The Technological Bluff

Year 1988
Type Book
Genre cultural criticism
Tradition Reformed
Original language French

For For readers concerned about the promises made for technology; the last and most polemical of his three books on technique.

Should I read this?

For the general reader: 3 of 5 worth your time
For the researcher: 5 of 5 essential
Difficulty: 4 of 5 hard

The last of his three books on technique, on the 'bluff' of promises and discourse that makes technology seem beyond question.

How it proceeds

Philosophic 4 of 5
Scriptural 0 of 5
Experiential 0 of 5
Sociological 5 of 5
Historical 2 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

The third of Ellul's major books on technique, published by Hachette in 1988 and translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley as The Technological Bluff (Eerdmans, 1990). After La Technique (1954) and Le Système technicien (1977), Ellul examines the discourse that surrounds technology: the promises of progress, the claims made for computers and communication, and the way the costs and risks of technique are hidden. The bluff is the persuasion that makes the technological system acceptable. It is the most polemical of the three.

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Catalog IDW.665Q54.4

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