Technological momentum is a theory about the relationship between

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

and

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

over time. The term, which is considered a fourth technological determinism variant, was originally developed by the historian of technology Thomas P. Hughes. The idea is that relationship between technology and society is reciprocal and time-dependent so that one does not determine the changes in the other but both influence each other.

Theory

Hughes's thesis is a synthesis of two separate models for how technology and society interact. One, ''

technological determinism Technological determinism is a reductionist theory in assuming that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. The term is ...

'', claims that society itself is modified by the introduction of a new technology in an irreversible and irreparable way—for example, the introduction of the

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

has influenced the manner in which American cities are designed, a change that can clearly be seen when comparing the pre-automobile cities on the East Coast to the post-automobile cities on the West Coast. Technology, under this model, self-propagates as well—there is no turning back once the adoption has taken place, and the very existence of the technology means that it will continue to exist in the future. The other model, ''

social determinism Social determinism is the theory that social interactions alone determine individual behavior (as opposed to biological or objective factors). A social determinist would only consider social dynamics like customs, cultural expectations, educatio ...

'', claims that society itself controls how a technology is used and developed—for example, the rejection of

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...

technology in the USA amid the public fears after the Three Mile Island incident. ''Technological momentum'' takes the two models and adds ''time'' as the unifying factor. In Hughes's theory, when a technology is young, deliberate control over its use and scope is possible and enacted by society. However, as a technology matures, and becomes increasingly enmeshed in the society where it was created, its own deterministic force takes hold, achieving technological momentum in the process. According to Hughes this inertia, which is particularly the case for large technological systems with their technological and social components, makes them difficult to influence and steer as they start to go more on their own way, assuming deterministic traits in the process. In other words, Hughes's says that the relationship between technology and society always starts with a ''social determinism'' model, but evolves into a form of ''technological determinism'' over time and as its use becomes more prevalent and important. Since its introduction by Hughes, the ''technological momentum'' concept has been applied by a number of other historians of technology. For instance, it is considered an effective approach to reconciling the apparently opposite perspectives of the autonomy of technology and the social and political motivations behind technological choices. It is able to describe how socially and politically conditioned technological institutions become independent and autonomous over time.

Notes

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References

* Thomas P. Hughes, "The Evolution of Large Technological Systems," in Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor Pinch, eds., ''The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology'', 2012 (1987), pp. 45-76. * Thomas P. Hughes, "Technological momentum," in Albert Teich, ed., ''Technology and the Future'', 8th edn., 2000. * Thomas P. Hughes, "Technological momentum," in Merritt Roe Smith and Leo Marx, ed., ''Does Technology Drive History?: The Dilemma of Technological Determinism'', Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994, pp. 101–113 * Thomas P. Hughes, "Technological Momentum in History: Hydrogenation in Germany 1898-1933", ''Past and Present'', No. 44 (Aug., 1969), pp. 106–132 History of technology Technological change