Scene form the animation : Bendito Machine III
Technological or Media Determinism by Daniel Chandler is the core text for week one of the MOOC – E-learning and Digital Cultures run by Edinburgh University through Coursera.
Aside from ‘determinism’ it introduces us to other terms ‘reductionism’, ‘reification’ and ‘universalism’, presumably because these are words that will recur in other study texts.
The key question raised is whether technology’s obvious influence on modern society is positive (utopian) or negative (dystopian).
The debate about determinism, reminds me of the age-old cliché that money is the root of all evil. It could be, and has been, argued that money is innocent and technology is neutral yet this doesn’t stop many people dreaming of a simpler world in which neither seemed to wield so much power. Continue reading
