Sur les dérives de la raison technicienne. À propos de quelques livres récents

The Deviations of Technological Rationality. A Review of Some Recent Books
Jean-Jacques Salomon provides a critical review of three recent books : François Caron, Les deux révolutions industrielles du XXe siècle (“The Two Industrial Revolutions of the Twentieth Century”); Peter Kemp, L’irremplaçable. Une éthique de la technologie (“The Irreplaceable: An Ethic of Technology”); Bertrand Saint-Sernin, Entretiens nocturnes (sur la théorie des jeux, la poésie et le “nihilisme” chrétien) (“Thoughts in the Night: On Game Theory, Poetry and Christian “Nihilism”).
With Caron’s work as authority, Salomon emphasizes the evolutionary interactions between technical systems and the techno-economic environment, demonstrating the extent to which technique builds society and vice-versa. This is not always for the benefit of people and comes at the cost of disfunctionalities and deviations for which we should always be on guard.
With reference to Peter Kemp, Salomon points ou that the ethical reflection imposed by these circumstances goes beyond the principle of accountability, but is not always up to the challenge. Reflection must go much deeper than mere pious hopes, focus on the deviations and threats linked to excesses of technology (Bertrand Saint-Sernin) and on the limited usefulness of sciences in taking decisions.
“The malaise of a century abandoned to the decline of its utopia and the triumph of its technology urgently needs the rationalization of a renewed romantic spirit.”