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MIT271b: Technology
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Taken from a list of study questions distributed in advance. ONTOLOGY: What is technology? ... Steam engine, then gasoline-driven combustion engine ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation
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Title: MIT271b: Technology
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MIT271bTechnology Human Values
- January 15, 2002
- Invention and Luddism
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Administration
- Essay option
- one longer essay (7-10pp. 40)
- instead of the two short essays
- (2-3pp. 10 5-7pp. 30)
- Tests not multiple choice
- Long answer
- Taken from a list of study questions distributed
in advance
3
ONTOLOGYWhat is technology?
- Contrast with nature
- Means to an end / purposeful / functional having
a purpose, end, or value for which it is intended
or used - Most generally intended and used to increase
freedom and power
4
Children of Inventionby Morton Winston
- Technology creates new opportunities for human
flourishing and new ways of life, which in turn
create new social and ethical problems (children
of invention) - We will also be considering aesthetic and
epistemological problems raised by technology
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The Scope of Technology
- End-product artifacts
- Tools machines and processes
- Agents scientists, engineers and technicians
- Social support purposeful organization
- Technology df the organization of knowledge,
people and things to accomplish specific
practical goals
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Technological systems consist of
- Human activity form techniques and practices
- Resources, tools materials
- Artifacts
- Ends/ functions/ valences
- Background knowledge and skills
- Social organization
- NOTE 4 5 provide background to the 4 elements
of the scope of technology
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1. Human activity form
- Use of natural objects or tools
- Procedural knowledge or know-how
- Increases human capacities and powers
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2. Resource well
- Original states or natural states that are acted
upon - Includes the built environment or physical
infrastructure
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3. Artifacts
- Interaction effect artifacts may act as tools
and resources for further technology
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4. Valences (VALUES)
- Typical or intended uses
- May be independent of actual use of a particular
item - Generally INSTRUMENTAL VALUE, serving human needs
and desires
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5. Knowledge and skills
- Necessary background
- About the other aspects
- Resources
- Techniques
- Valences
- Social systems
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6. Social context
- For development, distribution and employment of
technologies - Includes social artifacts institutions that
divide and coordinate labour - Sophisticated cognitive techniques
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Technological Revolutions
- From hunter-gatherer societies requiring only
simple portable technologies for - Shelter
- Hunting
- Gathering
- Cooking
- Transportation
- Defense
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Agricultural Revolution8000 BC
- Allowed settled, communities (civilization)
- Advantages
- More food, so greater population density
- Greater population density allowed for
coordinated efforts and specialized skills - No need for portability
- Disadvantages
- More work to maintain higher, more complex
standard of living - Emergence of morality, law, religion, records,
mathematics, astronomy, class structures,
patriarchy
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Industrial Revolution1700s
- Steam engine, then gasoline-driven combustion
engine - More specialized division of labour and of
knowledge each worker needed fewer skills - Less expensive goods, so increased standard of
living - Infrastructure for transportation
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Luddites standard view
- English workers in 1811-1816, protested the
changes of the Industrial Revolution that they
felt threatened their jobs - Often destroyed machines.
17
Ned Ludd
- Perhaps fictional Man who destroyed two large
stocking-frames that produced inexpensive
stockings undercutting those produced by skilled
knitters. Because he was feeble-minded, he was
not prosecuted. - A.k.a "King Ludd and General Ludd referred to
by luddites (to avoid prosecution?).
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Luddites other views
- Opposition may not have been to technological
change, but to the free market luddites wanted
to protect their skills and livelihoods - NOW luddite and luddism refer to anyone who
opposes industrial technology, or technology more
generally - E.g. Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, including
bomb sent to Yale computer scientist David
Gelernter
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Knowledge Revolution20th century
- Better record keeping and communication
- Flexible, programmable tools allow more
customized short production runs, so supply can
more accurately follow demand - Better scheduling and inventory control provides
basis for geographically distributed production
systems (globalization) - Increased need for specialized education
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Kaczynski 3 possibilities
- 1. The human race might easily permit itself to
drift into a position of such dependence on the
machines that it would have no practical choice
but to accept all of the machines decisions. As
society and the problems that fact it become more
and more complex and machines become more and
more intelligent, people will let machines make
more of their decisions for them, simply because
machine-made decisions will bring better results
than man-made ones.
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- Eventually, a stage may be reached at which the
decisions necessary to keep the system running
will be so complex that human beings will be
incapable of making them intelligently. - 2. A tiny elite will eliminate the rest of
humanity. - 3. A tiny elite will engineer a purposeless and
therefore harmless humanity, like domesticated
animals.
22
Ray Kurzweil The New Luddite Challenge
- New jobs are on a higher level and increasingly
involved with education - Need a viable alternative to the nightmare
envisioned by luddites such as Kaczynski - Cant drop technologythere is too little nature
left to return to - Education will reach a human limit, but will be
human competence will be extended by merging with
the technology
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Evaluating Technology
- Different forms of value and relations to
intrinsic value reveal how complicated it is to
assess the value of technology - These distinctions may nevertheless help clarify
the conflicts among the various costs and
benefits of technology.
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EPISTEMOLOGYTechnology Science
- TRADITIONAL VIEW
- Science pure, value-free pursuit of knowledge
- Technology matter of arts and crafts
- MODERN/ENLIGHTENMENT VIEW
- Empirical investigation as a means to knowledge,
aided by technology - Development of technology aided by scientific
education - Science systematic empirical inquiry
- Technology production of functional objects and
systems
25
AESTHETICSTechnology Beauty
- Improved standards of living can include more
leisure time, better access to recreation and
pleasant experiences - Greater ease of performing tasks itself is a type
of beauty
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ETHICSTechnology and Morality
- With power comes responsibility, and a new range
of choices about how we live our lives - Immediate questions raised by biotechnology
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4 kinds of ethical concerns arising from
technology
- Whether and how new technologies should be used
(esp. medical) - Aggregate responsibility (e.g. pollution,
depletion of resources) - Distributive justice certain groups alone may
be advantaged - Changing relationship to nature and other animals
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5 characteristics of technological dangers
- Result of aggregate action
- Not direct harms, but increased risks that are
hard to detect - Impact far into the future
- Affect not only humans but other forms of life
and the environment - Affect no particular communities, but all of
humanity.
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