wags the dog when it comes to Technopoly.

Chapter 7 Summary: “The Ideology of Machines: Computer Technology”

In this chapter, Postman examines the computer, comparing it to medical technology in how it has become embedded in American society. After briefly reviewing its history, he shows how “it defines our age by suggesting a new relationship to information, to work, to power, and to nature itself” (111). The widespread acceptance of computers results in their being compared to humans and vice versa.

Postman questions the idea of artificial intelligence (AI), saying that the definition is too superficial. A computer may be able to “have a conversation” with a person simply by making appropriate responses, but a true conversation is much more than that. A computer can ask a question, for example, without knowing what the question means—or even being aware that it has a meaning. On the other hand, meaning contains “feelings, experiences, and sensations” that can never be programmed into a computer (112).

However, the comparison of humans and computers remains strong, as it’s become part of the language. The word “computer” itself, for instance, once meant a person who calculates, but now it almost strictly refers to the machine. We speak of computers becoming “infected” with a “virus,” of people being “programmed,” and so on. This reflects the relationship of computers to humans, who use them to deflect blame and avoid responsibility, a use favored by bureaucracies. They make decisions based on computers, giving the illusion that the machines are in control. Industry goes a step further: just as the machine is seen as having interchangeable parts, the modern worker is likewise seen as interchangeable in the production process.

All this leads, according to the author, to a lack of “technological modesty,” by which he means not putting technology in perspective or not maintaining a sense of the bigger picture. Having such modesty doesn’t mean that one should eschew computers but simply that one should wonder what is lost with them. Postman laments that almost no one stops to ask this question.

Chapter 8 Summary: “Invisible Technologies”

As the title of this chapter notes, Postman here examines technologies of which most people are not aware. They are tied up with ideology, which he defines as “a set of assumptions of which we are barely conscious but which nonetheless directs our efforts to give shape and coherence to the world” (123). He starts with language. It is such a part of each of us that we assume everyone in the world sees things the way we do, based on how language shapes our worldview. However, it contains an implicit bias according to what form it takes. Questions, for example, can skew answers and even exclude certain answers from being considered.

Next, the author discusses statistics, which has become integral to many fields. He poses a question to indicate what concerns him about this: “To what extent has statistics been allowed entry to places where it does not belong?” (128-29). One example is the area of eugenics, which arose and flowered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Purporting to be a science, the goal was to “improve” the human race by selection of parents based on genetic qualities. Likewise, statistics was used in phrenology: an attempt to determine intelligence through skull measurements. Postman identifies three problems with the way statistics is used (or abused): (1) reification, or turning something abstract into a concrete reality; (2) ranking, a value judgment that has the appearance of objectivity; and (3) unseen bias in the creation of the questions statistics seek to answer. He doesn’t deny that some statistics can be helpful, but like all information in a Technopoly, the quantity becomes too great and drowns the meaning of the data.

Postman ends the chapter by looking at management in business, another invisible technology. He writes that the assumption is modern business created management to control information, but in fact the reverse is true: modern business was invented by management. He shows how it was derived from the innovations of Sylvanus Thayer, a superintendent of the United States Military Academy. Thayer introduced numerical grading of students’ work (probably the first to do so in America) and created a system of hierarchy in which he led the institution by reports written by his underlings. Two of his students furthered his work, and the techniques were soon adopted by business. Management is a useful example because it acted like all technology, overwhelming everything to such a degree that alternatives are not even considered. Technique and institution thus become indistinguishable.

Chapters 6-8 Analysis

These three chapters give specific examples of how technology affects culture, as Postman expounds on his main theme. He gives brief examples in earlier chapters, just stating cause and effect, but here he lays out step by step how two technologies—medical techniques and computers—influence culture. Two of the chapter titles use the word “ideology” to describe technology, highlighting the fact that technology is not neutral. It influences everything and everyone it comes into contact with. It changes definitions of existing language and alters the way people think and the processes they use in everyday life. It can even change professions and methods of education, all in its favor. That it does so without most people noticing concerns Postman. People who question its impact, he writes, are treated “in a range somewhere between peevishness and irrelevance. In a growing Technopoly, there is no time or inclination to speak of technological debits” (106).

In Chapter 8, he focuses on what he calls “invisible technologies.” While things like medical techniques and computers involve tangible objects, other forms that are intangible have an impact that is even less obvious. His example of business management shows this well by turning assumptions on their head. He argues that the technology created the field rather than the other way around, which almost everyone thinks is the case. Such an effect can even be called stealthy, so “invisible” are the ways it works. Once a technology takes hold, it becomes difficult for people to imagine life without it. Postman quotes philosopher Norbert Wiener as saying that if computers had been widespread when the atomic bomb was devised, people would have said the bomb would be impossible to devise without them. Of course, it had been invented without them, as were many things. The importance of remembering this is at the heart of what Postman calls “technological modesty.”