It has been a decade since The Real World of Technology was originally prepared for the CBC Massey Lectures, a decade during which technological changes have driven major global political and economic changes.
Revisiting The Real World of Technology in order to illustrate the new reality of a technological world as well as its trends and impacts, I feel it is best to let the 1989 lectures stand unamended and to add four new chapters on some of the more recent facets of the emerging picture to this edition. Much to what was said a decade ago about the real world of technology remains valid since much of what appears new can be seen as an extension of earlier developments. Many dominant trends and problems discussed in 1999 can be explained as the consequences of previously delineated configurations and dynamics. I will continue to define “technology” as “practice” — as the way things are done around here — and will emphasize how the practices and their contexts have changed.
The first new chapter (chapter seven) will deal with communications technologies, both ancient and modern. From the invention of writing to the use of the Internet, the way in which knowledge is kept, transmitted, or shared has structured the perception of what is real, as well as what is possible or desirable.
The next new chapter explores and illuminates some novel aspects of the new electronic technologies as they reshape our use and experience of time. Chapter nine will then offer a model of the technologically changed configurations of space and their political consequences.
Finally, chapter ten will focus on the impact of these new technological practices on human ties, on work and community, on governance, citizenship, and the notion of individual and collective responsibility.
Throughout these new chapters I want to stress how new technologies, new ways of doing things, have pushed against the physical and social boundaries of space and time. These activities have altered profoundly the relationships of people to nature, to each other, and their communities.
It is with profound gratitude that I acknowledge again the support of my family and my communities, particularly the hospitality of Massey College and the friendship of its Master, John Fraser.
I would like to dedicate this edition to my three young grandsons, who may never know how much I worry that the world in which they will live may be one of justice, peace, and beauty.