Technology

Review: Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

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Cover image of "Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul" edited by David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond

Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond, eds. Pickwick Publications (ISBN: 9798385244430) 2025

Summary: Essays on the technological thought of Ellul, both foundational principles and applications.

In 1954, French sociologist-philosopher-theologian, Jacques Ellul published La Technique: L’enjeu du siècle. It didn’t get much notice until published in English ten years later as The Technological Society. It is one of three books on technology Ellul wrote, along with The Technological System and The Technological Bluff. One of the most significant ideas from his works is the idea of technique. He sees technique as the ultimate stage of technology which he describes as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.”

Does that sound familiar? As our generation comes to grips with what it means to live in a highly networked society with technology integrated into the fabric of our lives, all toward the end of increasing efficiency, Ellul sounds prescient. Likewise, as we grapple with the implications of the rapid advances in artificial intelligence and its implementation, Ellul’s descriptions are eerily prophetic.

In 2024, the International Jacques Ellul Society met for its biennial conference on the topic of Ellul’s thought on technology. Out of the conference presentations arose the 31 essays in this volume. I could write a review on each one, given their depth and breadth. I won’t do that but rather try to give you a sense of the richness of Christian thinking on technology, inspired by the writing of Jacques Ellul more than seventy years ago!

The book is divided into two parts: Foundations and Applications. The first part focus on the contours of Ellul’s thought, sometimes in conversation with other thinkers. Carl Mitcham opens the section charting and critiquing Ellul’s thought within the larger discussion of the philosophy of technology. Jennifer Karns Alexander takes Ellul’s ideas about efficiency and raises questions about the “efficiencies” of AI, noting the ways its inefficiencies are offloaded to other sectors of society. I was fascinated by the contrast Justine McIntyre makes between technique’s appeal to satiety and nature’s promise of sufficiency. Several essays weigh Ellul in light of other thinkers: Weber, Mumford, Fuller, Charbonneau, Illich, and Arnold Gehlen. Finally, Felicia Wu Song closes out the section with a Christian ethic of non-power in a digital world focused on technique and productivity.

The second part opens with what I thought one of the most important essays of the whole by David W. Gill, one of the conference organizers. In “The End of Technicized Work” he explores the implications of our technopoly on the displacement of workers and its economic consequences and what work and vocation might look like in this brave new world. Some of the essays explore the implications of technology on music, art, organizations, law, education, and the state. For example, I would highlight T. Bone Burnett’s essay on recording technology, tracing what he sees as a deterioration of sound quality in the technological advances and what he is doing to counter this. Several essays explore what it means to be human in a world of technique. Geraldine E. Forsberg’s essay on a theological perspective particularly stood out in this regard

The second part closes with two essays of particular applicative import. Firstly, challenging church use of technology, Luke Proctor, calls the church to incarnational, not virtual reality. Secondly, noting Ellul’s focus on the individual, Matthew Littlehale argues for the role of local communities to resist the incursion of technique.

In conclusion, this volume represents some of the best thinking extending the insights of Jacques Ellul. In particular, it challenges those of us in the Christian community to discernment rather than passive adoption of the latest technology. Where do we draw the line and not bow to the god of efficiency? And what does it mean to walk in the “non-power” of the cross? What will it mean for us to both minister to and advocate for the displaced? Finally, how will we live into the incarnational, embodied life of human community in an increasingly digital world?

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: A City on Mars

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Cover image of " A City on Mars" by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

A City on Mars

A City on Mars, Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith. Penguin Books (ISBN: 9781984881748) 2023.

Summary: A study of the complexities of human settlements in space, and whether this is as good an idea as some think.

With the recent Artemis mission, human space missions once again captured the public imagination. It put us on notice that there are well-funded entities with ambitions to settle on the Moon, and eventually Mars or elsewhere. Some have spoken of this as an alternative if climate conditions become unbearable on earth or as an “ark” to preserve human and other life if the unthinkable were to happen on earth.

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, a scientist and a cartoonist respectively, are self-admitted space geeks. But as they have taken a hard look at the complexities of space settlement, they argue very good case for at least going slow if we do this at all. At best, they argue for this being a project of centuries–a wait-and-go-big approach. To begin, they puncture a variety of myths about how space settlement could save humanity, make us all rich, end war, and will unify us and make us wise.

