Engr3: Technology in the Modern World

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Engr3 Technology in the Modern World

• How Stuff Works
• How various devices and systems came to be the
  evolution of innovation
• Playing/Experimentation
• Accidental Discoveries
• Improving upon what already exists to satisfy
  human needs and wants
• Design based on failure analysis and calculations
• Necessity is not always the mother-of-invention
• The fundamental science that explains why stuff
  works
• How people impact technology and how technology
  impacts people

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Technology is created to satisfy human needs and
wants.
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What is Technology?

• Technology is not only artifacts, such as
  computers, iPODs, aircrafts, hybrid cars,
  digital cameras, bridges, vaccines,
  bio- implants, robots, sunscreen, lasers,
  phones, printers, .
• Technology is also systems like waste water
  treatment, roads, fuel production, the energy
  grid, and water delivery,
• Technology is the know how needed to design,
  maintain, manufacture technology.

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Tools were used by human ancestors 1.6 million
years ago
As long as animals have been able to fashion
tools, technology has existed.
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To Create Technology is an Ancient Human Endeavor

• Children Play with Toys
• Humans and primates create and refine tools
• The act of tool making is much older and more
  natural than written language

(4000 BC)
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Humans evolved alongside technology

• Homo Sapiens evolved into physically weak animals
  because of their mental ability to make tools and
  weapons, control fire, and construct shelter and
  clothes.
• Opposable Thumb
• The ability to control and manipulate objects,
  not just build shelter

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• Why does creating tools and designing objects
  seem difficult to people, when the process is
  inherently so human?
• Do we think that technology high tech ?
• Have we become so specialized in our jobs that
  we no longer have to fashion tools, clothes, food
  products, furniture, shelter, spears, saddles,
  pots, etc. for ourselves?
• Therefore jobs outside our expertise area seem
  foreign to us.

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Examples of Early Engineers

• Farmers
• Settlers
• Potters
• Weavers
• Tailors
• Blacksmiths
• Painters/Artists
• Scribes
• Cooks

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Engineering in the 20th Century

• Defined as masculine
• Institutions offering curriculum in the areas of
  technology and engineering
• Large, organized, and hierarchical enterprises
  employing many engineers
• Emphasis on the need to understand the underlying
  science in order to manipulate materials

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Where is new technology found?

• Places of high productivity allowing groups of
  people to devote their attention to technology
  creation
• Good public education with incentives for
  studying engineering.
• Adequate energy and infrastructure for supporting
  businesses.
• Higher wages and an economic market that make
  technology accessible to all.
• Legal, political, and economic systems that
  protect intellectual property and promote
  innovation.

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How does Technology develop?

• Technology evolves.
• Devices and systems start simple and become
  increasingly more complex.
• Ideas are borrowed and poached constantly.
• Some new science is discovered and people think
  of useful ways to use this discovery.
• You can not own or patent an idea.

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• Sir Isaac Newton once said,
• "If I have been able to see farther than others,
  it is because I stood on the shoulders of
  giants."

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Do you see a similarity?
Wood Lathe
Apple Peeler Corer
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Learning about the workings of technology is
about acquiringTechnological Literacy
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So Why is Technological Literacy Important?

• It gives one an understanding of the world
• Demystifies, Simplifies
• Affects how we think, act, vote, and make
  decisions.
• Increases our capabilities and effectiveness
• Teaches us that what we believe to be true does
  NOT have to be taken on Faith.

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The goal of Technology Literacy is to provide
people with the tools to participate
intelligently in the world around
them.Technically SpeakingNational Academy of
Engineering
The world around us is becoming increasingly more
technological.
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Technological Literacy and the Common Good

• "I know no safe depositary of the ultimate
  powers of the society but the people themselves
  and if we think them not enlightened enough to
  exercise their control with a wholesome
  discretion, the remedy is not to take it from
  them, but to inform their discretion by
  education. This is the true corrective of abuses
  of constitutional power.
• Thomas Jefferson, 1820
• 3rd President
• Great Populist

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Technology Literacy and Ensuring Our Democracy

• "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a
  state of civilization, it expects what never was
  and never will be." TJ
• "Light and liberty go together. TJ

If we want to ensure democracy we have to
participate in our government. In order to
participate we have to have knowledge about the
issues at hand. More and more issues have a
technological component of which we must educate
ourselves.
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Some Technological Issues that depend on the
publics opinion

• Stem Cell Research
• Oil Drilling in Alaska
• Biofuels as substitutes for fossil fuels
• Exposure to non-ionizing radiation
• Regulating CO2 Emissions
• Genetically Modified Foods
• Type of Warfare
• Utility Deregulation
• Local Cell Phone Towers ..

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Technological decision making is influenced by
science, engineering, politics, ethics, law,
economic markets, energy, the environment, and
people.
We can negatively influence technology with our
ignorance, or we can be an enlightened, informed
citizenry that embraces technologies that we
determine are mostly beneficial.
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Course Goals

• To gain an understanding of the workings of some
  everyday technology including assessing
  constraints and trade-offs.
• Understand that technology reflects cultural
  values and people shape technology.
• To ask questions about new technologies.
• To make informed decisions about technology.
• To experiment with some basic laws of nature.
• To debate the effectiveness of something
• To explain how and why something work

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All Technology has trade-offs and nothing is
black and white(nothing is perfect)
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Yesterdays News
What are the trade-offs of technologies that
allow a woman to give birth to eight living
babies?
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The trade-offs of DDT

• DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane - an
  effective pesticide was introduced in 1939.
• DDT is very effective at killing mosquitoes and
  so it was used to control the spread of Malaria
  and other insect-borne diseases.
• Paul Hermann Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize
  in Medicine in 1948 for his contribution towards
  developing DDT.

