MIT271: Technology

1
MIT271 Technology Human Values

• March 21
• Technological Optimism

2
Administration

• Reading schedule alteration
• Next Tuesday
• Postrel
• AND AN ADDITION Tenner Revenge Theory pp.
  102-103
• Next Thursday
• Schiller
• Stackhouse
• Test back next week

3
Freeman Dyson
4

• More fully developed account of his
  techno-optimism
• Three rapidly advancing technologies together
  have the potential to create a more equal
  distribution of the worlds wealth

5
Some technologies serve social justice

• Public health
• Synthetic materials
• Household appliances
• But such class-equalizers tend to move a burden
  to women at least women who were previously
  privileged

6
But some technologies do not serve social justice

• Personalized medical care sacrificed to high tech
  medicine
• The digital divide

7
Technology drives ethics

• As much as ethics drives technology
• So we need to push for greater ethical input into
  technological development

8
The sun, the genome and the internet

• Together can revive village life, because
• Solar energy is distributed equally
• Genetic engineering can make solar energy broadly
  available energy crops
• The internet can provide the necessary information