Then they take a deep dive into the complexities of creating sustainable space settlements. Firstly, consider survival. Space has all kinds of ways to kill humans, both fast and slow. Fundamentally, there is the question of air, and the reality that the lack of it, even for seconds can kill. There are also a variety of longer term killers from bone and muscle loss to radiation exposure from which our atmosphere protects us. And while sex in space is possible, we do not know the effects of low or no gravity environments on human development. Likewise, what would long-term residence in a low gravity environment would mean for returning to Earth?

Secondly, comes the question of where. The Weinersmiths consider the possibilities. The Moon is close but comes with challenges. Only a few mountaintops at the poles are always in sunlight. The soil is abrasive, just to mention the most obvious problems. Mars is little better, with toxic, perchlorate soils and challenging atmospheric conditions. Then there are giant space stations, wheels in the sky. However, the size to create gravity approximating earth presents construction challenges. All the other options are far worse.

Thirdly, creating self-contained settlements has its own challenges. Biosphere Two barely pulled this off on earth. But the most likely settlements on the Moon or Mars would be underground, in lava tubes. These protect from unlivable temperatures, toxins, and radiation. But the challenge is that they have to be self-sustaining for long periods, from oxygen generation to food and energy production. We don’t know how to do this yet.

Fourthly, is the state of and challenges of space law. The Weinersmiths discuss the existing Outer Space Treaty, that has both worked but leaves many questions unanswered. When you are talking brief, exploratory missions and a few samples, there are few problems. However, can a “commons” approach work when there are multiple entities with settlements?

Finally, the Weinersmiths consider what is involved in “going big.” They envision that settlements would be the equivalent of the company town. And how many people are needed for a self-sustaining civilization? The estimates vary widely from under ten thousand to a million or more people. Of course, that begs the question of how we will get them there. And, because human nature doesn’t change, the Weinersmiths explore everything from crime to space war.

The Weinersmiths break up all this serious science and technology talk with comics, down to earth descriptions, like the Moon as a “fixer-upper” and humorous sidenotes like the tale of the tampon bandolier for early female astronauts and why astronauts love taco sauce. Don’t skip over the Nota Bene at the end of each section.

The upshot of all this is that we better not rely on space settlement as a Plan B for the human race. At one point, they note that the best space alternatives are still objectively worst than even extreme climate change conditions. And none are near-term. We are far wiser to focus on the only place we know we can live. However, they do not close the door to space settlement. Rather, to do it well and ethically, there is a lot of groundwork to lay that will take far more than 20-25 years as some would propose. The Weinersmiths suggest centuries, although our ADHD society probably can’t tolerate that. And they weigh the words of naysayers and those who worry what Pandora’s box space settlement could open.

What is valuable is that the Weinersmiths inject a healthy dose of realism into discussions given to hyperbole. Their style is such that readers have fun while considering serious matters. And since a space settlement effort will effect all of us, it’s well worth learning about what is involved and the challenges we may face. This book is a good place to start.

Review: The Tech Coup

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Cover image of "The Tech Coup" by Marietje Schaake

The Tech Coup

The Tech Coup, Marietje Schaake. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691241197) 2025.

Summary: An expose’ of how tech companies have seized power from government and the danger this poses to the public interest.

At one point last year, big tech firms accounted for 40 percent of the gains in the U.S. stock market. In the last few years, over 150 data centers have popped up on rich farmland in Central Ohio. It seems most residents only woke up to the significance of this boom when they learned this would more than double power demands on our power grid, leading to rising costs for “infrastructure enhancement.” Much of this has been driven by the tremendous resource demands of Artificial Intelligence and cryptocurrency. And there are a number starting to ask how this high tech juggernaut has gained so much literal and cyber space in our culture. Increasingly, many realize a small number of huge tech firms are driving this tech revolution, wanted or not.

Marietje Schaake is a tech insider. As a member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019, she was part of an effort to establish guardrails on the burgeoning tech industry’s footprint in Europe. More recently, she moved to Silicon Valley to continue these efforts as international policy director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center. She is also an international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-centered Artificial Intelligence. The basic message of this book is that these tech industries have engaged in a power grab. They have subverted government efforts to establish guardrails, even while supposedly pleading for them. This poses great risks to our democratic interests and to the interests of the public. And it is a plea for governments to assert their proper role of oversight to protect the public interest.

