On The Democratic Control Of Technology

Based on analyzing the central theme of the democratic technology thought of contemporary era in the west as well as examining the research framework of it, the paper first examines the theoretical and the practical backgrounds of the emergence of the research on democratic technology thought. Theoretically speaking, on the one hand, the reflection of technology and its consequence has made the problem of controlling technology a significant issue of modern time; on the other hand, the reflection of the conflict between democracy and technology has provided the theoretical basis for the research on democratic technology thought. Practically speaking, during the last decades in the west, there were two thoughts that attempted to get some kind of control of technology so as to control or even avoid the evil effects of technology. However, they didn't succeed in achieving their anticipated purposes. These two thoughts are appropriate technology thought and technocracy thought. In sum, the reflection of technology and the failure of these two thoughts promote the emergence of the democratic technology thought of contemporary era in the west.On the basis of the above, the paper deeply analyzes the theory of democratic technology thought, which suggesting that technology has a political nature and public participation in technological design has special political implications for the public and the society. Then, from the perspectives of democratically social relationship, democratically working circumstances, democratically political relationship, democratic self-governance ability and the sustainability of democratic society, the paper provides a comprehensive understanding of democratic technology thought. After that, as a kind of theoretical reflection, the limitation in technology...