[Our] situation was well characterized by the mathematician John von Neumann: “Technological possibilities are irresistible to man. If man can go to the moon, he will. He he can control the climate, he will.” …
There is a simple way of establishing the downright absurdity… of accepting such technological compulsiveness; and that is to carry von Neumann’s dictum to its logical conclusions: If man has the power to exterminate all life on earth, he will. Since we know that the governments of the United States and Soviet Russia have already created nuclear, chemical, and bacterial agents in the massive quantities needed to wipe out the human race, what prospects are there of human survival, if this practice of submitting to extravagant and dehumanized technological imperatives is “irresistibly” carried to its final stage?
Lewis Mumford, 1970, “The Technological Imperative”
Lewis Mumford, 1970, “The Technological Imperative”