The Communist Manifesto (1848) could be read as a preamble to our present technological culture. In it, Marx and Engels conclude, with scarcely concealed admiration, that during its short period of domination, the bourgeoisie has brought together productive forces on a vaster, more massive scale than all of the previous generations combined. As a result, society has taken on an extremely dynamic character. "All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind" (Marx and Engels, 1969). Elsewhere, in The Poverty of Philosophy (1847), Marx summarized his view of the relationship between technology and society concisely with the following words: "The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill, society with the industrial capitalist" (Marx, 1982: 109).