General

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SOSC 111 - Science Technology and Society
Today More tools for analysis, including
Sustainable Development Week 6, October 5,
1998 Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM http//www-ieem.ust.
hk/dfaculty/duffy/111 email vduffy_at_ust.hk
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administrative

• For those who did oral presentation, please leave
  a copy of your slides for me (sometime this week
  after the holidays)
• note Monday, 5th evening -holiday
• this affects section 3
• as agreed in class, lecture for section 3 will be
  held at 12noon on Monday
• 6people will go to either lecture 1 or lecture 3
• all others are expected to attend at 12 noon
• venue 4480

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First Two more tools for analysis

• Path dependence
• Technological momentum
• then...a look at two old tools in a new way
• consider complimentary technologies and
  technological interdependence
• consider...what is one problem related to
  complimentary technologies?
• Finally, a discussion about sustainable
  development

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Why do we have the arrangement of keys on the
keyboard (for computers) that we have today?

• QWERTY

Why?
QWERTY UIOP ASDFG HJKL ZXCVB NM,./
Why not?
KLMNO PQRST ABCDE VWX FGHIJ YZ,./
Why not?
AEIOU Y
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picture of typewriter
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Why do we have the keyboard we have today?

• QWERTY keyboard for computers
• People were already familiar with typing that
  way.
• A product of technological decisions of the past
• The technological decisions of today affect
  technological decisions of tomorrow
• What do we call this?
• Path Dependence
• Q.1 What is an example of path dependence?

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Technological momentum

• Q.2. What is an example of technological
  momentum?
• Many times we have the opportunity/choice to
  change technology, but we choose the same
  technology anyway.
• Built into our biases or interests
• eg. If diesel fuel company was a big sponsor for
  the community chest (sponsor for sporting
  events), we might not want to change to LPG
  because of interests (for reasons other than the
  technology or other than pollution)
• can be money/political reasons

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Another example

• windows 98, do we have to choose it?
• If we buy a new PC we do
• because microsoft makes so many of the products
  (compatibility). Their large market share limits
  our choices to some extent.
• You might not even take a free operating system
  if it is offered to you because of the chance it
  may not work the same with your MS-Word or
  Powerpoint
• your choices related to internet browsers may
  become limited in the future for similar reasons
  of money/power/influence/bias rather than the
  effectiveness of the technology

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• these seem a bit similar right? (technological
  momentum and path dependence, right?
• what is the difference between path dependence
  and momentum?
• technological momentum - our choices are not due
  to technology, but due to other things
• path dependence - technology choice depends on
  other past technologies used

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• ...a look at two old tools in a new way
• consider complimentary technologies and
  technological interdependence
• consider...what is one problem related to
  complimentary technologies?

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Problems of complementary technologies (related
to technological interdependence)

• Technological Interdependence
• Technologies depend on other technologies for
  their use.
• example automobile
• roads and bridges, traffic signals
• Complementary technolgies
• Technologies that can be used with each other but
  do not require one another
• together they complement (enhance) the other

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Questions of the Day

• Previously Can you give an example of
  complimentary technologies?
• Q.3 What is a one problem that can occur because
  of complemenary technologies? (related to
  technological interdependence)

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insert figure of bridge here

• See article bridge crash alert SCMP, March 97
• what happens if the bridge is collapsed due to a
  crash?
• .what would happen at the airport?

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Questions of the Day

• Q.3 What is a one problem that can occur because
  of complemenary technologies? (related to
  technological interdependence)
• if there was a problem with the Tsing Ma Bridge,
  there would be a slowdown of airtraffic, people
  would miss their flight, buses stuck on the
  bridge, etc.

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Questions of the Day

• Q.3 What is a one problem that can occur because
  of complemenary technologies? (related to
  technological interdependence)
• similarlywhat if bus drivers went on strike and
  decided not to drive on day? MTR riders would
  suffer because they have come to depend on the
  bus.

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Questions of the Day

• Q.3 What is a one problem that can occur because
  of complemenary technologies? (related to
  technological interdependence)
• How are these examples of problems with
  complimentary technologies related to
  technological interdependence?
• Note the bridge doesnt need the airport to
  function and theairport doesnt need the bridge
• However, when the technologies are used to the
  extent that we rely (depend) on them in our daily
  routine, then the effects of a problem (with one
  complimentary technology) can be similar to that
  of technological interdependence

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Economic growth What is it?

• Measured by Gross National Product
• sum of all personal and governmentt expenditures
  on goods and services in a country, including the
  value of net exports.
• What has come with it?
• industrialization, and concentration of
  population in the cities, increased energy
  consumption and environmental side-effects
• Why do we need it?
• Are we just greedy and want more

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insert population graph

• recall?

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Implications of population growth

• In article
• increase H.K. Population expected
• more than 8 Million people by 2011
• Increased need for
• housing, roads, sewers and water mains
• extended water and waste treatment
• extensions to hospitals, fire stations
• new schools, , libraries
• shopping centers, karaoke
• Environmental implications?

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Environmental impact?

• recall
• acid rain
• deforestation
• air pollution in cities
• london killer fog
• fish in Patten Lake

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Tradeoffs - with improvements come some problems
as well

• Recallin meeting the basic needs of the growing
  population.
• Increased pesticides -
• increased agriculture output
• increased side effects to lakes, streams, etc.
• Increased autos, trucks -
• increased efficiency of transport of goods
• increased air pollution, etc.

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What about Hong Kong? Elsewhere?

• HKsee article
• A grim outlook for our ecology
• potential loss of habitat and destruction of
  fragile ecosystems would be.considerable
• Elsewheretrouble too
• attempt to get solutions
• United Nations meeting in 1992 in Rio de Janiero
• focus on international policy to manage the
  environment

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Question of the day

• Q.4. Sustainable development. What is it? How can
  we measure it?

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Sustainable Development What is it?

• term defined in 1987 by
• World Commission for Economic Development
• Development that meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the future
• or meet the needs of today without compromising
  the ability of future generations to meet their
  own needs
• How can we measure it?

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Measuring Sustainable development

• recall Economic Growth?
• Measured by Gross National Product
• sum of all personal and govt expenditures on
  goods and services in a country, including the
  value of net exports.
• One way to measure Sustainable development
• Gross environment improvement-
• as a component of GNP that includes
• the costs of environmental improvments needed to
  restore the environment
• such as reforestation, or pollution control
  measures
• eg. Costs of IS0 14000

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What does it mean for us as engineers?

• Previously
• engineers, scientists business
• were held to principles of efficiency,
  productivity, profitability, and other economic
  criteria
• now/future
• Challenged to include concerns about
• health and environmental impacts, resource and
  energy consumption, conservation, waste
  management, unemployment

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Exam

• review next Wednesday October 7
• exam Friday October 9
• format multiple choice and short answer
• a sample exam is on the www homepage
• readings
• See tutorial 9 for discussion of sustainable
  development tutorial 7 momentum and path
  dependency
• handout in class - grim outlook for our
  ecology, bridge crash alert from SCMP and 1
  page on sustainable development

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