(Up to: Problematic World Social Constructivism )

The idea that the technology "we" build inherently contains the context, culture, values and history of "our"selves, just as the history of a race can be traced back through its genes, or the diffusion of tectonic plates can be estimated by inspecting rocks and fossils.

Here's an example: The developed world has built global electronic communications, but why? To cut down on the need to move people around, which grew out of increased global movement around the industrialising era. Undersea cables, for example, helped the Victorians to command the British Empire without sending ships. We don't have the Internet by chance - it's very nature is based on our migratory background, and our communication needs (mostly for warfare).

This means that any given technology cannot simply be supplanted into an alternative culture without adaptation. The extent to which it can be is discussed in Problematic World.