Lewis Mumford’s Science as Technology
"starvation in the midst of plenty"
Science has long been celebrated as the engine of human progress. From the time of Francis Bacon, the idea that scientific knowledge should serve technological advancement has been an unquestioned assumption of modern civilization. But in Science as Technology, Lewis Mumford takes a hard look at this assumption and asks: Has science, by becoming a technology, lost sight of its true purpose?
Mumford’s critique is not anti-science—far from it. He acknowledges its transformative power and its capacity to elevate human understanding. But he warns that when science is treated primarily as a means of technological expansion, rather than as a mode of inquiry into the human condition, it risks turning into a runaway system—one that values expansion, acceleration, and control for their own sake rather than for human betterment.
In this essay, Mumford challenges the Baconian vision of science, critiques its industrial and corporate entanglements, and calls for a radical reorientation of scientific priorities. His argument is both prophetic and urgent: if we do not reclaim science as a human endeavour rather than merely a technological one, we risk being consumed by the very system we have created.
The Baconian Vision and Its Triumph
Mumford begins with a reassessment of Francis Bacon, the English philosopher and statesman who championed science as an instrument of human power. Bacon’s great insight was that systematic scientific inquiry could be harnessed for technological advancement, leading to what he called the “enlargement of the bounds of humane empire”.
“The legitimate goal of the sciences is the endowment of human life with new inventions and riches.” (Novum Organum, Bacon)
This vision, Mumford concedes, has been extraordinarily successful. Bacon anticipated the scientific-industrial complex centuries before it emerged, envisioning a world where teams of researchers, backed by powerful institutions, would work systematically to control and manipulate nature for human benefit.
And indeed, this is exactly what happened. From the Industrial Revolution to the rise of corporate research laboratories, science became the fuel for technological expansion. It was no longer the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake—it became an engine of production, driving material progress, military power, and industrial wealth.
But this, Mumford warns, is also where things went wrong.
“Because of the magnificent, awe-inspiring success of the sciences in widening the domain of prediction and control, in augmenting human power on every plane, we face a new predicament derived from this very economy of abundance: that of starvation in the midst of plenty.”
The very forces that have enriched human life—industrialization, mechanization, automation—are also the forces that now threaten it. Science, as technology, has become a runaway system, expanding not because it serves human needs, but because expansion has become its own justification.
The Rise of the Corporate Scientist
One of Mumford’s sharpest critiques is directed at the transformation of the scientist from an independent thinker into a corporate technician.
In Bacon’s time, science was an activity pursued by individuals—Galileo, Newton, and others who worked largely alone, driven by curiosity rather than institutional demands. But by the 20th century, science had become a mass enterprise, requiring vast funding, bureaucratic oversight, and institutional alignment with state and corporate interests.
“The old image of the self-directed scientist still remains popular, particularly among scientists; but as science expands as a mass technology, the scientist himself becomes a servant of corporate organizations intent on enlarging the bounds of empire—by no means always ‘humane empire!’”
Today, research is funded by governments, defence industries, pharmaceutical conglomerates, and multinational corporations, each with their own vested interests. The scientist, far from being an independent thinker, now serves the demands of the institutions that pay for research.
This shift has two major consequences:
The focus of science becomes dictated by corporate and state agendas—military applications, commercial products, and industrial efficiency, rather than fundamental human inquiry.
The scientist loses autonomy—trapped in an assembly-line model of research, where funding and career advancement depend on churning out papers and patents, rather than questioning the larger consequences of scientific progress.
Mumford sees this as a profound loss of intellectual freedom. Scientists, once the questioners of power, have become servants of power.
Science, Technology, and the Loss of Human Scale
One of Mumford’s deepest concerns is that modern science has no internal mechanism for self-regulation. It knows how to expand, but it does not know when to stop.
“The chief premise common to both technology and science is the notion that there are no desirable limits to the increase of knowledge, of material goods, of environmental control; that quantitative productivity is an end in itself.”
This limitless expansion is a hallmark of what Mumford elsewhere calls the megamachine—a system that grows not because it improves human life, but because it is structured to keep growing.
And yet, in biology, growth without limit is called cancer.
“What rational purposes have ordained these objectives and provided us with a mechanism that has no means of self-regulation, no method of control except acceleration, and no goal except its own increase in power and authority?”
Mumford points to nuclear weapons, chemical pollution, and mass surveillance as examples of science serving power rather than humanity. These developments, he argues, are not logical extensions of human progress—they are the natural outcomes of a system that prioritizes technological expansion above all else.
Reclaiming Science as a Human Endeavor
Mumford does not call for a rejection of science—he calls for a new understanding of science as a humanistic discipline.
“The center of gravity is not the corporate organization, but the human personality, utilizing knowledge, not for the increase of power and riches, or even for the further increase of knowledge, but using it, like power and riches, for the enhancement of life.”
Science must serve life, not dominate it. It must prioritize balance, integration, and wisdom, rather than sheer accumulation of facts, inventions, and technologies.
To achieve this, Mumford suggests:
Science must break free from corporate and military control and reassert its autonomy as a field of genuine inquiry.
Scientific research must prioritize human well-being, not just material or technological progress.
Scientists must regain their independence, resisting the pressures of mass funding and corporate incentives.
We must ask deeper ethical questions about the direction of science—what knowledge is truly worth pursuing, and at what cost?
“The greatest contribution of science, the most desirable of all its many gifts, far surpassing its purely material benefits, has been its transformation of the human consciousness.”
The task ahead is not to halt scientific progress, but to reshape it—to make it human again.
Conclusion: Science as a Moral Choice
Lewis Mumford’s Science as Technology is a call to reclaim science from the runaway machine it has become. He challenges us to see that science is not just about knowledge—it is about values.
If we do not actively shape the direction of scientific research, it will continue to be shaped by the forces that profit from expansion and control.
The real challenge of the future is not how much more we can discover, but what we choose to do with that knowledge.
The ultimate question, Mumford asks, is this:
“Science now makes all things possible, as Bacon believed: but it does not thereby make all things desirable.”
This choice, he suggests, will determine the fate of civilization itself.
Frustrated with just about everything these days, I googled "Lewis Mumford the prophet of our present world", and this article was in the feed. Thanks for keeping his memory alive. I rescued the two volume Myth of the Machine from my Dad's library after he died, as I'd always wanted to read them "when I had the time" ~ well, Covid Year One gave me the time to read them both, as well as many other volumes I'd put off. What was most astonishing for me, was the realization that my history advisor in college (late 70s thru early 80s), was clearly a Mumford fan, and if he had ever dropped his name, I clearly wasn't paying as close attention as I thought I was ~ for he was a fantastic professor, who waited until he retired at the turn of the century to start writing.
In 2018, he published his last book, "A History of Humanity", by Marvin Bram. In my opinion, it is THE textbook that should be in every high school and college, as mandatory reading. If you ever have the time, give it a look. AND I look forward to reading your writings down the road.
Love these essays on Mumford.