Man vs. technology is a type of external conflict in which a character struggles against machines, systems, or technological forces. The opponent is human-made yet has escaped ordinary human control.

Stories of artificial intelligence, runaway automation, surveillance systems, and technological catastrophe explore this conflict. The protagonist may fight to retain autonomy, to prevent disaster, or to reclaim a more human scale of life. The conflict often raises ethical questions about creation, responsibility, and the unintended consequences of invention. Resolution can range from the destruction of the threatening technology to a new, uneasy partnership with it.

Man vs. technology has grown more prominent as technological power has increased. It overlaps with man vs. society when the technology is embedded in social systems, and with man vs. self when the struggle is over dependence or identity. The genre of science fiction has been the primary vehicle, yet realistic fiction also addresses technological pressures.

When the chief adversary is a machine or a technological system, the conflict is man versus technology.