Leo Marx and His Views on the Emergence of Technology

In one of our readings we were assigned the article by Leo Marx titled, “Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept”. Without even reading the article yet, the reader would automatically assume that Leo Marx is not a huge fan of technology and its advancement in society. Well to give a little background on Leo Marx, he is very knowledgable when it comes to technology and the science of it. Leo Marx’s work examines how technology has affected the world and its relationship with it mainly in the nineteenth and twentieth century America. In this particular essay, Marx focuses on the “history of the term technology and its meanings in contemporary culture and society”. One question asked before reading the article was, “have you ever thought technology was hazardous?” And my answer is yes, not until this year though. I never really cared about technology or knew anything about it until taking this class to be honest with you. After taking this class, I have realized that technology is meant for good, but can end up or sometimes already be extremely bad for society. Technology, whether we like it or not, is practically taking over our world. Someday, technology will be controlling it if we don’t take charge now. Marx focuses a lot on the fact that technology has been running our lives for some time now even when we didn’t realize it. Technology has always had a part in our history because at a certain point, it was beginning. Technology had to start somewhere, and when it did, it took the world by storm. Even today technology is shocking people more and more each day. It makes you wonder if there is ever going to be an end to technological advancement or if it will always get better and better. We wonder that now because what we have in front of us is good enough and we can’t imagine it getting any better, but it can and that is how it could possibly be hazardous to us. Marx continues to point out that we might not realize the impact technology contains or holds on humanity and this is how it can become so detrimental to our lively hood.