ENGR 101/HUM 200 Technology and Society

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ENGR 101/HUM 200Technology and Society

• September 29, 2005

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Announcements

• The Diamond Age any edition is fine
• Additional office hours tomorrow Prof. Kolko
  from 300-430 in EGA 213 for any questions about
  the paper
• Note-takers needed contact Disability Resources
  for Students Schmitz Hall, 448 543-8924
  uwdss_at_u.washington.edu

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Reflection Paper

• Due Monday October 3
• Length one page (single-spaced)
• Due at the beginning of class

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Technology Ranking Results
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What do engineers do?

• Deal with tangible objects
• Wheels, bricks, strings
• Deal with elements of air, fire, water, earth
• Energy, motion, heating
• Baking is engineering?!
• Mechanical mixing, controlled heating, human
  judgment synthesizing
• (More next Tuesday)

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Social Shaping of Technology

• Definitions
• Examples

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Technological Determinism

• Technologies change because of advances in
  science or because of an internal logic, and
  then
• they affect society
• In other words, the relationship of influence
  flows one way from technology to social
  relations

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Inspirational Notion of Invention

• Technological innovation is inevitable
• Springs wholly formed from flashes of inspiration
• Ignores incremental growth
• Tech innovation is creative, imaginative, and
  also dependent on seeing ways that existing
  devices can be improved (Make it Better), and
  extending scope of successful techniques

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Interpretive Flexibility

• Different social groups involved with a
  technology can have very different understandings
  of its technical characteristics and
  abilities/purposes
• Hmmmwhen do we know a machine is working? (the
  way it ought to?)
• How is your windows operating system doing?

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Technological System

• Technologies are not isolated, separate devices
• An individual technology becomes workable only
  when it is one part of a larger system (the whole
  is greater than the sum of its parts)
• Examples washing machine, missile

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Example of Technological Determinism

• Stirrups and feudal society
• Once you can fight well from a horse, then you
  need a way to support this expensive way of
  waging battle (so, must realign society to
  support elite mounted warriors)
• Hard v. soft determinism
• Changing technology is one of many factors that
  affects society political, economic, and
  cultural forces also exert influence

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Whats So Bad About TD?

• It makes for some entertaining stories
• It does focus our attention on an important and
  influential dynamic
• But
• It encourages passivity in the path of
  technological change.
• Makes us focus on how to adapt to tech, not how
  to change it
• Generally assumes that tech change is independent
  from other social factors

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Economics and Technology

• Neoclassical approach (profit above all)
• Are all economic-related motivations the same?
• Soviet factory model of production and reward
  structure

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Social Shaping of Technology is Not Simple

• Multiple influences
• Social (PC cultures)
• radical counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s
• male hobbyist culture
• educational uses of the technology
• Professional (Bridge builders)
• Finlay sought easy-to-use patentable method
• Navier wanted to show mathematical competence and
  sophistication

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Doesnt the Best Technology Win?

• Definition Path-dependence
• Histories of adoption rather than intrinsic
  wonderfulness influence the success of a
  technology
• Some debate over this
• Qwerty keyboard
• Apple OS v. DOS/Windows

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Next Class Meeting (Monday)

• Use Friday to work on paper. Meet with TA or Prof
  on Friday. Keep in mind no email on weekends.
• Read The Diamond Age (pp. 1-40).
• Paper due at the beginning of class on Monday.