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這個體系的存在不是為了滿足人的需求，也不能滿足人的需求，反而是人的行為必須要改造以符合這個體系的需要。這和那些看似引導這個技術體系的政治或社會意識形態無關，而是技術的錯，因為這個體系是由技術需求所引導，而非意識形態。[18] 當然，這體系確實滿足許多人的需求，但一般來說，只有在對這個體系有益時才會如此。最重要的是這個體系的需求，而非人類的需求。舉例來說，這體系提供人們食物是因為如果每個人都挨餓的話這體系就不能運作了；如果方便的話，這體系照顧人們的心理需求，因為如果太多人變得抑鬱或反叛的話這體系就不能運作了。但這體系有很好的、很堅實的、很實際的理由必須不斷地施加人們壓力形塑他們的行為以符合體系的需要。太多廢棄物堆積？政府、媒體、教育系統、環保份子，所有人開始瘋狂大量宣傳要資源回收。需要更多技術員？大家大聲疾呼勸戒小孩去學科學。沒有人停下腳步問問強迫青少年花費大半時間學習他們大多數人討厭的科目是否不人道。當技術工因為技術進步失業而必須要被「重新訓練」時，沒有人問被這樣擺布是否很令人羞辱。每個人都必須屈就於技術需求已被視為是理所當然，而且這麼做有很好的原因：如果人的需求被放在技術的需求之前的話，經濟會出問題、失業、短缺或更糟的情況。「心理健康」的概念在我們的社會很大程度由一個體符合這個體系需求的程度，而且對此沒有顯現有壓力的徵象來界定。
[18] 「今日，在技術先進的土地上，即便地理、宗教以及政治的不同，人們過著極為相似的生活。芝加哥的一個基督教徒銀行職員、東京的一個佛教銀行職員和莫斯科的一個共產主義銀行職員的日常生活之間比起一千年前如他們般的不同人的日常生活之間更相似。如此的相似是共同技術造成的結果……」L. Sprague de Camp，The Ancient Engineers，Ballantine 版本，第 17 頁。
這三位銀行職員的生活不是完全相同的。意識形態確實有一些影響。但所有技術社會為了生存，必須以大致上相同的軌跡演變。
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The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead, it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system. This has nothing to do with the political or social ideology that may pretend to guide the technological system. It is the fault of technology, because the system is guided not by ideology but by technical necessity. [18] Of course the system does satisfy many human needs, but generally speaking it does this only to the extend that it is to the advantage of the system to do it. It is the needs of the system that are paramount, not those of the human being. For example, the system provides people with food because the system couldn’t function if everyone starved; it attends to people’s psychological needs whenever it can CONVENIENTLY do so, because it couldn’t function if too many people became depressed or rebellious. But the system, for good, solid, practical reasons, must exert constant pressure on people to mold their behavior to the needs of the system. To much waste accumulating? The government, the media, the educational system, environmentalists, everyone inundates us with a mass of propaganda about recycling. Need more technical personnel? A chorus of voices exhorts kids to study science. No one stops to ask whether it is inhumane to force adolescents to spend the bulk of their time studying subjects most of them hate. When skilled workers are put out of a job by technical advances and have to undergo “retraining,” no one asks whether it is humiliating for them to be pushed around in this way. It is simply taken for granted that everyone must bow to technical necessity. and for good reason: If human needs were put before technical necessity there would be economic problems, unemployment, shortages or worse. The concept of “mental health” in our society is defined largely by the extent to which an individual behaves in accord with the needs of the system and does so without showing signs of stress.
[18] “Today, in technologically advanced lands, men live very similar lives in spite of geographical, religious, and political differences. The daily lives of a Christian bank clerk in Chicago, a Buddhist bank clerk in Tokyo, and a Communist bank clerk in Moscow are far more alike than the life of any one of them is like that of any single man who lived a thousand years ago. These similarities are the result of a common technology….” L. Sprague de Camp, “The Ancient Engineers,” Ballantine edition, page 17.
The lives of the three bank clerks are not IDENTICAL. Ideology does have SOME effect. But all technological societies, in order to survive, must evolve along APPROXIMATELY the same trajectory.