IB Philosophy 9.1.2 Impact of Technology on Individuals and Societies Notes

Technology and Human Control

Instrumentalism and the Question of Control

1. As established in 9.1.1, the philosophy of technology asks whether technology is merely a tool or something that shapes human existence at a fundamental level. This topic pushes that question further: do we control technology, or does technology control us?
   1. The answer has profound implications for human freedom, political governance, and the future of society.
2. The control question assumes there is a clear separation between humans and their tools. On the instrumentalist view (covered in 9.1.1), humans design, use, and regulate technology according to their own purposes.

Ellul and the Autonomy of Technique

1. If we take the position that technology is a servant of human will, it follows that a technology produces harmful effects, the fault lies with the users, not the tools.
2. But as Heidegger argued (9.1.1), modern technology may reshape the very framework of how we see the world. If technology shapes what counts as a problem and what solutions we can imagine, then our apparent "control" over technology may be an illusion created by technology itself.
3. Jacques Ellul argued in The Technological Society (1954) that modern society is governed by technique - his term for the systematic drive to find the most efficient method for everything. Technique is not just a set of tools but a total social force that imposes its efficiency logic on politics, education, culture, and personal relationships.
   1. Humans do not control technique. Technique controls them.
4. Ellul argued that technique is self-augmenting - meaning it grows on its own: each technical advance creates new problems that demand further technical solutions, producing a cycle in which technology expands relentlessly. The drive for efficiency becomes autonomous, obeying its own internal logic rather than serving human purposes.
   1. Consider a hospital where efficiency metrics dictate that doctors spend no more than seven minutes per patient consultation. The technique of time-management, originally meant to serve healthcare, now governs it: medical judgement is subordinated to throughput targets, the doctor-patient relationship is reduced to a data-entry task, and each efficiency measure generates new problems that demand further technical solutions.
   2. Ellul’s insight is that this logic operates in every domain, from education to politics to personal relationships, not just in factories.

Postman and Technopoly

1. Neil Postman extended Ellul’s analysis in Technopoly (1992), arguing that modern societies have surrendered cultural authority to technology. In a technopoly, every form of human activity is judged by technical criteria: efficiency, measurability, and optimisation.
   1. Questions of meaning, value, and purpose are displaced by the question of what works.
   2. Fitness trackers illustrate technopoly in miniature. A person who once judged their health by how they felt now defers to a wristband that quantifies steps, heart rate variability, sleep cycles, and ‘readiness scores.’
   3. The rich feel of real experience, how energised or tired you actually feel, not just what the numbers say, has been replaced by measurement.

Individual and Societal Loss of Control

1. The experience of compulsive smartphone use illustrates the control question at the individual level. Users report that they feel unable to stop checking their devices despite wanting to.
   1. Design features (infinite scroll, variable reward schedules, notification systems) are engineered to capture attention, raising the question of whether users are genuinely choosing to engage or are being manipulated by the technology.
2. At the societal level, the question of control manifests in debates about algorithmic governance. When algorithms determine credit scores, criminal sentencing, university admissions, and news feeds, the question is who or what is making decisions.
   1. The opacity of algorithmic systems means that affected individuals often cannot understand or challenge the processes that shape their lives.

Marx: Technology as Determining Economic and Social Structure

Historical Materialism and Technological Determinism

1. Karl Marx placed technology at the centre of his account of historical change. In his framework, the forces of production (the tools, machines, and techniques people use to make things) determine the basic shape of society. Built on top of these material foundations are the relations of production: who owns what, who holds power, and how laws and institutions are organised.