Schaake opens with how online technology, once a means of free speech, has been transformed into a means of surveillance. It even extends across international borders. Even the smartphones most of us carry are used to track our movements. How has something touted to be so beneficial, and in fact is, also become so dangerous. Schaake argues that this is a result of “the code” of these companies that resists efforts for external regulation. She then seeks to delineate the layers of our digital infrastructure, “the stack.”

Furthermore, the whole infrastructure has been turned into a weapon. “Zero day” vulnerabilities in code render all systems subject to cyberattack. Cyber trading of cryptocurrencies can make and unmake fortunes. Datamining can scrape all kinds of private data for law enforcement, a form of illegal search and seizure. And social media platforms combined with AI can generate huge and convincing amounts of misinformation. Meanwhile, the same tech industry seeks to frame the conversation as over-regulatory governments stifling the advance of new and beneficial technologies, even while tech company interests have supplanted the public interest.

The final part of the book is a call for international governments to reassert their role, not to stifle technology, but to ensure that it serves the public interest. This especially needs to engage the world’s four major digital powers: the U.S., the EU, India, and China. That seems challenging because of differing political situations and priorities. Finally, she argues for prioritizing the public. This includes curbing anti-democratic technology: spyware, databrokers, facial recognition, and cryptocurrency. She advocates for transparency and public accountability and the creation of public digital infrastructure.

The strength of this book is its analysis of how Big Tech has gained such a dominant influence. Likewise, as an insider, she offers great insights of how Big Tech maintains and extends its influence. The challenge is the role of government in protecting democratic institutions. It seems the EU has done the most. In the U.S., however, it feels like Big Tech has paid in the form of political contributions to avoid regulation. Furthermore, it is most troubling to see the selective vigilance over the weaponization of digital resources. We fight TikTok while actually utilizing anti-democratic technology. Furthermore, we are not preparing for cyberattacks.

Part of the challenge is the complexity. Perhaps a start is using the lens of the public good consistently throughout. The question, I think, is how to mobilize public advocacy, which the author doesn’t discuss. Such advocacy is proving effective on particular issues, like curbing datacenters, perhaps one of the most visible aspects of Big Tech. But what about those that are less visible?

Schaake’s book, nevertheless, offers crucial analysis of the whole industry and the dangers it poses. And pointing to the question of the public interest seems crucial. And that is a good beginning.

Review: Conscientious Objections

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Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology, and Education, Neil Postman. New York: Vintage, 1992.

Summary: A collection of essays of social criticism, considering our communications media and rhetoric, education and its purpose, and technology and how it shapes society.

It has been some time since I’ve read Neil Postman. Twenty years ago, I appreciated his trenchant critique of television and how it was making us dumb, long before critiques of the internet, and of his concerns about how technology was shaping modern society. This collection of essays, which I’ve finally gotten around to reading, revisits some of the same themes, but what I found different (or perhaps didn’t remember) is the biting wit of these essays–these feels like Neil Postman unfiltered–or at least less filtered. Many were originally spoken presentations, which perhaps accounts for some of the difference.

He opens with a critique of the idea of “social science” and would place himself in the camp of those who deny that this is a science at all, calling it “moral theology.” He includes himself in his critique and argues that “social scientists” are story tellers, reminding us in fresh ways of the nature of the human condition and the character of human society. He then considers the purpose of education. Is it to inculcate our culture or to defend us against it? He would argue for the latter and particularly the importance of teaching an awareness of the nature, uses, and power of language.

At times, he can be tongue-in-cheek, as in his essays “The Naming of Missiles” and “The Parable of the Ring Around the Collar” (some of us remember this and other commercials, to which he alludes). He treats these as modern redemption tales. “Megatons for Anthromegs,” “Future Schlock,” “Safe-Fail,” and “My Graduation Speech” are additional examples.

As in Amusing Ourselves to Death, there are several essays on the influence of television on our habits of discourse. “A Muted Celebration,” on the two hundredth anniversary of The Columbian, discussing the decline of literary magazines with the rise of other media. “The News” explores the problems inherent in trying to cover the news of the day on television in 22 minutes or less (I wonder what he would have thought of 24/7 news outlets). “Remembering the Golden Age” considers the period of 52 minute plays written for television by the likes of Paddy Chayevsky, Rod Serling and Gore Vidal for series such as The Kraft Television Theatre.

