Paleotechnic Paradise: Coketown - St. Pierre

The Paleotechnic period, first discussed in Lewis Mumford's Technics and Civilization, published in 1934, is the subject of the Coketown excerpt. The era is defined loosely as the 18th and 19th centuries and is markedly known for utilitarian dominance, widespread urbanization and the birth of industrialism. "Coketown", first coined by Charles Dickens in Hard Times, is the term Mumford uses to describe the desensitized, exploitative cities that emerged as a product of the Paleotechnic era.

Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 - January 26, 1990) was a lifelong writer and social historian. Mumford believed the organic and productive nature of language was (and should continue to be) the driver of societal progress. Thematically throughout his literary career, his works centered on technics; more inclusive than technology, technics encompasses the social life interaction with technology. It is clear in Coketown that he believes technology is overpowering the balance of technics. Often overlooked because of the many industrial and economic advances of the period, poverty and life in squalor were all too common during the Paleotechnic period. The excerpt repeatedly illustrates the evils of rampant urbanization by depicting the living conditions of the workers; the absence of residential plumbing in urban areas, the rapid spread of bacterial illnesses and lack of water piping. The general degradation of the physical and social environments is also a central idea in Coketown.

Not unlike the advances of 19th century, our technological boom is requiring more and more employees and has sparked a new era of urbanization. What differences between our societal structure and that of the 1800s will/can stave off such a massive infection? Also, what problems with the current balance of Mumford's technics (social interaction between technology, nature and the arts) do you see as an eminent threat to our society (if any)?