ABSTRACT
The theme of technology and culture seems like a fine invitation to do a Matthew Arnold – the sort of invitation to which I find myself increasingly susceptible these days. The older one gets in academic life, the stronger grows the temptation to pronounce on the eternal verities, to issue reminders that man does not live by bread alone, that each of our Two Cultures deserves equal respect, that we must beware of these Greeks in their neat white laboratory coats who come bringing gifts, for out of the belly of such gifts may issue forth all kinds of destructive agents to unravel the very fabric of our society and degrade the quality of its culture. Technical change and Cultural adaptation – I can hear somebody snorting – I can hear myself snorting. What an outrageous suggestion that all culture has to do is snuggle up to whatever social contours, whatever conditions of material life that the evolution of technology should impose as it rolls inexorably forward, driven, at best by its own inner logic, at worst by the arbitrary whims of those men in white coats with their overweening hubris.
