7 Do Machines Make History?

In this classic article, Robert L. Heilbroner introduces two aspects of a strong form of technological determinism. The first is the claim that technology develops in a fixed, naturally determined sequence, that each new invention is built on the previous in an order that couldn't be otherwise. The second is the claim that adoption of a given technology imposes certain social and political characteristics upon the society in which it is used. Heilbroner is especially focused on the ways in which the labor and management requirements of particular technologies create social relationships that permeate society more broadly. The idea that technology is in control and tells us what to do is disturbing to many. In fact it is hard to find someone today who self- i dentifies as a technological determinist. Even Heilbroner isn't a "hard-core" technological determinist since he seems to acknowledge at least some social influence on technology. But it is an important approach to study, as this view of the technology-society relationship is very common, although it is not often articulated so explicitly. Many of the visions of the future that were presented in the last section were written as though specific technologies necessarily have specific social ramifications. While Heilbroner wrote this piece in 1967, it remains one of the best articulations of technological determinism, and some of the technologies he mentions are still being debated today.