Cultural Conflict in Technology Transfer to Non-Industrial Communities: A Critique of Ihde's Ideas

Societies today have come closer together as a result of the development of communication technologies and the greater ease with which business is transacted. Consequently, technological tools and devices are being transferred from industrial societies to other countries at dazzling speeds. The transfer of technology to non-industrialized societies with their own histories, civilizations, and backgrounds has led to the emergence of cultural issues and conflicts that are specific to the modern period and that had not existed prior to this period. In this article, we have reviewed the ideas of Don Ihde, a leading contemporary philosopher who has done much work in the field of the philosophy of technology and the relationship between technology and society. Using Don Ihde's work, we have striven to solve the problem of technology and culture interaction in the global periphery. We start by giving an account of Don Ihde's general view of the major relation between culture and technology, and proceed to an analysis of Ihde's ideas on the problem of cultural conflict in non-industrial countries. Having provided a critique of Ihde's ideas, we conclude that his answers to the problem are useful but incomplete.