A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology

Technology and the Global Political Economy

Technological innovations have, in large part, fueled globalization. Innovations such as jet airplanes, wireless telephones, email, computers and global telecommunications infrastructure allow money, technology, raw materials and finished products to move freely across national borders. Information and communication technologies, however, stand out as the most important technologies driving globalization. The increasing speed of social interactions and the decreasing distances among people depend on the presence of information and communication technology. The generation and transmission of technological knowledge is also transformed by globalization, which has made the world seem smaller and more interdependent as people who were previously separated by great distances are now able to share in the same economic, political and social forms of life.

Information technology (IT) is arguably the key to the process of globalization. Innovations in computer hardware and software in the early 1990s allowed for a tremendous increase in the scale of information gathering, storage, and speed of distribution. At the same time, improvements in telecommunications technology allowed for increased access to information, creating more effective, and less expensive, means of communication. The ability to process information and communicate in digital form has driven the “IT revolution.” Microprocessors, the tiny devices that power digital technologies, ...