Next Exit: Drift Culture

If the profound and enduring influence of the work of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and George Grant allows us to assert that there exists a distinctive “Canadian discourse on technology” (Kroker 1984), then surely Arthur Kroker is to be regarded as one of the leading contemporary exponents of this line of thought. Claiming that this project involves theorizing a middle way between an unbridled American technological imperative and a nostalgic European lament for that which has been suppressed by the technological will to power, Kroker focuses his own research effort on rearticulating a Canadian critical theory of technology that takes full account of the accelerating pace of technological change brought about by the digital revolution. This is an urgent task, because perhaps nothing characterizes the present era more than its insatiable drive for accelerated technological innovation. Each new day brings technological advances...