Technology’s liberating instrumentalization of things becomes a fetter enslaving man.
Evidence
The incessant dynamic of technical progress has become permeated with political content, and the Logos of technics has been made into the Logos of continued servitude. The liberating force of technology—the instrumentalization of things—turns into a fetter of liberation; the instrumentalization of man. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 589
Categorization
- DEFINE: The inversion of instrumentalization — liberating toward things, enslaving toward people — is the chapter’s sharpest formulation of the domination paradox.
- XREF: connects to: Machine mastery perpetuates rather than ends enslavement — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 635; Liberation from technological domination requires preserving the technological base — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 812; Technological and social progress produces psychological regression and instinctual fixation. (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Technology can increase human weakness even as it increases power
#expands(0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 822 - Machine mastery perpetuates rather than ends enslavement
#expands(0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 635 - Mechanization sustains exploitation while shifting its form from muscular to mental exhaustion.
#exemplifies(0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 169 - Technological and social progress produces psychological regression and instinctual fixation.
#expands(0.80) - Technology increases rather than eliminates the need for trust
#expands(0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 130 - Liberation from technological domination requires preserving the technological base
#qualifies(0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 812 - Emerging technologies can obscure important social responsibilities.
#expands(0.75) — Emily M. Bender, Alex Hanna, The AI Con- How to Fight Big Tech’s…, 431 - Technology becomes accepted only when it serves revolutionary interests
#qualifies(0.70)