The Machine Age
Robert Skidelsky
Penguin, £25, 384 pages
Robert Skidelsky’s The Machine Age is an ambitious attempt at a timely intervention into an increasingly relevant debate. As arguments over AI intensify, understanding the history of, and possible approaches to, the future development of technology appears essential.
Skidelsky goes far in outlining a comprehensive narrative of not only the development of specific technologies, but the frame of mind which governs the collective approach to technology; he especially skilfully outlines the impact that the Enlightenment had on the growing faith in scientific endeavour, which gradually morphed into a belief in the power of socially engineering both individuals and collectivities.
