Technology, Pessimism and Postmodernism

This collection of essays from international scholars across various disciplines addresses the compelling theme of technological pessimism--the conviction that technology has simultaneously given humanity the means to achieve unlimited progress while simultaneously providing the tools for self-destruction and the degradation of our most cherished values.

Edited by Yaron Ezrahi, Everett Mendelsohn, and Howard P. Segal, this intellectually rigorous anthology examines the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in contemporary technological society through a postmodern lens. The contributors explore how technology shapes human experience, culture, and social structures in the late twentieth century, questioning the foundational narratives of technological progress and enlightenment that have dominated Western thought.

YARON EZRAHI (1940-2019) was a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a senior Fellow at Israel Democracy Institute. He has authored numerous books and articles centered around modern technology, the evolving liberal, democratic state, and the relationship between politics and science. His other books include: The Descent of Icarus: Science and the Transformation of Contemporary Democracy (1990); Rubber Bullets, Power and Conscience in Modern Israel (1998); Israel Towards a Constitutional Democracy (2001); Cross Ownership: control and Competition in the Israel Media: Economic and Legal Aspects and their Impact on the Israeli Democracy (2003); Imagined Democracies: Necessary Political Fictions (2012), Composing Power, Singing Freedom: The Interplay of Music and Politics in the West (2017); and Can Democracy Recover? The Roots of the Crisis in Democratic Faith (2025).

EVERETT MENDELSOHN (1931-2023) was a researcher and professor within the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. He studied life sciences, the sociological history of science and its relationship to society. He's helped edit numerous publications including The Practices of Human Genetics (1999); Biology as Society and Society as Biology: Metaphors (1994).

HOWARD P. SEFGAL (1948-2020) was a professor o history at the University of Maine, where he studied the history of America technology and utopianism. He's helped edit and author titles that include: Technology and Utopia (2006); Technology in America: A Brief History (1989); Future Imperfect: The Mixed Blessings of Technology in America (1994); Technological Utopianism in American Culture (2005); Recasting the Machine Age: Henry Ford's Village Industries (2008); Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities (2012); and Life in a Technocracy: What it Might be Like (1996).