The Contributory Revolution

3Contributory Metamorphosis in the Conception of Systems and the Sciences

3.1. Introduction

In the contemporary world, the proliferation of pseudo-scientific publications about the future sometimes gives us the feeling of being manipulated by an approach to prediction that is not always rigorous. It can at the same time enthuse us with the prospect of a future made idyllic by science and technology, or conversely, because of them, project us into a troubling future that would defy all our conceptions of good, evil, justice, injustice, the beautiful and the ugly.

Reading these works on technoscientific future prospects, in light of Ellul’s (2003) thinking, is a striking experience. It often reveals the authors’ conscious or unconscious enslavement to the omnipotence of technical progress and organizations that benefit from it. They express it even by implying, through an assumed humanism, that this is, on the contrary, a salutary struggle for public information to avoid its development to the detriment of humankind. Arsonist firemen, as it were, who at the same time turn a blind eye to the proven dangers. What a trap, for myself included! Am I, too, ensnared in this fearsome net?

In defense of these science fiction writers, sometimes unscrupulous or simply incompetent, it is difficult, even for “real” scientists, to draw up an objective roadmap of future breakthroughs in the realm of technology. Indeed, these are most often at the crossroads of different scientific advances, ...