Lewis Mumford — Technics and Civilization (1934)
A foundational work in the philosophy and history of technology. Mumford traces the development of Western technology from the medieval clock (which introduced abstract, mechanical time into social life) through three technological epochs: the eotechnic (water and wood), the paleotechnic (coal and steam, destructive and centralizing), and the neotechnic (electricity and light alloys, potentially decentralizing and life-serving).
The neotechnic epoch is Mumford’s central contribution: a technological moment when the intrinsic properties of the dominant energy and material systems favor distributed production, regional autonomy, and organic integration with natural rhythms — in contrast to the paleotechnic’s brutal centralization. The neotechnic potential is not automatically realized; it requires political and cultural choices.
OM’s essay “We Are the Neotechnics” directly extends this frame to the current moment, arguing that distributed ledger technologies, open-source software, and networked protocols represent the neotechnic promise coming to term — a substrate adequate to decentralized coordination at a new scale. The walkaway from paleotechnic “capture and release of the internet” is a neotechnic project.