Revolution and Technology

Revolution is an overwhelmingly loaded term. It is employed to depict uprisings, resistance, war, and a vast shift in societal rules. The Russian Revolution, the American Revolution, the Golden Revolution: all everlasting landmarks in time that emphasize the connotations of revolutions. To technological determinists, new worlds of technological solutions are to fortify this definition of revolution to its utmost potential. Raymond Williams and Langdon Winner both refute the idea that the access of technology will produce a lasting shift in societal view and structure. This repudiation is valid. But as they argue against such possibilities as being simplistic in view, it is also naïve to completely disclaim that society is unquestionably altered by technological advancements and brings the possibility of democratization, a less imbalanced class system, and an abundance of information.
Raymond Williams asserts that society causes technological advancements instead of the other argument, that technology causes societal advancements. For example, in his article The Technology and the Society, Williams claims that “it was the development of the railways, themselves a response to the development of an industrial system and related growth of cities” (Willaims 294). Though railways had direct associations with the need for mobility and transportation of goods, it can be viewed in reverse. Railways catapulted the industrial age to be more economically efficient which, in turn, sponsors the growth of industry as a whole. He also concludes that motions pictures were necessary in that “new separations of families and with new internal and external migrations, it became more centrally necessary as a form of maintaining…. Certain personal connections”(297) But a new division in the household is formed as teenagers flock to cinemas to watch the latest feature with their buddies instead of spending time cuddled around the fire conversing with their family. Thus, to see societal needs as a catalyst to technological advancements or to view society norms molded by technology, is to not hold enough substance in the argument. Technology creates mechanisms for progression, and through that progression individuals devise new methods of technology.
Similar to William’s ideals, Langdon Winner refuses to accept technological progression as a new revolution that will inevitably lead society to universal cures in all forms. To suggest that technology will generate a “drastic upheaval, one that people out to welcome as good news”(Winner 589) is too severe of a foreseeable future. Although his position is valid in that the access of technology will not bring a more democratized nation that is leveled in its justice, the use of technology can convey this prospect forefront. For example, North Korea is completely immersed in technological deprivation in that they would be flabbergasted to find that more than one television can be in one household. Visitors to the country are taken in one bus, secured by government officials to make sure information such as this is not leaked. They are not nearly as exposed to the advancements as we are and our utilization of the function of the technology are completely different as well. North Korea is not democratized in the least sense, lead by a totalitarian dictator. If the use of television were otherwise used to bring actual information other than what the government approved, perhaps North Korea would have a more difficult time keeping its citizens under its reign. Technology doesn’t make this point certain, yet it undeniably increases the means in which democracy can happen.
Both Winner and Williams argue against the most extremist views of technological determinism but there is an intermediate analysis. Technology, by no means can perform modification in society single-handedly; it takes the will of a nation or a group to create change. Advancements make the means which create change easier, faster, and more efficient. Technology does not define society or its future, but neither does society define technology. Both intertwine to create a web of cooperation between individuals and the tools they use.