Technology and Culture

abstract:

Scholarly interest in the technosphere is exploding. Most analyses define the technosphere as massive, modern, and autonomous. This article constructively critiques these claims, focusing on scale, time, and power. First, it suggests that the technosphere exists at multiple scales that intersect in myriad ways. Second, it shows that the technosphere has a three-million-year history, meaning that Homo sapiens and the technosphere coevolved. This coevolution implies that the technosphere is a profoundly social entity. Third, its history is about how human groups (usually white, male ones) have used technology to build a physical world that works to their advantage and is thus also an issue of power. As histories of pollution, climate change, and many other things show, the technosphere does not exist outside a powerless, undifferentiated humanity. Social and technological formations are thoroughly interwoven. Clark and Szerszynski have urged scholars to "socialize the Anthropocene." This article urges scholars to "socialize" the technosphere, to interrogate and explore its social dimensions.