Technology only matters when powerful groups weaponize it against rivals

Evidence

In the decades since, however, I have become more sceptical of narratives that place too much emphasis on technology and not enough on how powerful groups seize and manipulate it to achieve and maintain dominion over others. The steam engine would have been a historical footnote were it not for the capitalists who weaponised it so as to depose the then ruling class, the feudalists. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 379

Categorization

• SEED: A techno-determinism critique essay: technology is inert until a class seizes it as a weapon of domination — a materialist corrective to AI-hype narratives.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 379
• XREF: connects to: Technology is never neutral but already carries domination in its construction. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 98; No technology is neutral; each reproduces or contests power — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 2421; Technology carries no inherent politics; usage determines its effects

Broader Connections

• Technology carries no inherent politics; usage determines its effects #contradicts (0.90)
• Technology is never neutral but already carries domination in its construction. #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 98
• No technology is neutral; each reproduces or contests power #corroborates (0.80) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 2421