Many of the tongue-in-cheek essays discuss the language games we play to deceive or cover despicable things in sanitary language. In one essay, he highlights a thinker, Alfred Korzybski, who he believes deserves more attention, because he “helped to heighten our awareness of the role of language in making us what we are and in preventing us from becoming what we ought to be but are not yet.”

Perhaps worth the price of admission is his essay on “The Disappearance of Childhood.” If you have not read Amusing Ourselves to Death, this essay argues how our new media are contributing to the destruction of the idea of childhood, treating children as little adults, or indiscriminately exposing them to the adult.

This collection is a good introduction to Postman’s longer works, covering in brief many of the themes he develops in greater length in them. Reading him thirty years down the road, I’m struck with how prescient he was in many respects, anticipating how media shapes us (even before social media) and how technology is not neutral but value-laden. He anticipates the decline of print media, and warns us of the dangers of the manipulation of language, so much the greater in our “post truth” generation. While the book is dated, it is a valuable piece of social history, indeed of “moral theology,” that indicates that we had been warned of what was coming.

Review: The Digital Public Square

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The Digital Public Square, Jason Thacker, editor. Brentwood, TN: B & H Academic, 2022.

Summary: A collection of essays exploring the contours and complexities of the digital public square, specific issues that have arisen, and the call of disciples as they engage the digital public square.

Nearly forty years ago, in The Naked Public Square, the late Richard John Neuhaus argued that we cannot strip the public square of belief, religious or otherwise. He argued for a public square practicing principled pluralism, where Christian belief, as well as others, had a place in public discussions. Today, much of our public square discussions occur on various online platforms in the digital world. For Christians who seek to carry forward Neuhaus’ project in this world, it is necessary to understand the nature of the digital public square and the issues that will confront one to frame a Christian engagement that is both faithful to Christ and cogent. That is the purpose of this volume of essays edited by Jason Thacker, the chair of research in technology ethics for the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The collection is organized into three parts. The first part, “Foundations” surveys the landscape of the digital public square. Thacker introduces the section with an essay, “Simply a Tool?” that explores the value-laden of our technology that must be critically appraised and not simply accepted. Bryan Baise looks at how our technology has changed the shape of our public square. Nathan Leamer and Patricia Shaw offer American and global perspectives respectively on governmental approaches to telecom law, AI, and privacy issue. David French concludes the section in his usual, carefully reasoned fashion, discussing the legal and policy issues of online governance and how difficult it is to ask the government to intervene in content moderation. In the end, he believes much of it comes down to personal responsibility rather than looking for government to save us from ourselves.

Part Two focus on “Issues.” Joshua B. Wester discusses religious liberty and freedom of speech essays in the digital context where individuals or groups can be “de-platformed” for expressing viewpoints that fall outside the character of publicly accepted ideas. As private entities platforms from Amazon to Twitter can do this with no avenue of recourse in many instances. In the case of Amazon and books, this can result in a significant revenue loss and essentially mute an author’s voice. Brooke Medina discusses the difficulties in the terminology of “hate speech” and in the policing of such speech online. Classic criteria allowed most speech other than that which actively incited or was likely to incite violence. Sometimes, online technologies such as YouTube have actively been used for such ends in other countries with tragic results. How then will Christians resist and report such speech while engaging in reconciliatory speech?

Jeremy Tedesco and Christiana Kiefer discuss content moderation policies, particularly as they have sometimes been applied to Christians affirming traditional sexual ethics and the experience of censorship in online discussions (I found it interesting that they did not discuss similar efforts of Christians in the realm of book challenges and bans). Bonnie Kristian discusses online pornography, the case for banning it and the difficulties, particularly the deleterious effects of having humans moderate content on their personal lives and emotional stability. We don’t like the idea of “bots” doing this but have we thought of how this effects humans. Much like David French, she argues for personal responsibility and virtue.

Jason Thacker contributes another quite fine essay on conspiracy theories and the “post truth” digital world. He returns to the idea of principled pluralism, the belief in and advocacy for truth, recognizing that others may see things differently but that this does not warrant a contempt for or the trivializing of truth. Olivia Enos explores the world of the “heavy handed” regimes that use digital technology to surveil citizens on one hand and to suppress access to information on the other. She particularly exposes the uses of digital technology of the Chinese in repressing their Uyghur minority and similar actions in Belarus. What is also disturbing is to read about how such regimes export this technology to others and, in contrast to American commitments to the free flow of information, seek to exercise cybersovereignty over their information.

