Techne de jure

The purpose of this dissertation is to reinterpret the concept of technological legislation as expressed in Langdon Winner's (1977) Autonomous Technology: Technics-Out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought. Though Winner's work is often cited by scholars focused on matters of technology and culture, and the concept of technological legislation often alluded to, the notion has seldom been treated to an extended and thorough reading. This dissertation strives fill this gap in the literature by (i) performing a close, positive and constructive reading of the most relevant portions of Autonomous Technology and (ii) then applying the derived interpretation as a probe in examining three domains heavily inflected by modern technological artifacts: twentieth century United States Supreme Court doctrines bearing on the conflicts between sense-enhancing technologies of surveillance and Fourth Amendment privacy; the formative dynamics in the realm of the emerging domestic nanotechnoscience community; and black political thought at the nexus of race and technology. The concept of technological legislation is used to reveal the technopolitical qualities of each domain, as well as the common ground of modern homelessness shared and expressed within each of them.