This is a footnote to my paper "Is Technology Out of Control?" I'd be pleased to hear your comments (email: horsch@cs.usask.ca).
I'm not sure I want to distance myself from this seemingly non-sensical position either. Perhaps my term control is better described by the word constrain. A constraint can be externally imposed, without asserting anything about agency.
I do, however, want to distance myself from any appearance of "conspiracy theorizing." If constraints are being imposed, or if something or someone is exercising control, then it is no more a conspiracy than the deliberate attempts by marketers to influence the consumer's spending habits: it's understood as a business strategy. In the same way, if there are externally imposed constraints, then these arise naturally from the context of current power structures.
The issue of agency notwithstanding, the fundamental question remains: Is this the way we really want to live?