The Engineering Project: Its Nature, Ethics, and Promise

THREE Colonization

Engineering affects the world as the world affects engineering. The contemporary German social philosopher Jürgen Habermas stated that the realm of system colonizes the lifeworld by imposing upon it the values of efWciency and productivity. On the other hand, conversations and decisions made in the human lifeworld contextualize systems, including the engineering project by motivating it and giving it direction. Colonization and contextualization travel the same road but in opposite directions. I contend , however, that the colonization of the lifeworld by engineering takes priority in the contemporary era of the modern engineering enterprise. Colonization or the imposition of the values of productivity and efWciency on the human lifeworld is certainly not a bad thing, not in any absolute sense, unless it is done inappropriately. Often when a product colonizes the lifeworld, the efWciency it engenders is seen as a wonderful thing. That was undoubtedly the case with a product like the shopping cart. However, the introduction of the automobile, which was welcomed as an efWcient new way to get around, has had many unforeseen negative consequences. Perhaps the advantages of enhanced mobility blinded people to them. Perhaps there was a “technological imperative” at work, a certain temptation to push toward the greatest feat of technical performance or complexity currently available. The key issue with colonization is, Who determines, or should determine, when the line of appropriateness is crossed? Who decides how much efWciency we need or whether or not a product will really augment the quality of our lives? This is where the conversation of all involved parties becomes crucial. I confess that the word imposition has a funny ring to it. On the one hand, an “imposition” is a burden. But on the other, it can also refer to the laying-on of hands in a conWrmation ceremony or a ritual blessing. three colonization I draw on both of these meanings to imply both a burdening and a disburdenment . Classical colonization, in fact, burdened the colonized and disburdened the colonizers. Colonization is always good for the colonizers . But for the colonized? Who are the colonized? All of us who have had or felt they have had the values of efWciency or productivity imposed on us with or without our consent. Making the colonization of the lifeworld by the engineering enterprise a good—or at least acceptable—thing for the colonized is a central concern of engineering ethics. to colonize is to affect To colonize is to affect but not necessarily to effect. The steam engine certainly affected the world, but did the invention of the steam engine actually cause the Industrial Revolution? It certainly inXuenced it. But the Industrial Revolution had many causes. Lewis Mumford believed the clock was the key to the Industrial Revolution,1 others say it was the rise of market capitalism, and some say it was culture itself changing that led to the new social conWguration we call the Industrial Revolution. The steam engine did not effect the Industrial Revolution, although it certainly affected it. However, if colonization of the lifeworld by the engineering enterprise proceeds unabated, affecting will become effecting. In his book Technopoly Neil Postmann suggests that history can be segmented into three phases: tool-using, technocracy, and technopoly.2 The tool-using phase corresponds to the era of the premodern engineer. The technocracy phase corresponds to the modern engineering enterprise, wherein engineering affects society with its increasingly bountiful catalog of devices and measures, the promise of technology realized. In the technopoly phase the engineering project effects a complete colonization of the lifeworld by systems. The more complete technopoly becomes, the more the engineering project expands to Wll the lifeworld (Figure 2). Fortunately, we are still in the technocracy phase of history, but if we are to keep technocracy from becoming technopoly, if we are to keep the totalizations of productivity and efWciency at bay, we will have to counter colonization with contextualization. And that is the goal of the focal engineering project— 76 part i: the modern engineering enterprise 1. Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1934). 2. Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992). achievement of a proper balance between the forces of colonization and contextualization through the creation of products that will not just do no harm in the world, but will actually contribute to a consensually arrived at notion of the good. Borgmann shows how...