academic researchers/readers of mastodon: is there a solid historical book (books?) that documents and explores the transition from the mechanical age to the age of “modern” technology as someone like heidegger understands the term technology?

i’m imagining a book that interprets the social and cultural transformations between the late medieval and victorian periods, from older conceptions of morality and mechanism to newer ideas about individualism and automation? eg. documenting not only demographic changes, but also the ways of thinking about people that were preconditions for modern technological thought.

i realize this is a rather nebulous request covering a huge time span, but my background is in the philosophy of science and not british history literature.

#academicmastodon #history

  • mugraph@chaos.social
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    4 days ago

    @vga256@dialup.cafe looking into Foucault’s ideas about then emerging disciplinary regimes on the body could be of interest, but perhaps that is a bit off from being a solid historical account

    • vga256@dialup.cafeOP
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      4 days ago

      @mugraph@chaos.social yeah, i know what you mean - and i think that strays beyond my immediate historical needs. i’m basically looking for someone to fill in a lot of the historical gaps that heidegger leaves wide open with his historical examples (grist mills, hydroelectric dams, etc). foucault is his own wilderness anyway 😅