PATHS TO DIGITAL MODERNITY 355
of home computers or video game consoles, opened the fl oodgates for
information society in the modern, pluralized, consumer and leisure soci-
eties that had diff erentiated themselves by this time. A new phase began
in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet and the spread of digital
mobile communications.
The Triumph of the Computer in Modern Industrial Societies
If there was one major myth about the future propagated in the twentieth
century, then it was the myth that all of a society’s problems could be
fi xed with technology. Especially in the early phase of the Nuclear and
Space Age after 1945, this myth fostered a vision of the year 2000 in
which everything would be automated. As in all other eras, the respective
state of technology primarily infl uenced the world of work, often redefi n-
ing its parameters entirely. Whenever a new wave of technology became
established, it unleashed dramatic transformations. Looking back at the
history of such technological revolutions, there always appear to be a few
recurring factors that infl uenced how and to what extent technological
innovations aff ected the societies in question.^14 In particular, the speed
at which new technology spread and the number of people aff ected by it
largely determined how extreme the ensuing changes would become.^15
Computerization noticeably aff ected all areas of life, especially work,
and the rate at which its eff ects were felt diff ered signifi cantly from other
technological innovations—for example, the spread of electricity or the
invention and production of synthetic fabrics by the chemical industry.
That said, the vision of machines (or other replacements of some kind)
that could do our work for us or at least make it easier has been a histor-
ical constant. Likewise, it has always been accompanied by expectations
and fears on the one side, and euphoric scenarios on the other.^16
Images of paperless offi ces and factories without humans have been
recurring metaphors in visions about the future of work in West Germany
since the 1960s.^17 Technology experts and entrepreneurs envisaged eu-
phoric scenarios in which the element of human error could be elimi-
nated in the production process. Volkswagen, in particular, attempted
to implement a fully automated assembly line in its famous “Halle 54”
production area in Wolfsburg.^18 This technology push fi rst appeared on
a larger scale in industrial production. Clear outlines of the attempts to
establish a fully automated factory of the future that would be devoid of
humans can be traced in the history of the automobile industry in the
United States, Japan, and Western Europe, where they often appeared
under the catchphrase “Fabrik 2000” (Factory 2000).^19