Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.10.22
What are the three typical thinking errors of technology-fixated pictures of the future?
- Extension (Verlängerung): today's trends are continued in a straight line.
- Gadget future (Gadget-Zukunft): the future appears as a product catalogue.
- Actorlessness (Akteurlosigkeit): technology simply "happens", with no one deciding.
* Each fallacy hides something, and one question brings it back *
| Error | What it looks like | What disappears from view |
|---|---|---|
| Extension (Verlängerung) | Present trends extrapolated linearly: more screens, more automation, more of the same. | Breaks, counter-movements, people repurposing technology, deliberate non-use. |
| Gadget future (Gadget-Zukunft) | Flying cars, robots, smart glasses: the future as a catalogue of devices. | Everyday life, relationships, work and power relations. |
| Actorlessness (Akteurlosigkeit) | Technology "arrives" by itself; nobody chose it. | Decisions, interests, power and regulation. |
All three come from the same root, technological determinism, and all three make the future look unchangeable. The cure is to ask what could break the trend, what changes in daily life, and who decides and who benefits.
Go deeper:
Cachelins Wissensfabrik: Falsche Zukünfte — why simplified, flashy futures persist even when they are wrong (German).- Wikipedia: Technological utopianism — the belief that technology alone delivers the good future, and its critics.