The technological society… will not be a universal concentration camp, for it will be guilty of no atrocity. It will not seem insane, for everything will be ordered, and the stains of human passion will be lost amid the chromium gleam. We shall have nothing more to lose, and nothing to win. Our deepest instincts and our most secret passions will be analyzed, published, and exploited. We shall be rewarded with everything our hearts ever desired. And the supreme luxury of the society of technical necessity will be to grant the bonus of useless revolt and of an acquiescent smile. (p. 427)

This sharp paragraph was not written in the 1990s, nor in the 2010s, nor in recent years. It appeared in French sociologist and philosopher Jacques Ellul’s treatise The Technological Society, originally published in 1954 and translated into English with Robert Merton’s introduction in 1964. Ellul was concerned with the emergence of a technological tyranny over humanity and the totality of efficiency, and in this classic book he masterly elaborated on these substantial issues. Quite a few claimed 70 years ago and even decades later that Ellul was too provocative, that he overstated and exaggerated. Rereading his significant and penetrating observations in the current age evokes different thoughts and reactions. What is certain is that we are only at the beginning of this age. So is it possible that even we are far from understanding the essence of Ellul’s alerting words?

To reflect more on this crucial topic dive into these insightful books for which Ellul’s The Technological Society laid the groundwork:
— Beer, David. 2019. The Social Power of Algorithms. Routledge.
— Fisher, Eran. 2022. Algorithms and Subjectivity: The Subversion of Critical Knowledge. Routledge
— Fisher, Max. 2022. The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World.  Little, Brown and Company.
— Schwarz, Ori. 2021. Sociological Theory for Digital Society: The Codes that Bind us Together. John Wiley & Sons.
— Zuboff, Shoshana. 2018. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Profile Books

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