Ernest Braun

From Need to Greed: the Changing Role of Technology in Society (Osterreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaftern: Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse) Ernest Braun

The book is a result of many years of thinking about the role of technology in human life and about the ways in which new technologies develop. It may be viewed in two ways: either as a history of technology since earliest times to the present, with emphasis on ways in which technology interacted with society, or alternatively one may read it as a description of technology in a social context, illustrated by examples from the history of technology. Whereas in early times technology served in the main only to support, indeed enable, human life, it later became a major economic factor and the chief creator of wealth. New technologies arise when a technological idea - whether based on new scientific phenomena or not - appears to offer promise for commercial success. A technological innovation happens if and when there is a confluence of a technical possibility with the promise of a profitable market. Technology now permeates all spheres of human life, for better or for worse, and dominates the real economy. As a result, we as a society have to be very careful about the resulting abuses of the natural environment and many other misuses of our technical prowess.