CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Modifies, controls the environment
• House heated, a.c.
• Automobile, plane
• Pervasive
• Communication system
• Irreversible
• Telephone, auto

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Cumulative
• The computer
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Obsolescence
• Drafting Tools
• Eight track tape
• Centralization
• Utility companies

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Dependency/ Independency
• Produce supply
• Utilities
• Powerful
• Hydrogen bomb, dams
• Systems model
• Transportation
• Communication

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SYSTEMS MODEL

• A group of devices or artificial objects or an
  organization forming a network, especially for
  distributing something or serving a common
  purpose. (Open or closed system)

Input
Throughput (process)
Output
Feedback Loop
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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Apraxia (mature technologies become inflexible)
• Roadway system
• Alternate fuel cars
• Alters our Perception of time and space
  increases artificiality
• Air flight

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REAL OR FAKE YOUR CHOICE

• Paul Ray three distinctive subcultures Utne
  Reader, July/August, 1997
• Heartlanders about 33 of population worldview
  that prevailed 1850-1920, nostalgic, return to
  the good ol days.
• Modernists about 47 dominant culture that
  permeated business, government, schools
  materialistic, status conscious, secular or
  conventionally religious, not bothered by the
  fake, focus on right NOW.
• Cultural Creatives new since mid-century 23 of
  population want the real thing, middle income,
  ecological sustainability, voluntary simplicity,
  feminist values, spiritual self-discovery, public
  service.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Specialized knowledge, specialized language
• Auto mechanic
• Medical doctor
• Affects the environment protects and destroys
• Acid rain
• DDT, PCBs, lead in gas and paint
• How does it protect?

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CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Not neutral
• Printing press
• Television
• Increasingly incomprehensible
• Computer technology
• Space flight
• Accelerated Acceptance

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U.S. Household Ownership of Appliances How Much
Is Enough, p. 32
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More Appliances 1989-1996
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MODERN TECHNOLOGY

• Necessity is the mother of invention.
• Kranzbergs laws
• Invention is the mother of necessity
• Technology is neither good nor bad neither is it
  neutral
• We have great difficulty predicting social and
  moral impacts but very important!

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Langdon Winner on Technological Decisions

• Decisions about technology are rooted in
  economics, with little regard to social impact
• Substantial technical innovations involve a
  reweaving of the fabric of society - a reshaping
  of some of the roles, rules, relationships, and
  institutions . . . .
• Consider telephone, automobile, internet