A Society Divided By Technology

Apr 24

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Author Interview
Allen Batteau and
Christine Z. Miller Author Interview

Tools, Totems, and Totalities is a striking and expansive critique of modern technology and its pervasive role in shaping culture, institutions, and identities. Why was this an important book for you to write?

To bring together a society that has been divided by technology.

What is a common misconception you feel people have about how technologies impact culture and individuals’ identities?

We feel that we are the masters of the technology, when in fact we are enslaved by it.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

First, that “technology” is not a human universal, but rather is a specific creation of the industrial revolution, and second that “technology,” like industrialization generally, has its pluses and minuses.

What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Tools, Totems, and Totalities?

That we collectively should be thinking about a world beyond technology, a world in which human connections and conviviality are more important than the tools we use.

Author links: GoodReads | Website

This book provides a critical perspective on technology, answering the questions of why technologies often disappoint. It takes a sociotechnical and historical perspective on technology, as developed by an engineer–anthropologist and a design anthropologist, to answer questions not only about why modern societies have great expectations of technology, but also of why these technologies often fail to meet expectations. Modern societies often search for technological solutions (“technofixes”) to what are institutional problems, which include border crossings or urban mobility, or improvements in productivity or improved communication. It is disappointing when technofixes, whether border walls or driverless cars or social media, fail to live up to their promises of greater personal autonomy (such as afforded by driverless cars) or improved social harmony through social media. Examining technology from the perspectives of instrumentality (“tools”), identity (“totems”), and world-defining systems (“totalities”) develops a comprehensive perspective that is at once historically informed and cross-culturally accurate. Although instrumentality is obvious and is at the core of any understanding of technology, identity is less so; yet many modern “tribes” create their identity in terms of technological objects and systems, whether transport systems (cars and airplanes) or social media or weapons (guns). Further, modern technologies span the globe, so that they exert imperative coordination over distant populations; the use of cell phones around the world is testimony to this fact. Such a critical perspective on technology can be useful in policy discussions of numerous issues affecting contemporary institutions.

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