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LEONARDO TO THE INTERNET: TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT

 

Technology and society have been influential over the past five centuries; it has been used as a means of change and advancement of lifestyles of people. In his book, Leonard states, “In this book, technology emerges as a potent means of bringing about social, political, or cultural changes.” This has revealed how innovations have changed and continued to be shaped by the cultures in which they arose. The question which Misa called” the question of technology," has been influenced by postindustrial past, the age of scientific, political and industrial revolutions. Also, it has been affected by more recent eras of imperialism, modernism and even global security. Thomas J Misa. Baltimore’s Book Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present is one of the most exciting and relevant books that one can read and get to know deep things about how culture influences technology.  It provides global coverage with an emphasis on Europe.

 

Leonard states, “Certain representational technologies, ranging from Renaissance-era geometrical perspective and movable-type printing through to today’s Internet, changed how humans communicate. Many of these technologies brought about major cultural movements, including court culture and patronage of earlier times and cyberculture of the present day. International campaigns on behalf of press freedom and against Internet censorship testify to the signal importance of these technologies today.” This shows how technology has changed people’s lives.

 

The Author shows a great indication about society concern. He explained the reason that we don’t understand the gap between the cultural norms and the massage of the mediums. The vast majority of his argument was, the self-awareness or as he said the long-term view that we have to inherit to our generation. What I like about his theory and how he studied the cases form the culture to connect the history of technology with the political changes in the community. The book was from 2011 in the period that and Instagram and Snapchat came out. Moreover, he gives many concerns that happen in this time such as fake news issues and how social media was playing a massive part in the election.

A masterful analysis of technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that shows modern day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world. Thomas uses illustrative stories to supports his ideologies helping the reader to grasp and understand everything into details. The book is fantastically well-researched and readable. Misa’s book provided a thought-provoking history of western technology that moves beyond the standard narrative of industrialization, warfare, and digitization to incorporate changes in economic and architectural theory as well.

 

The first eight chapters provide us with detailed information about inventors and those who used the technologies. Leonard begins by narrating from the modern era; he surveys the intersections of technology, politics and cultural practices in the Renaissance court system of modern Europe.

He has used a focused case study that has helped in highlighting his emphasis on the connections between technology, economics, politics, society, and cultural values.  Thomas Misa begins his ambitious and engaging history of technology with Leonardo da Vinci’s career in the courts of Renaissance Florence as an inventor, architect, and engineer. Leonardo great inventions that Misa argues, and indeed most of the specific technologies of the Renaissance, were not wealth producing but wealth consuming: they were instruments of war-making, city building, and courtly display.  With this in mind, Misa swiftly surveys the changing relationship between technology and society from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century. Thomas clearly shows how these innovations and technologies were shaped by cultures in which they arose and how technology shaped, and constituted, those cultures in return. This is what the book supports; the recurring theme is Misa’s book, and how technology has shaped the culture of the people living in the era of the developed technology. 

 

Also, geographical risks and instability have been highlighted by Leonard, by examining how today's unsustainable energy system, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster these risks. Misa’s states that, “Indeed, without playing down the economic results of technology, I believe the more pressing problem is to understand the varied social, political, and cultural consequences of technology.” Leonard to the internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world.

The book is an eye opener to many as it urges that there are distinct eras in the history of technology. Also, it emphasizes that technology comes from within particular societies rather than impacting them from one outside. The most amazing thing with the book is that the author had chronologically arranged the book in a manner that one can easily understand and relate to the timings  and the years when specific technology was available, for example, this is how he arranges the time; from an era of the courts (1450 to 1600) to one of commerce (1588 to 1740), and then to periods characterized by industry (1740 to 1851), Empire (1840 to 1914), science and systems (1870 to 1930), modernism (1900 to 1950), military culture (1936 to 1990), and finally, global culture (1970 to 2001).

 

The first eight chapters have outlined the eight distinct “eras” of technology; each defined by what, in the broadest sense, drove technological innovation in that time and place or by what that society judged technology to be. For instance, Thomas Misa has gone on to explore wealth consuming architecture and theatrical spectacles of the Renaissance court and wealth-producing factories of Britain’s industrial revolution, the nineteenth century’s instruments of empire, and the twentieth century’s implements of war. He goes on and shows how these eras begin to become shorter and overlap each other as we head to the twentieth century. This increase to become complex and increasingly show the role of technology in the society as it influences and advances lifestyle of people. Creation of aniline dyes in the late nineteenth century and development of nuclear power in the twentieth century shows what Misa’s has been illuminating.

The early chapters of the Misa’s book are weak because the author arguments are not strongly supported, and the formula of technological eras is too rigorous by few sources. Also, he has ignored counterexamples and complex factors. For example, the age of the court could be as well be called the era of the growth of commercial capitalism. The book organization is not up to the expected standards, although he has many examples, from the Middle East and Africa, but his evidence is weak and seems to be biased.

 

In conclusion, although there is wary of technological determinism, Misa’s powerful and refreshing perceptive argument is bold, he categorically states that technology influences the society.

 

Reference

 

Misa, T. J. (2011). Leonardo to the Internet: Technology and Culture from the Renaissance to the Present. JHU Press. To buy the book click  

 

 

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