Aldo Haesler and Michelle Dobré

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/65420

### **Abstract**

Many discourses tend to consider change in techniques as the main trigger for social change and economic development. This paper proposes the original hypothesis that the development of new techniques occurs *at the end* of a long lasting societal process, not as its cause. The rising of the knowledge society since the 17th century is engaged today in what we called *the medial turn* – defined as a cultural shift through the generalized digital communication. This process is the conclusive stage in the modernization process of soci‐ eties conceived as positive-sum-game networks. Based on MacLuhan's famous idea that the "medium is the message", we address a few questions specialists and engineers are to be confronted to in the medial age.

**Keywords:** technique, engineering, digital media, knowledge society
