C.S. Lewis on How Technology Can Be an Idolatry

C. S. Lewis:

There is something which unites magic and applied science [=technology] while separating both from the “wisdom” of earlier ages.

For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue.

For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men; the solution is a technique.

—The Abolition of Man (reprint: New York: HarperOne, 2001), p. 77; my emphasis.