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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Foreword | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Technology and Its Limitations | |
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| The Inherent Unavoidability and Unpredictability of Unintended Consequences | |
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| Interconnectedness | |
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| Human Improvement upon Nature | |
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| Unavoidable Negative Effects of Technology | |
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| Irreversible Consequences | |
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| The Limitations of Reductionism | |
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| When Things Bite Back: Some Unintended Consequences of Modern Technology | |
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| Unintended Environmental Consequences | |
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| Unintended Consequences of Industrialized Agriculture | |
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| Unintended Side Effects of Genetic Engineering | |
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| Unintended Consequences of the Automobile | |
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| Intended and Unintended Consequences of High-Technology Welfare | |
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| Unintended Consequences of High-Tech Medicine | |
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| Unintended Consequences of Technological Revolutions | |
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| The Decline in Fitness of Future Generations | |
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| Technology, Exploitation and Fairness | |
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| Technology and Exploitation | |
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| Technological Exploitation of Nature | |
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| Human Domination of Nature | |
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| Machines and the Control and Exploitation of Workers | |
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| Television: A Powerful Tool for Social Control and Manipulation | |
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| Military Technologies | |
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| In Search of Solutions I: Counter-Technologies and Social Fixes | |
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| Counter-Technologies | |
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| Social Fixes | |
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| Environmental Counter-Technologies | |
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| Military Counter-Technologies | |
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| Medical Counter-Technologies | |
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| Unintended Consequences of Counter-Technologies and Social Fixes | |
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| In Search of Solutions II: Efficiency Improvements | |
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| Technological Progress and Rising Material Affluence | |
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| Efficiency Improvements and Limited Resources | |
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| Inherent Limits to Efficiency Improvements | |
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| Unintended Consequences of Efficiency Solutions | |
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| Sustainability or Collapse? | |
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| Sustainable Development and Eco-Efficiency | |
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| Three Conditions for Long-term Sustainability | |
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| Challenge #1: Serious Environmental Impacts of Large-Scale Renewable Energy Generation | |
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| Challenge #2: Replacement of Non-Renewable Materials with Renewable Substitutes | |
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| Challenge #3: Complete Recycling of Non-Renewable Materials and Wastes | |
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| Sustainability or Collapse? | |
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| The Uncritical Acceptance of Technology | |
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| Technological Optimism and Belief in Progress | |
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| Belief Progress: A Brief History | |
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| Comparison of Belief in Progress to Religious Faith | |
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| Ignorance: The Basis of Most Techno-Optimism | |
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| Medical Techno-Optimism | |
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| Techno-Optimism and the Mass Media | |
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| The Decline of Techno-Optimism | |
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| The Positive Biases of Technology Assessments and Cost-Benefit Analyses | |
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| An Overview of Cost-Benefit Analysis | |
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| Problem #1: Boundary Selection and Externalization of Costs | |
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| Problem #2: Prediction of Potential Impacts and Selection of Appropriate Indicators | |
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| Problem #3: Institutional Biases and the Perception of Costs and Benefits | |
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| Problem #4: Monetization of Non-Market Values | |
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| Problem #5: The Ethics of Cost-Benefit Analyses | |
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| The Uncritical Adoption of the Automobile | |
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| The Hidden Costs of Biofuels | |
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| Limited Testing of the Effectiveness of Medical Therapies | |
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| Gross Domestic Product (GDP): A Biased Indicator of Economic Progress | |
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| Happiness | |
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| Technological Innovation, Consumerism and Materialism | |
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| Material Affluence and Happiness | |
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| Explaining the Paradox | |
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| Sources of Happiness | |
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| The Destruction of Traditional Sources of Happiness | |
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| The Uncritical Acceptance of New Technologies | |
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| The Myth of Value-Neutrality | |
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| The Myth of Autonomous Technology | |
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| The Technological Imperative | |
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| Technological Dependency and Loss of Freedom | |
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| The Undemocratic Control of Technology | |
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| Profit Motive: The Main Driver of Technological Development | |
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| Technological Development as a Social Process | |
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| Understanding the Meaning of Profit | |
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| Profit Maximization and the Development of New Technologies | |
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| Profit Maximization: Agriculture and Food | |
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| Profit Maximization: Medical Care | |
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| Profit Maximization: Military Technologies and Foreign Policy | |
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| The Next Scientific and Technological Revolution | |
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| The Need for a Different Worldview | |
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| The Power of Worldviews and Paradigms | |
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| Conflicting Worldviews and Paradigm Shirts | |
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| A Different View of Reality | |
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| A Different View of the Economy | |
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| A Different View of Science and Technology | |
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| A Different View of Medicine | |
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| The Need for Increased Awareness | |
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| The Design of Environmentally Sustainable and Socially Appropriate Technologies | |
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| Design Criteria for Environmental Sustainability | |
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| Design Criteria for Social Appropriateness | |
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| The Prevention of Unintended Consequences | |
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| The Democratic Control of Technology | |
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| Local Organic Agriculture: A Model of Environmentally Sustainable and Socially Appropriate Technology | |
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| Critical Science and Social Responsibility | |
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| The Myth of Value-Neutrality | |
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| A New, Critical Science | |
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| The Question of Responsibility | |
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| The Problem of Professionalism | |
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| The Need for Comprehensive Professional Ethics | |
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| Toward a Critical Science and Engineering | |
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| For Further Thought | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| End Notes | |
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| Index | |
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| About the Authors | |