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DDT being used In Africa to control Malaria
1956 Central Valley farm workers standing in line
to be sprayed with DDT
DDT being sprayed on Long Island, NY Beaches in
1945
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Malaria Stats

• Forty-one percent of the world's population live
  in areas where malaria is transmitted
• Each year 350500 million cases of malaria occur
  worldwide, and over one million people die, most
  of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Malaria caused 10.7 of all children's deaths in
  developing countries.
• Between 1957 and 2003, in the United States, 63
  outbreaks of locally transmitted mosquito-borne
  malaria have occurred.

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National Geographic
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• While good at controlling mosquitoes, DDT harmed
  wildlife.
• DDT has a ½ life of 15 years, and so persists
  for a long time in the environment.
• Biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring
  in 1962 warning us of the implications of
  indiscriminate spraying of insecticides without
  knowing the effects on the environment,
  particularly birds.

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DDT bioaccumulation in the eagle's fatty tissue
blocked the female's ability to produce calcium,
causing the egg shell walls to thin, making them
vulnerable during incubation.
Bald Eagle Pairs - Year/pairs1963 - 417
pairs1974 - 791 pairs1984 - 1795 pairs1994 -
4449 pairs1998 - 5948 pairs2006 - 9789
pairsSource USFWS Region 3.
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• In 1972 the EPA banned DDT because of its
  "unreasonable adverse effects on man and the
  environment."
• Studies in the intervening years have
  demonstrated that while its acute effects on
  humans and primates are mild at worst, DDT has a
  very heavy impact on aquatic life and the avian
  populations which feed on them.

Wikipedia
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Bald Eagles removed from Endangered Species List

• "Today I am proud to announce the eagle has
  returned," said Secretary Kempthorne. "In 1963,
  the lower 48 states were home to barely 400
  nesting pairs of bald eagles. Today, after
  decades of conservation effort, they are home to
  some 10,000 nesting pairs, a 25-fold increase in
  the last 40 years. June 28, 2007

Dirk Kempthorne Secretary Of the Interior.
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So is that the end to the DDT story?

• The World Health Organization today announced a
  major policy change. It's actively backing the
  controversial pesticide DDT as a way to control
  malaria.
• A number of major environmental groups support
  the limited use of DDT, such as spraying only
  inside of houses once or twice a year. That type
  of use is supported by the Sierra Club and
  Environmental Defense.

NPR All Things Considered, Sept. 15, 2006
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GMOsGenetically Modified Organism
No GMOs
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GMOsGenetically Modified Organism

• In 1999, US Farmers planted approximately 70
  million acres of genetically modified crops.
• 36 of corn is genetically modified
• 55 of soybean is genetically modified
• 43 of cotton is genetically modified

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With recombinant DNA technology DNA molecules
from different sources are combined in vitro into
one molecule to create a new gene. This modified
DNA is then transferred into an organism causing
the expression of modified or novel traits. The
term "GMO" does not include organisms with
genetic makeup that has been altered by
conventional cross breeding Wikipedia
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Why genetically modify food?Proponents say

• The organism is altered to produce a protein that
  defends the crop against pests, therefore less
  chemical pesticide is applied.
• Or the organism is altered to make corn resistant
  to herbicides, such as Round Up TM
• Monsantos Round-Up Ready seed
• The organism is altered to produce more
  nutritional value, e.g. rice with beta carotene

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What some proponents of GMOs dont say

• A GMO can be patented. Ownership of an organism
  means profits.
• A GMO can spread to areas where it is not wanted,
  forcing it onto unwilling farmers.
• A genetically altered food may contain allergens
  not found in the foods pure form, possibly
  causing allergic reactions.

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What Opponents say

• Perhaps these GMOs are not safe to consume.
• Organic food retail sales in the U.S. was
  estimated at 7.8 billion in 2000, a 20 increase
  over 1999 sales (source The U.S. Organic Food
  Market, Packaged Facts) , so is there a need for
  genetically modified foods?
• Some European nations, Japan, and Mexico have
  banned all GMO imports until proven safe.
• Asia and Latin America require labeling.

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GMO Considerations

• What would make a GMO unsafe?
• Should an organism be owned?
• How should products containing GMOs be labeled?
• How are GMOs affecting US exports?
• Who should regulate the use of GMOs?
• Should there be overwhelming benefits before
  using a GMO?

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Bald Eagles, GMOs, Why should you care about
technology?
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Because collectively we shape technology and
choose when to use it, but only if we understand
it and care to debate its merits.
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• OK lets not care about Technology
• Simplify Life
• Why not live without Technology?

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Imagine a Naked City without

• Buildings, electricity, plumbing, sewers, garbage
  service, computers, phones, furniture,
  televisions, radios, gas heat
• Roads, cars, buses, trains, bridges, tunnels,
  airports, bicycles, traffic lights...
• Food and Water
• Shoes, clothing, eye glasses, watches, hearing
  aids, prosthetic devices, wheelchairs, drugs,
  artificial joints, hospitals, doctors, and every
  manufactured thing.

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The result

• No pollution? but what about human waste?
• A Different kind of Stress is this because
  people have lost control over their lives?
• Lots of weeds and wildlife (rats, roaches, and
  insects included)
• Everything is Organic-like and natural
• Most people would try to live off the land (if
  they could find land) or risk dying in the
  population centers.

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Think of one technological innovation (ancient or
new) that you would never want to live without.
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Think of one technological innovation (ancient or
new) that you would like to learn the workings of.

• I would like to learn how ____________ works.