The Triumph of Technology: “Can Implies Ought” *

This chapter, which is really part of a larger general subject that might be called "The Quality of Life in the Future," is discussed in terms of normative planning. The title "The Triumph of Technology: "'Can' implies 'Ought,"' is almost a riddle, to be approached with some degree of indirection. The title describes a special conjuncture created by "technology,"?''can," and "ought." The situation underlying this conjuncture is one in which we view technology as triumphant. Western Civilization, the ground and essence of technological civilization, is however, the very complicated result of very complicated forces that were set in motion partly during the Renaissance by Galileo and partly during the eighteenth century. The chapter discusses the next phase of the planning effort -strategic planning. The major result of establishing norms and assessing feasibility in their light is the effect of freeing policy making from its traditional prison of "expediency" and beginning to understand it in terms of "relevance.".