The enchantments of technology / Lee Worth Bailey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bailey, Lee Worth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Technology--History.

Technology.

Inventions--History.

Inventions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (261 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In The Enchantments of Technology, Lee Worth Bailey erases the conventional distinction between myth and machine in order to explore the passionate foundations concealed in technological culture and address its complex ethical, moral and social implications. Bailey argues that technological society does not simply disenchant the world with its reductive methods and mechanical metaphors, then shape machines with political motives, but is also borne by a deeper, subversive undertow of enchantment. Addressing examples to explore the complexities of these enchantments, his thought is full of illuminating examinations of seductively engaging technologies ranging from the old camera obscura to new automobiles, robots, airplanes, and spaceships. This volume builds on the work of numerous scholars, including Jacques Ellul and Jean Brun on the phenomenological and spiritual aspects of technology, Carl Jung on the archetypal collective unconscious approach to myth, and Martin Heidegger on Being itself. Bailey creates a dynamic, interdisciplinary, postmodern examination of how our machines and their environments embody not only reason, but also desires.

Contents:

Unthinkable enchantments

The obtuse object

The bottomless subject

Streamlined, sublime speed

Titanic, utopian triumphalism

The space cowboy

Robogod, the absolute machine

Being enchanted.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-245) and index.

ISBN:

9786613097415

9781283097413

1283097419

9780252090448

0252090446

OCLC:

811409103