Paleotechnic

Lewis Mumford wrote his ode to an industrial nightmare with his 1961 work “Paleotechnic Paradise: Coketown”. He begins chapter 15 harping on lassiez-faire capitalism and how people began putting too much emphasis on making commodities, which in turn killed any other activities besides working and led 14 hour days in coal mines – or the “Paleotechnic era”

Mumford argues that industrialization totally screwed up society during this Paleotechnic period completely changing how people lived everyday life for the worse.

His basic argument on the “Paleotechnic era”

Starting with a vastly increased food supply due to mechanized farming, industrialization ended up making a much larger population miserable and living in giant poorly constructed cities. These cities formed as people flocked from small towns to find work destroying small town life.

Mumford states that these cities were fueled by slums that provided labor to factories which were connected through railroads, like a giant evil Willy Wonka factory with real people instead of oompa loompas.




He ends discussing the next phase of civilization, the “neotechnic era” where workers can be aided by electricity freeing them from brutal manual labor. But despite living in this “neotechnic” world, the scars of “coketown” still remain, and most of these scars have been driven underground.

Questions

-Is a “Neo technic era” that creates breakthroughs in the quality of everyday life worth going through a hellacious “Paleotechnic era” to get to?

-How are recently industrializing countries like China and India affected by "Paleo technic" growth while also having access to “neo technic” technologies?

-How has the advent of the information age changed Mumford's view of a “Neo technic” era?

-Garrett