The Evolution of Global Technological Systems and Industrial Civilization

The history of twentieth-century technology demonstrates the rise of great technological systems and their convergence to form contemporary industrial civilization. The globalizing transformations underway are sustained by interlocked technical and social systems that transcend regional confines. For instance, the automobile industry became synergistically connected to aviation, rubber and glass production, labor relations, and global trade networks. As shown in Figure 1, depicting global automotive supply chains, manufacturing now spans numerous countries beyond the early-adopting regions of Western Europe and North America. Similarly, hydroelectric power production and distribution, along with ubiquitous consumer symbols like Coke and McDonald’s, illustrate how diverse technologies, embedded within varied social frameworks, coalesced into a global culture by the century’s end.

To comprehend the scale of this global socio-industrial system, one may contrast the automobile with the eighteenth-century steam engine system. The steam engine primarily powered niche industries like ironworks and coal mining, affecting a limited demographic within few nations. In stark contrast, the automobile has directly transformed lives across advanced industrial nations and indirectly impacted all global citizens. Components for a single vehicle are manufactured worldwide, designed under international safety and environmental regulations, and utilized on road systems marked by uniform international icons. The Ford Motor Company, as the global sales leader, epitomizes this worldwide integration.

A historical perspective raises the question: did globalization originate with humanity’s prehistoric dispersal? While intercultural awareness and exchange, such as Chinese silk in ancient Rome, have long existed, modern globalization as a coherent phenomenon began in the fifteenth century with Portuguese and Spanish extra-European expansion. This process accelerated through subsequent centuries via merchant and slave traders, colonists, and imperialists. Nineteenth-century technologies like the railroad, steamboat, and telegraph propelled these nascent forces, setting the stage for the dramatic accelerations of the twentieth century.

The rise of industrial civilization, akin to the Neolithic Revolution and Urban Bronze Age transitions, introduced new efficiencies and dramatic production increases, triggering an unprecedented population explosion. World population, around 760 million in 1750, reached one billion circa 1800 and leapt to 1.6 billion by 1900. Following 1950, growth accelerated sharply, nearing 6.5 billion by 2004, with annual increases of approximately 85 million. Projections for 2050 range from 9 to 12 billion. Notably, this growth is concentrated almost entirely in less developed countries, while populations in more developed countries remain stable or decline, as seen in Japan and Italy, despite their high resource consumption.

Urbanization serves as another critical indicator of industrial civilization. The global urban population share was merely 15% in 1900, doubled to 30% by 1950, and surged to 45% by 1990, surpassing the 50% threshold in 2004. Nations like Germany achieved 50% urbanization by 1900, with the United States and France following by 1920. By 2000, 75% of the population in developed nations resided in cities. As illustrated in Figure 2, the largest urban agglomerations in 2001 included Tokyo (26.5 million), Sao Paulo (18.3 million), and Mexico City (18.3 million). Future population growth is predicted to be overwhelmingly urban, focusing on mega-cities in less developed regions.

However, innovation drives not only technical progress but also technical decay, often fueling nostalgia. The automobile supplanted not merely the horse but also contributed to the decline of small communities and urban neighborhoods. Railways, which crisscrossed the globe, fostered a culture of refined travel that dwindled with the rise of road traffic. While advanced systems demand a better-educated workforce, improvements like automated meter-reading technology render traditional jobs, such as the meter reader, obsolete. The ascent of computers and microelectronic devices precipitated the demise of tools like the typewriter and the slide rule, emblems of an earlier engineering era.

Industrial civilization possesses a decidedly dark side. Aerial bombardment, napalm, land mines, and weapons of mass destruction exist alongside environmental crises like pollution, deforestation, and global warming—all inextricably linked to the system's benefits. Technology acts as a powerful global binder, yet traditional national and socioeconomic divisions persist and may even be exacerbated by the very multivocal nature of modern technology, revealing its complex and dualistic role in shaping the human experience.