Civil Engineering Reference
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• To give every person the possibility to use and develop their skills
• To make it possible for people to overcome their egoism by doing things
together
• To produce articles that are necessary for everyday life.
Ivan Illich focuses even more on the role that power plays: 'We must develop and
use tools that guarantee man's right to work efficiently without being controlled
by others, and thus eliminate the need for slaves and masters' (Illich, 1978).
Through choosing a technology one is also deciding a quality of life for those
who are going to serve that technology. Today's society is ruled by a high degree
of technological determinism. It is taken for granted that technological develop-
ment has its own momentum, which cannot be hindered in any way. The tech-
nological philosopher Langdon Winner maintains that 'much could have been
left undone'. His colleague Jonas follows with the statement: 'One shall only do
a part of everything one is actually capable of doing', and thereby introduces a
new categorical imperative (Apel, 1988).
There is a mechanism in traditional development theory which is called 'phae-
domorphosis'. This means that development can take one step back to an earlier
and less specialized phase, in order to take a new line of development later.
Progress is not always achieved by taking a step forward.
The following questions then arise: Why did development carry on as it did?
Were there actually any alternatives? Why weren't these chosen? And in what
way can we now re-evaluate the choices that have been made?
There is a tendency to regard technology as neutral and to believe that the
political aspect becomes important when technology first comes into use. The
use of a knife can illustrate this view: it can be used to cut bread or to kill some-
one. But, for example, when a robot becomes part of a work force, it does not only
increase productivity but also defines the whole concept of work at that produc-
tion site. It has been discovered that, within the building industry, apparently
small changes in the use of materials can have far-reaching consequences. Until
about 1930 all mortar used was a lime mortar, and bricks could only be laid a
metre at a time as the mortar needed to carbonize. The bricklayers had to take a
break and use that time to design or do detail work. With the introduction of
Portland cement this drastically changed the whole situation. Within a few years
architects completely took over detail design, which had been the bricklayer's
task for centuries.
When describing the development of technology and new products one sel-
dom questions the quality of work for the individual. Usually, discussions
centre around the profitability, the economic efficiency or the ergonomic rela-
tionships. The only limiting factor of any consequence in technological
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