1. Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization (1934)

• Mumford traces technological development through three overlapping epochs—eotechnic, paleotechnic, and neotechnic—arguing that cultural and moral choices, not just machines, shaped industrial society. He emphasizes that the technological mindset began well before the Industrial Revolution, with key shifts in timekeeping, energy use, and urban life.

  • Defends Cultural Constructivism: technology is shaped by, and in turn shapes, cultural values rather than being an autonomous force.

  • Current Significance: Mumford’s work challenges today’s narratives of inevitable AI or automation, reminding us that social priorities and ethical frameworks can redirect technological trajectories.

• Amazon: Technics and Civilization​

 

2. Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility (1979)

• Jonas argues for an ethic oriented toward the long-term consequences of technological action, especially given humanity’s new capacity to irreversibly affect the biosphere. His “imperative of responsibility” calls for caution and foresight in the face of technological power.

  • Defends Ethical Precautionism: a normative stance prioritizing responsibility to future generations in technological decision-making.

  • Current Significance: Jonas’s principle directly applies to climate engineering, AI safety, and biotechnology, where irreversible risks demand governance rooted in foresight.

• Amazon: The Imperative of Responsibility

 

3. Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology (1954)

• Heidegger critiques the instrumental definition of technology, proposing instead that it reveals the world through the “enframing” (Gestell), which reduces beings to resources. He warns that this mode of revealing risks obscuring other ways of being.

  • Defends Substantivism: technology embodies a way of revealing reality that shapes human existence.

  • Current Significance: Heidegger’s thought frames contemporary debates about algorithmic worldviews, datafication, and the narrowing of human understanding in AI-mediated environments.

• Amazon: The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays

 

4. Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society (1954)

• Ellul defines “technique” as an autonomous, self-perpetuating force that evolves according to its own internal logic, largely independent of cultural or political control. He documents how efficiency becomes the driving criterion for all spheres of life.

  • Defends Strong Technological Determinism: once a technology is possible, it will be developed and adopted.

  • Current Significance: Ellul’s framework resonates with current concerns about the seeming inevitability of AI adoption despite unresolved ethical, political, and social challenges.

• Amazon: The Technological Society

 

5. Gilbert Simondon, On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (1958)

• Simondon reconceives technical objects as evolving through processes of individuation, in which they adapt and transform within specific technical and social environments. He links understanding technology to a philosophy of becoming, not fixed essence.

  • Defends Relational Constructivism: technology develops through dynamic relationships between human, technical, and environmental factors.

  • Current Significance: His work underpins posthumanist and systems-oriented approaches to AI, robotics, and networked infrastructures, stressing the mutual shaping of humans and machines.

• Amazon: On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects

 

6. Albert Borgmann, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (1984)

• Borgmann’s “device paradigm” critiques how modern technologies conceal their workings, delivering commodities with minimal engagement, thereby eroding focal practices that anchor meaning in life.

  • Defends Mild Substantivism (with cultural critique):  technologies embody patterns that shape the character of life.

  • Current Significance: Borgmann’s analysis applies to today’s on-demand digital services and AI assistants, raising questions about what meaningful practices we lose in the pursuit of convenience.

• Amazon: Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life

 

7. Langdon Winner, Autonomous Technology (1977)

• Winner examines the ways technologies can have political properties and can evolve beyond human control, shaping social order in unintended or unaccountable ways.

  • Defends Soft Technological Determinism / Political Substantivism: technology’s structure can embody and perpetuate political power.

  • Current Significance: Essential for understanding debates about algorithmic bias, infrastructure governance, and the politics embedded in platform design.

• Amazon: Autonomous Technology

 

8. Carl Mitcham, Thinking Through Technology (1994)

• Summary: Mitcham surveys and classifies philosophies of technology into instrumental, substantive, and pluralist approaches, providing a meta-framework for understanding the field.

• Defends Philosophical Pluralism: multiple conceptual frameworks are needed to grasp the complexity of technology.

• Current Significance: Mitcham’s typology equips policymakers, ethicists, and engineers to better navigate competing visions for AI regulation and technological governance.

• Amazon: Thinking Through Technology

 

9. Don Ihde, Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth (1990)

• Ihde develops a phenomenology of technological mediation, showing how technologies transform perception and action in patterned ways. He emphasizes embodiment relations, hermeneutic relations, and background relations between humans and artifacts.

  • Defends Postphenomenology: technology mediates human-world relations, actively shaping experience.

  • Current Significance: Ihde’s framework is highly relevant to AR/VR, wearable AI, and human–machine interfaces, where perception is technologically structured.

• Amazon: Technology and the Lifeworld

 

10. Andrew Feenberg, Transforming Technology: A Critical Theory Revisited (2002)

• Feenberg applies critical theory to technology, arguing that technological design is socially contested and can be democratically redirected toward humane ends.

  • Defends Critical Constructivism: technology is socially constructed and can be reshaped through political action.

  • Current Significance: Central to debates on participatory design, AI ethics, and ensuring that technological systems reflect public values rather than solely corporate interests.

• Amazon: Transforming Technology

​

​