Technics and Civilization

"The most famous example he evoked was the invention and wide acceptance of the clock. Mumford thought that the clock was one of the technologies that allowed capitalism to emerge because it provided for synchronisation and for people to cooperate. But I think this was also one of the first texts that critically engaged with the potentially negative side effects of technology. Mumford actually looked at how some technologies were authoritarian – that was his term – how some led to centralisation and establishment of control over human subjects and how some of them were driven by a completely different ethos. “Mumford thought that the clock was one of the technologies that allowed capitalism to emerge because it provided for synchronisation and for people to cooperate” It was a very important book, because it started this debate about the effect technologies have on societies from a political viewpoint: whether they actually enable certain political forces to take greater control over individuals. It was particularly important given the fact that it was written in the 1930s, with the rise of Nazism in Europe and the role that various databases played in categorising people, and the role that the railways played enabling the Holocaust . That debate happened subsequently, but I think all of that was anticipated in Mumford’s account. I think many of the debates we’re having now – about, for example, is the internet changing our brains? – all essentially go back to some of those criticisms by Mumford. It’s definitely still influencing a lot of writers and thinkers who think about the internet – not just the clock."