The Mythology of Inevitable Progress
The mythology of inevitable progress is the narrative structure through which specific, contestable, institutionally-authored technological choices are presented as natural outcomes of a historical process that cannot be redirected without sacrificing progress itself. The mythology operates as a political instrument: by framing technological trajectories as inevitable, it forecloses the question of alternative designs and places the distributional consequences of actually-existing technology beyond meaningful contestation. Noble's entire career was devoted to dismantling this mythology, and the dismantling requires a specific intellectual move — the recovery of the alternatives that the mythology buries.
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The mythology has a characteristic three-act structure that Noble documented across multiple technological transitions. First, the new technology is presented as inevitable — the natural next step in progression that cannot be halted without sacrificing progress. Second, the costs of the transition are acknowledged but subordinated to the benefits — yes, some workers will be displaced, but the economy will grow,