7,243 words
CHAPTER 6 THE FERN AND THE LATHE
The Technocratic Fallacy
Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
So, we have seen philosophy dethroned and cast out, or at least exiled to the universities to prepare for her final defenestration. In her place, science has reigned and, like any monarch, has an executive arm; technology. Technology was always present, of course, but after the 18th century it was like a comic-book hero – or villain – granted special powers by some freak accident, if that is not too harsh a description of the Industrial...
