Dilemmas of the technological republic

Abstract

This article revisits the concept of «technological maximality» formulated by Robert McGinn, and offers several examples of different types of contemporary technological maximality. The author shows that the «aggregation effects» of supposedly «light», «gentle» or «minimalist» technologies (such as, potentially, nanotechnology) may have the same harmful effects on the environment and social relations. There is a discussion of the dynamics of positional goods, closely associated with social and technical processes focused on text, the inflation of rights, and the extension of personalizing or animist language to the realm of technical objects.