Indeed, a little digging revealed that the original Luddites weren't specifically opposed to technology, but to the social changes that concentrations of capital, aided and abetted by the first steam-powered devices, were bringing to their lives. A crucial turning point comes when one is able to acknowledge that modern technics, much more than politics as conventionally understood, now legislates the conditions of human existence. New technologies are institutionalized structures within an existing constitution that gives shape to a new polity, the technopolis in which we do increasingly live. For the most part, this constitution still evolves with little public scrutiny or debate. In other words, Winner is saying that technology, and the way it shapes our lives, is not an autonomous force.
Humans have the power to influence the direction technologies take.
It's just that we don't exercise that power. In that regard, we are indeed sleepwalkers. I can't conceive of a more crucial task. If you are looking for something to do with your life, and your main goal is not to achieve fame or fortune, you could do no better than to address these questions. Like millions of other aging baby-boomers, the evolution of technology isn't just something I study, it's the backdrop of my life.