From Need to Greed: The Changing Role of Technology in Society

by 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 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.

174 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2010