Part Three considers the Church’s discipleship and witness in light of the digital public square. Jacob Shatzer considers the opportunities for and challenges to discipleship. While noting opportunities for digital community and digital education, he notes a number of problems: loneliness and paradoxically, never alone, being reduced to our data, enticements to idolatry, distraction, poor abilities to relate, and lacks of accountability. Shatzer does not seem to offer much in the way of remedy other than the call to follow Jesus is still binding and calls us to press through these things. Keith Plummer focuses on our witness before a watching world. He draws on the work of Francis Schaeffer, contending we must embrace two orthodoxies–one of doctrine and the other of loving communities. The truth is evident in the beauty of our relationships, leading Plummer to argue for the importance of the local and embodied presence amid the opportunity of virtual worlds.

Thacker, in an afterword acknowledges the challenge of such a book with the rapids changes of technology and illustrates it with noting the likelihood that Elon Musk wouldn’t acquire Twitter after all. There was a time when this looked to be so but that acquisition has in fact changed the landscape of platform moderation for all the social media companies. The book also preceded the rise of ChatGPT, and the implications for our digital public square of increasing amounts of AI generated content and product. My own sense is that we may not be able to see very far down the road but this book does help ask the question of how we will engage the digital public square, particularly recognizing the value-laden character of our technologies and platforms.

After the turmoil of the Trump presidency and the pandemic years, my sense is that we are taking a collective breather. With the approach of the 2024 elections, this is coming to an end. Now is the time for careful thought about how, as Christians, we will cogently and faithfully engage the digital public square in ways that uphold Christ and seek the common good. These essays offer a great place to begin.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Soonish

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Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That’ll Improve and/or Ruin Everything, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. New York: Penguin Press, 2017.

Summary: A cartoonist and scientist team up to look at ten emerging technologies and the challenges, both scientific and moral, that are involved in bringing these into existence in the “soonish” future.

There are an abundance of futurist scenarios about technological innovations on the horizon that will change, and perhaps, enhance our lives. In this fun and informative book, a scientist and cartoonist team up to explore ten of these technologies, the challenges involved with realizing them, and some of the challenges they may pose for us. In a text that explains these technologies in easily grasped language and amusing cartoons that accompany the text, the authors explore these emerging technologies:

  • Cheap access to space
  • Asteroid mining
  • Fusion power
  • Programmable matter
  • Robotic construction
  • Augmented reality
  • Synthetic biology
  • Precision medicine
  • Bioprinting
  • Brain-computer interfaces

Each chapter explains the current state (in 2017) of the technology, the challenges to its realization, how it might make things terrible, and ways it might make things wonderful.

Under challenges, I learned how expensive it is to get anything into space, how difficult it would be to build a space elevator that would reduce this cost, the challenges of transport and radiation with asteroid mining, the difficulty at present of developing a fusion reactor that puts out more energy than involved in making it work, the problems with large scale robotic construction–contractors can still build a house more cheaply, the privacy issues of augmented reality and medical information, and the difficulties in bioprinting anything more complex than thin layers of tissues.

Under terrible outcomes are the environmental impact of all that rocket fuel, the dangers of moving asteroids into earth intercepting trajectories creating an extinction event, that fusion will always remain in the future because of how hard it is to do, that programmable matter can be hacked, that control of augmented reality falls in the wrong hands, that synthetic biology creates killer organisms, and the use of brain-computer interfaces in manipulative ways.

The other side is wonderful outcomes including space exploration, various mineral resources, cheap and clean fusion power, “smart” construction and objects, and new versions of organs entirely compatible with our bodies because they are based on our genetic materials, greatly extending life, and cures for cancer and neurological diseases.

There has always been this double-edged character to technology. The Weinersmiths help us think beyond the ballyhooed technologies and a wonderful new world to the challenges and possible downsides. They do all this with a light touch that neither sees technology as a panacea nor to always be shunned. As in the past, there are challenges to be surmounted as there were in the past–some which seemed insurmountable, until solutions were found. In some areas, it is surprising how much progress has been made–precision medicine for example.

The greatest challenge then seems the human one. We have both the capacity for great good and unspeakable evil and no technological advance promises to change that. We also are not always very good at predicting the unintended effects of what we do and often our technological fixes only solve one problem while creating others. Perhaps at best, we can be aware of these things and not think we will be better, smarter, or more prescient than our predecessors. Sometimes a bit of humility is a good thing.