Technological fix

A technological fix, technical fix, technological shortcut or (techno-)solutionism is an attempt to use engineering or technology to solve a problem (often created by earlier technological interventions). The term “technological fix” was coined in the mid-1960s and popularized by the American physicist Alvin Weinberg, who defined it as "a means for resolving a societal problem by adroit use of technology and with little or no alteration of social behavior.”

Some references consider that technological fixes are inevitable in modern technology, since it has been observed that many technologies, although invented and developed to solve certain perceived problems, often create other problems in the process, known as externalities. In this regard, technological fixes are viewed as an "attempt to repair the harm of a technology by modification of the system", that might involve modification of the machine and/or modification of the procedures for operating and maintaining it. In other words, there would be modification of the basic hardware, modification of techniques and procedures, or both.

The technological fix is the idea that all problems can find solutions in better and new technologies. It now is used as a dismissive phrase to describe cheap, quick fixes by using inappropriate technologies; these fixes often create more problems than they solve or give people a sense that they have solved the problem.