SoLiXG:Technological Solutionism

Technological Solutionism

In light of the multiple crises of contemporary capitalism such as the climate crisis or the crisis of social reproduction, once again technology is often seen as a panacea. While the technological determinist sentiment that technologies could solve societal problems has been around for much longer, Evgeny Morozov’s (2013) concept of technological solutionism has been gaining a lot of traction since coining it. Understood as a whole ideology around the ‘technological fix’ [1], Morozov conceptualizes it as

„[r]ecasting all complex social situations either as neatly defined problems with definite, computable solutions or transparent and self-evident process that can be easily optimized – if only the right algorithms are in place!“ [2]

In SoLiXG we critically reflect the ideology and imaginary of technological solutionism, since framing all problems as merely technical is drastically narrowing down the scope for action within the far-reaching crises and thereby also limiting political intervention and contestation. Additionally, technosolutionist crisis-solving is not an end in itself, it is much more a a way for capital to render “the world’s biggest problems [into] … the world’s biggest business opportunity” [3].

Early criticism of this ideology, which is connected to progress and modernity stems from feminist scholars [4] who raise questions such as whether “science and technology are the solution to world problems, such as environmental degradation, unemployment and war, or the cause of them” [5].

The concept of the Twin Transition contains a technological solutionist logic, when digital technologies are imagined to mitigate the climate crisis and support a green transition. While the available technologies have changed, the idea itself is not new. The nuclear scientist, self-proclaimed technological fixer and king of the technological optimists Alvin Weinberg, for instance, highlighted nuclear energy as a solution to air pollution [6] [7].

[1] Maibaum, A., Bischof, A., Hergesell, J. (2023). Wie kommt die KI in die Pflege – oder umgekehrt? Drei Probleme bei der Technikgenese von Pflegetechnologien und ein Gegenvorschlag. In: Pflege & Gesellschaft 28(1), 7-22, p. 8

[2] Morozov, E. (2013). To save everything, click here. The folly of technological solutionism. Public Affairs /Perseus Books, p. 5

[3] Nachtwey, O. & Seidl, T. (2024). The Solutionist Ethic and the Spirit of Digital Capitalism. In: Theory, Culture & Society 41(2),91-112, p. 92

[4] Aulenbacher, B. (2005). Rationalisierung und Geschlecht in soziologischen Gegenwartsanalysen. Springer Verlag.

[5] Wajcman, J. (1991). Feminism confronts technology. Polity Press, p. 1.

[6] Rosner, L. (Ed.). The Technological Fix: How People Use Technology To Create and Solve Problems. Routledge.

[7] Nye, D. E. (2014). The United States and Alternative Energies since 1980: Technological Fix or Regime Change? Theory, Culture & Society, 31(5), 103–125.

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FS: Glad to have this keyword, and to see it so clearly connected to the project. It is quite short, and I wonder if you could say something more about the way that techno-solutionism operates with twin transitions, making problems and solutions but also making a world. The citations you included hint to this, but I would love to read a bit more about how this is not just about greenwashing compute while electricity and water use, mineral extraction etc. sky-rocket. It also about how tech-companies are actively intervening in the world to restructure it according to their own image. We have been reporting on this in the case of Frontier, where both a market and a digital infrastructure are created to provide a so-called solution that will continue to expand the desire for more compute.