Society, Technology and the Future in Tech Development

Open Access

Abstract

Much attention has been brought to the techno-futures of "CalifornianIdeology" (Barbrook/Cameron 2001) and the popular discourse of SiliconValley. This paper explores techno-futures as collective orientations (Bohnsack2010) of tech developers outside of tech world's epicentre. Two groupdiscussions among tech workers are used to identify their understandingof society, of technology's role in it, and visions of the future. This analysisrelates to two sociological approaches: the sociology of future imaginariesand utopias and the sociology of critique. These perspectives shed light onfuture imaginaries as interpretations of society and technology's role inshaping it as well as normative judgements on capitalism and technology.The findings suggest that variations of the well-researched Silicon Valleytechnology discourse can be detected in the discussions. In contrast to aSolutionist Polis legitimising the Silicon Valley model of disruptive innovation(Nachtwey/Seidl 2017), the respondents demand democratic and socialcontrol of technological development. Yet, this is only associated with thesphere of the application of technologies, while the production of technologiesis imagined as independent from the social and political sphere. The orientationsthus indicate a technologized vision of the future, in which societyhas a reactive role vis-à-vis technological changes.