The Technological Imperative—Social Implications of Professional Technology
| Published date | 01 May 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271627038900112 |
| Author | David B. Hertz |
| Date | 01 May 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
95
The
Technological
Imperative—Social
Implications
of
Professional
Technology
By
DAVID
B.
HERTZ
David
B.
Hertz,
Ph.D.,
New
York
City,
is
a
Director
of
McKinsey
&
Company,
Inc.,
and
is
responsible
for
the
firm’s
management
sciences,
operations
research,
and
systems
analysis
practices.
His
most
recent
book
is
New
Power
for
Management:
Computer
Systems
and
Management
Science
(1969),
and
he
is
the
author
of
numerous
articles,
which
have
appeared
in
publications
such
as
the
Harvard
Business
Review
and
The
American
Scholar.
Dr.
Hertz
is
an
active
participant
in
urban
affairs
and
two
of
his
numerous
memberships
include
the
Urban
Coalition
and
the
President’s
Advisory
Council
for
Minority
Enterprise.
ABSTRACT:
Engineers
and
technologists
have
always
con-
sidered
themselves
to
be
protagonists
and
leaders
in
man’s
struggle
against
nature.
Each
successful
engineering
project
has
been
conceived
as
one
more
victory
in
the
campaign
to
master
the
natural
environment.
By
virtue
of
their
successes,
feeling
has
grown
that
there
were
no
results
that
could
not
be
achieved.
But
should
man
consider
nature
his
enemy?
If
so,
how
can
we
win?
Each
time
that
technology
has
changed
nature,
there
have been
negative
effects
which
had
not
been
foreseen.
These
negative
spillovers
have
rapidly
multiplied
the
total
environmental
problem
of
the
planet.
It
has
now
become
clear
that
increasing
population
and
changes
in
the
rate
of
energy
consumption
are
pushing
toward
a
destructive
total
thermodynamic
balance.
If
this
change
is
not
to
be
catastrophic,
man
will
have
to
find
a
way
to
achieve
an
energy
equilibrium.
The
technologist
and
engineer
must
be
at
the
forefront
of
this
search.
For
some
reasonable
expectation
of
success,
a
new
approach
will
have
to
become
part
of
technological
problem-solving.
This
approach
must
involve
technological
assessments
and
evaluations
that
include
much
broader
constraints
than
have
been
imposed
in
the
past.
The
technological
imperative
calls
for
the
reconstruction
of
engi-
neering
and
technological
curricula
to
include
truly
effective
evaluation
and
assessment
of
proposed
solutions
to
techno-
logical
problems.
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