AHSS*1090 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Uptodate, Clickbait, Federal Communications Commission
Week 2: Defining/History of Technology
Industrial Revolutions
1. Steam, water, mechanical production equipment
2. Division of labour, electricity, mass production
3. Electronics, IT, automated production
4. Cyber-physical systems
-Is the latest industrial revolution different? How do we deal with it?
The word “technology”
-Doesn’t enter our language until 17th century and doesn’t gain popularity until the 1930s
-Why is this word important or significant?
Why a need word might be needed
-19th century railroad represents a change
-Not just a single machine but one of the earliest, large-scale systems of the modern era
What is different about the railroad?
-Different kinds of equipment
-Corporate business organization
-Specialized technical knowledge
-Trained workforce
-Institutional changes
Things are changing
-In 19th century, we see larger systems emerge such as telegraph, electric power, water and
waste disposal
-Private family company is supplanted by corporations
-Boundaries are blurring between the actual machinery and the rest of the process
-Science becomes increasingly applied to mechanic arts
-“Technology discloses man’s mode of dealing with Nature, the process of production by which
he sustains his life, and thereby also lays bare the mode of formation of his social relations and
of the mental conceptions that flow from them.” - Karl Marx from Capitol
Technology and our Vocabulary
-The second “industrial revolution” produces inventions such as electric light, phonograph, radio,
telephone, x-ray, airplane, motion pictures, and the automobile
-These innovations were science based
-So we start to see the term technology used by the early 20th century
-Mechanic Arts: more associated with labour
-Technology: associated with book learning, scientific research and university
-Technological systems were being used to serve an economic purpose
-The term “technology” becomes more popular as corporations become more popular in U.S
-Boundaries start to blur between the artifact and other components of the system
-Reification: When we endow a human activity with the characteristics of a thing or things;
problem = conceals every trace of its fundamental nature
-We tend to talk about technologies as things. By assigning technology as a thing, it creates a
“phantom objectivity” that envelops them
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-We also invest the concept of “technology” with agency
-By treating inanimate objects as causal agents we divert attention from the human relations
responsible for the changes
-Technology makes nothing happen, but we’ve made it an all-purpose agent of change. This takes
away our decision-making obligations
Material Substance: Looking at the hardware and tools we use
-Passive approach; We make tools and use them
-Doesn’t really look at impact on society
Knowledge: Can view technology as generating a complex body of knowledge which stems from human
activity; Often in relation to an artifact of some kind;
-What are artifacts?
-Technological knowledge vs. Scientific knowledge
-Layton’s model of tech: Ideas, Design, Techniques
-How does technology become normalized within society over time?
-How does technology structure the way we work and play?
Technique: view technology as a mechanism for achieving human needs and wants through efficient
systems; An abstract concept; Human activity
Society:
-Encompasses knowledge, mechanisms, skills, geared towards controlling society
-Becomes an agent of change that can control and alter humanity
-Doesn’t allow us to study how technology intersects with society
-As we want more material goods, do we use less critical thought?
Working definition
“Technology is an assemblage of material objects, embodying and reflecting societal elements, such as
knowledge, norms and attitudes that have been shaped and structured to serve social, political, cultural
and existential purposes.” -Quan-Haase (page 9)
By using this definition:
-We can separate technology from society
-We see technology as serving social purposes
-We see technology reflecting knowledge, social norms and social structures
-We should also realize this is a simple definition of technology, but one that allows us to
take a “socio-technical perspective”
-We should remember there are many ways of looking at technology
Modern Perspectives
-Simulation: Attempts to develop technologies that can imitate the human mind and body
-Augmentation: Integrating technology with the human body to enhance or strengthen certain
capabilities or functions
Turing Test
-Alan Turing cracks the “Enigma” code used by Germany during World War II
-He is also one of the first scientists to discuss the idea of a machine that can simulate human
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abilities
-Pitting a computer against a human in an imitation game
-Computer and human are placed in separate rooms
-An interrogator can ask them anything
-For a computer to pass, it must fool at least 30% of the questioners over a 5 minute of keyboard
conversations
Turing Test Controversy
-Great achievement - Kevin Warwick, who administered the test sees this as a huge
accomplishment in the field of artificial intelligence
-Not so much - Gary Marcus, a researcher at NYU, believes this is just a clever piece of software
-Warwick believes we need a new test - He proposes that for a computer to simulate human
abilities, it would need to be able to watch any television program or YouTube video and answer
questions about its content
Artificial Intelligence
-Do you think computers will ever be able to replicate human thinking?
-Such as emotions
-How close does Siri come?
Challenges of Study
-Rapid technological advances
-Unprecedented social change
-Direction and type of effect
-Target group
-Changing uses
History of Technology
-Evolutionary model of technological development
-Tools build upon existing knowledge
-Development is incremental
-Inventors don’t work in isolation but draw upon what has been done earlier
-There is a gap in time between when an invention first develops a new technology and when
this technology is revealed and examined
-problem with understanding history of tech. is reliance on artifacts, doesn’t tell the whole story
-We are able to think abstractly and adapt to an environment
-Contributions of science and non-science to our technology
Evolution of Technology
-General August Henry Pitt-Rivers
-Examines gradual improvements in firearms
-Unconscious selection – humans will select the artifacts best suited for certain tasks
-Technological change wasn’t accomplished by a series of great unrelated leaps
-Instead, every made thing could be placed within a sequence, which was interconnected to
other sequences
Other scholars challenge this premise
-Ogburn believed a fixed % of people have superior inventive ability which can be nurtured
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Document Summary
Industrial revolutions: steam, water, mechanical production equipment, division of labour, electricity, mass production, electronics, it, automated production, cyber-physical systems. Doesn"t enter our language until 17th century and doesn"t gain popularity until the 1930s. Not just a single machine but one of the earliest, large-scale systems of the modern era. In 19th century, we see larger systems emerge such as telegraph, electric power, water and waste disposal. Boundaries are blurring between the actual machinery and the rest of the process. The second industrial revolution produces inventions such as electric light, phonograph, radio, telephone, x-ray, airplane, motion pictures, and the automobile. So we start to see the term technology used by the early 20th century. Technology: associated with book learning, scientific research and university. Technological systems were being used to serve an economic purpose. The term technology becomes more popular as corporations become more popular in u. s. Boundaries start to blur between the artifact and other components of the system.
