Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought

TLDR

The authors argue that the issue is not a lack of verified facts but a lack of bearings. The study finds that modern technology repeatedly confounds vision, expectations, and judgment, rendering previously obvious categories, arguments, and conclusions unreliable, leading to disorientation and rendering data ineffective without intelligibility. The abstract is sourced from the Introduction.

Abstract

The truth of the matter is that our deficiency does not lie in the want of well-verified facts. What we lack is our bearings. The contemporary experience of things technological has repeatedly confounded our vision, our expectations, and our capacity to make intelligent judgments. Categories, arguments, conclusions, and choices that would have been entirely obvious in earlier times are obvious no longer. Patterns of perceptive thinking that were entirely reliable in the past now lead us systematically astray. Many of our standard conceptions of technology reveal a disorientation that borders on dissociation from reality. And as long as we lack the ability to make our situation intelligible, all of the data in the world will make no difference. From the Introduction