Untitled - socium.ge

442 Rosalind Williamsincarnates as technological reality the means of which Turgot and Condorcetdreamed to advance human civilization. Irony, because the technologicalmeans now at our command are so disconnected from the civilizing ends thatthey believed in.To be sure, elements of the Internet approximate their vision of a universallibrary of text, images, and sounds, globally and instantly available, andendlessly empowering through providing new forms for creativity and socialparticipation. But the Internet is also the site of spam, snooping, child porn,and property rights, and far from being globally available it highlights vastdisparities of opportunity generally summarized as the “digital divide.” Theway in which the web has evolved in the past generation is a dramatic illustrationof the “social construction of technology” in a society of economic andpolitical disparities. Context matters.And so does history: what is striking here is the way in which belief in technologicalprogress has parted company with belief in historical progress. Incurrent raptures about the Internet, we still hear the echoes of theEnlightenment and its conviction that a new phase of history is nigh, thanks tothe universal circulation of information accumulated through reason-basedinquiry. The echoes are faint, however. Belief that technological progress willinevitably lead to general historical progress has faded as events have repeatedlydemonstrated otherwise. A quick capsule history of the twentieth century– the Great War, the collapse of the world financial structure, the rise offascism, the Second World War, the Holocaust, the use and proliferation ofatomic weapons, the economic and public health collapse of Africa – isenough to undermine belief in inevitable historical progress.But events do not necessarily subdue beliefs: the narrative of progress is tooimportant to the identity of the West to collapse entirely in the face of theseevents. When the concept of technology was brought into the study of historybeginning in the 1600s, and confirmed as a revolutionary agent in history inthe 1700s, history became redefined as the record of human progress. The ideaof progress, based on scientific and technological evidence, was extrapolatedto history in general. Since the Enlightenment, the idea of progress hasretreated from history in general, where evidence is lacking, back to the morerestricted realms of science and technology, where it can be marshaled. TheGreat War may have mocked any notion of historical progress, but all the timeHenry Ford’s assembly lines were turning out cheap cars. Earthly cities maybe appalling, but men have walked on the moon.At the beginning of the twenty-first century, historical change and technologicalchange have diverged. Old-fashioned political, military, and diplomatichistory continues, as difficult and as painful as ever. Technological progressalso continues, making money for some, improving medical care for others,churning out consumer products for many. The belief persists that if we can