Opening the Big Box

Recent cultural evidence from a popular film (Matrix Reloaded) and the contemporary "shock city" of Las Vegas discloses that our "technological age" is going beyond the control of nature to its replacement, and that it involves subconscious drives as well as conscious utilitarian ones. Such evidence suggests that history may operate differently at a time of the unprecedented dominance of human-built devices, systems, and related activities. Confronting this possibility requires a willingness to explore seriously the possibility of technological determinism, as well as that of technological indeterminism. The work of Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition suggests ways in which technological changes may be altering the historical conditions of labor, work, and action. Consequently, the Society for the History of Technology is not just adding another subfield to historical studies, but is making the stronger claim that it is redefining historical studies because the way history works is changing.