Lessigs Technological Determinism
Lessig’s Technological Determinism
Andres Guadamuz
School Law
University Edinburgh
This paper explores the apparent technological determinist view of Lawrence Lessig’s ‘Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace’. The philosophical debate about the role of technology in society has been raging since the Enlightenment, and it is based on a very simple question, does technology shape society? Those who answer this question with an affirmative have been generally considered technology determinists, a view that in its most simple form asserts that technology drives history. The paper will explore whether ‘Code’ is indeed a technological determinist book, and whether some of the criticisms levelled against determinism should be used to criticise one of the corollaries that can be surmised from ‘Code’, and this is the view that the architecture of cyberspace shapes its function and regulation.
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