Beyond Jacques Ellul’s Technological Dystopia: A Response

This response to Joshua Reichard’s essay focuses on his references to Jacques Ellul’s technique which uses dialectic on two parallel levels: sociological and theological. Ellul argues that technique long predated the Industrial Age, and began in the earliest cities, though it was only incidental to society’s power centers from the ancient through early modern eras. Only in the modern age has technique come to a position of dominance where some see it as a possible threat to humanity due to dystopian elements such as artificial intelligence. This essay explores Ellul’s frequent references to both utopias and dystopias. By the 1950s, utopias were said to have ushered in totalitarianism. Dystopias were popular because they decried utopias as being out of touch with reality and thus dangerous to society. Ellul’s strong Christian faith provided answers to his concerns about the direction of human history, including technique. Though the twentieth-century dystopian totalitarian systems threatened humanity by utilizing technology for maximum repression over populations, they like prior systems may eventually dissipate and be replaced.