Literally yes. I don't understand why this is so hard to comprehend. In a pre-industrial setting, you need a catalyst for technological advancement, otherwise, technology stagnates. The prime catalyst has always been competition (if grug make enough food to feed tribe with sharp rock, grug keep using sharp rock. Why grug make new thing if old thing works?). In a post industrialsetting, this catalyst is replaced with the constant catalyst of capital and the industrial system. So external pressures are no longer necessary. Read Ellul <|endoftext|> 