Technology depends on ends that lie beyond technology itself

Evidence

The mystification is not removed by transferring technological omnipotence from particular groups to the new state and the central plan. Technology retains throughout its dependence on other than technological ends. The more technological rationality, freed from its exploitative features, determines social production, the more will it become dependent on political direction—on the collective effort to attain a pacified existence, with the goals which the free individuals may set for themselves. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 823

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies why technological fetishism is a category error — technics is never self-directing, always subordinate to political ends.
• XREF: Echoes Foucault’s point that power is not in the apparatus but in the arrangement; also anti-determinist rebuttal to the ‘technology will save us’ narrative common in the reader’s other sources on attention. — connects to: Technology is never neutral but already carries domination in its construction. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 98; Liberation from technological domination requires preserving the technological base — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 812; Technology develops a self-sustaining momentum beyond its original drivers — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 393 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Technology reveals fundamental truths about human existence beyond mere usefulness #complicates (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1020
• Technology develops a self-sustaining momentum beyond its original drivers #qualifies (0.72) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 393