Determinism

The reading over the weekend by Slack and Wise were very interesting over the weekend. They talk about technological determinism, which is the theory of how technology controls the way our culture works. I would say that that is completely true, but there is something else that is talked about which is called cultural determinism. Cultural determinism is the idea that our culture decides which technologies are necessary and must be created. An example of this is when there was a need to heat bread and create toast, someone came up with the idea for a toaster. Or when people wanted to communicate faster, with the help of the internet, e-mail was created. Technologies like the automobile certainly changed the way the world worked but without a need to travel farther distances faster, the auto would never have been created. 
Technology can act as either totally separate entities or as extensions of our bodies at the same time. Technology isn't a part of us physically yet we have grown a dependence on it as if it were an everyday tool that is necessary for our survival. Technology is always made to supplement what we were born with, such as arms, legs, and fingers. It allows us to do things that we would normally not be able to do if we did not have anything. It allows us to be in constant communication with others, it can be used to navigate, and to even to war against other humans. Obviously someone with a gun with be able to easily either subdue or kill someone unarmed. As a separate entity on its own, technology is utterly useless. Without someone to use it or to command its action, then it is just a lifeless object. The reason these technologies are not lifeless is because of the demand to keep society in motion and productive. This fuels the argument for determinism, the question is does culture drive advancement in technology? Or does technology drive advancement in culture?