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The early modern period saw rapid technological advancements that helped to kickstart societal transformation. A major innovation during this era was the printing press, which was accompanied by new methods of organizing information and new ways of gathering knowledge about the world. Amidst these developments, what's often overlooked is how changes in thinking influenced the use of technology, and how power struggles contributed to creating divisions.

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Technological advancements in the modern age have followed a similar trajectory to those in the past. While new technologies are often celebrated, their impacts on real human populations and individuals tend to be overlooked. Nowadays, algorithms, data-collecting software, and other technologies drive the way society functions on a daily basis. The people who create these technologies, as well as those who are affected by them, often get lost in the digital landscape.

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Printing Press aided the dissemination of information but literacy rates remained low in England. The 1700s, however, saw a major decline in illiteracy, falling between 65% - 75% (Cook, 1997, p.73). As governments began placing higher value on social equality, reading skills were a privilege given to its member (74).

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First page of the index from Erhard Ratdolt’s 1481 edition of Werner Rolewinck’s Fasciculus temporum (https://ilovetypography.com/2018/08/24/a-brief-history-of-the-index/) 

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As print became mainstream information needed to be organized and managed. To combat information overload strategies such as indexing, catalogues, and encyclopedias were created. These strategies, however seemingly unimportant, shape the way audiences look at information (Dick, 2024). Thus shaping what is important or ignored.

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Gathering Information Techniques and Technology 

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Gathering Information Techniques and Technology 

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These collections of artifacts from different countries showcased how the British gathered information from abroad. Using ships and skilled seamen, these excursions led to new-found knowledge which aided the growth of their empire. From these ‘enquiries’, grew what the British labelled ‘land-settlement process’ (Cohn, 2020, pg. 119).

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The Industrial Revolution paved the way for our modern approach to the production and distribution of goods. With the rise of factories and new methods for distributing labor and organizing work, there was a strong emphasis on efficiency. However, with this focus on efficiency and the need to quantify through numbers, there also emerged new methods of controlling populations and defining what types of labor were considered lower class.

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Factories were accompanied by the division of labor coined by Adam Smith (Dick, 2024) which greatly improved efficiency. However, many lower class citizens were hired for these low paying manual labour jobs. Factories needed unpaid workers to make maximum profits.

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Before the French and Industrial Revolutions, computing calculations was done by nobles as in leisure as a form of prestige (Dick, 2024). however during industrialization power imbalances were reiterated by labelling these forms of simple calculations as manual labour. Lower class workers were hired to use these table to calculate logarithms.

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Continuing with the ideas of efficiency, the 1880's saw the birth of punch card tabulation (Dick, 2024). One of the more important uses for this technology at the time was collecting census data. This data turned people into numbers and ultimately lead to new ways of controlling the population. From population control, came the study of eugenics.

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Connection to the digital space is a must in today's society. Living in remote areas where cell towers are not built disconnects you from society. In the UK 13% of the population suffers from what researchers call, "digital exclusion" (Williams, 2014). This highlights how certain areas are deemed more important than others.

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Social media has been praised as the best connective technology in history. In recent years it has been highlighted as a main driving force in social movements. However theorists such as Jodi Dean point out that, "paid, unpaid and precarious labour should not be treated separately." (Dean, 2014).

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Algorithms are used in everyday life and one example would be through health care. Predicting disease spread, and developing possible treatments rely on algorithms. However, they are programmed by humans who unknowingly can build biases into algorithms leading to potential harm (Nazer, 2023).

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Data collection technologies such as facial recognition software are used by law enforcement to identify potential suspects and are said to have great potential to solve crime (Smith, 2022). On the other hand, this brings up the question of privacy and the ethics of being constantly surveyed.