Mumford in Knowledge Among Men defines the 'megamachine' as a self-propelled entity composed of all machines including humans, the most adaptable machines that can also produce machines. Humans still remain a necessity to the megamachine, but as some fear, robotics may take the place of humans, ejecting humanity so as to increase the efficieny of the machine. The purpose of this machine, if there is one, is not clear and seems to be limited to self-preservation.
After reading Mumford's selection and Fritz Lang's Metropolis, as well as the Japanese loose-adaption of the movie*, I came to a realization that the near-miraculous medical technology I dissuced of in my last post may actually be only a part of the bigger picture--Mumford's megamachine. What does medical tech do? It heals humans and cures them of biological diseases. Are not humans part of this machine, if not at least machines themselves? If so, health technology is only maintenance of the machinery of humanity. In this manner, medical technology is also part of Mumford's megamachine.
Human "maintenance," however, is not limited to biology, but also encompasses psychology. In Mumford's essay, he explained entertainment, role-play, and fantasy to be a method of keeping humanity sane from the constant, specialized jobs given them. Given that entertainment would be maintenance of human workers, would entertainment itself not be part of the megamachine if the above logic is taken as true? Entertainment takes up a considerable portion of society and its economy and includes many forms of media from television and movies to music and art to video games of which the average gamer is 37 years old according to an ESA report.
Given that work and entertainment (or simply play) are part of the megamachine, are humans completely engulfed by this machine? We may be seperable from the machine, but we may not be able to function without it. I fear technology is integrated into humanity. Our only option then would be to limit its scope of reality (if such a thing can be done). However, a single part of a machine can stop the machine in whole such as a plane's trim tab that appears to have been the cause of a P-51 stunt plane's failure, which ended in the death of the pilot and spectators (the elevator of the P-51 was missing it in a picture before the crash).
* The Japanese Metropolis lacks the same characters and plot, but keeps the setting relatively intact and presents robots as replacing human workers, leaving them in even worse condition then had they been working.
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