techno-fundamentalism

noun

A body of beliefs that places unwavering faith in the power of technology to solve all societal problems and advance human progress.

First used 1990s

Meanings

nountechno-fundamentalism (usually uncountable, plural techno-fundamentalisms)

plural techno-fundamentalisms

  1. uncountableusuallyA body of beliefs that places unwavering faith in the power of technology to solve all societal problems and advance human progress.First known use 1990s

    Instead of solutionism and techno-fundamentalism, we need to carefully explore the terms on which problems and solutions are made.

    2019, Daniel Neyland, Vera Ehrenstein, Sveta Milyaeva, Can Markets Solve Problems?: An Empirical Inquiry into Neoliberalism in Action, Goldsmiths Press, page 267
    5 more examples

    Virilio argues thar the latest and most pervasive form of technology as ideology is techno-fundamentalism. Such fundamentalism is, for Virilio, merely a furtherance of the scientific will to power, but one that begins to become the dominant frame through which our existence is measured.

    2003, Simon Cooper, Technoculture and Critical Theory: In the Service of the Machine?, Taylor & Francis, page 116

    I'm afraid your techno-fundamentalism is as mindless and as full of evil potential as Christian fundamentalism (or Islamic fundamentalism, etc.)

    2008 January 15, spinoza1111, “A note on computing thugs and coding bums”, in comp.programming (Usenet)

    They call it "techno-fundamentalism" because there's no reason to believe we will necessary find technology to solve all our problems in time to prevent disasters. There's only faith in the potential of technology.

    2008 February 18, Deidzoeb, “Support or reject this new form of religion, logically, if you can:”, in Atheism vs Christianity (Google Groups)

    Techno-fundamentalism assumes not only the means and will to triumph over adversity through gadgets and schemes but also the sense that invention is the best of all possible methods of confronting problems.

    2012, Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything: (And Why We Should Worry), University of California Press, page 76

    However, in 2011 Say Chan found that something interesting had started to happen to OLPC’s XO laptop in Peru. In the rural region of Puno, locals recognized the deep techno-fundamentalism of its “air drop” deployment model, noting that “when they arrived, there was no option [other than to accept them]” (2014).

    2017, Kat Braybrooke, Tim Jordan, “Genealogy, Culture and Technomyth: Decolonizing Western Information Technologies, from Open Source to the Maker Movement”, in Digital Culture & Society, volume 3, number 1, →DOI, page 34

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

techno-fundamentalism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/techno-fundamentalism

MLA

“techno-fundamentalism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/techno-fundamentalism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “techno-fundamentalism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/techno-fundamentalism.

Source: techno-fundamentalism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.