General

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SOSC 111 - Science Technology and SocietyToday
Lesson 12Politics of Technology October 12,
1998
Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM http//www-ieem.ust.hk/df
aculty/duffy/111 email vduffy_at_ust.hk
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Administrative

• In the coming week
• Today- Politics of Technology
• Wednesday - Innovations
• Friday - no class

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The Politics of Technology

• What do we mean by politics?
• Most of you probably associate politics with
  government (and politicians).
• But politics does not equal government.
• This week we are NOT interested in the question
  of technology and government -- that is a very
  different issue.

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• Imagine the following machine
• A computer controlled bomb.
• The bomb is so powerful that it can destroy every
  living thing on this planet.
• I have programmed it with the following
  instruction if the rest of the world doesnt do
  what I say, the bomb will detonate.
• Once the machine is constructed, it cannot be
  opened, stopped, modified, or moved.

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• Would you agree, that no matter how this
  technological artifact (technology) is used, it
  is a political technology?
• Does this technology change power structures?
• Does it give authority to anyone?
• What kind of membership does it have?

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• Since the beginning of the semester we have been
  talking a great deal about how technologies
  change society.
• Primary results
• Secondary results
• Etc.
• We have spent considerable time thinking about
  how technology shapes society.

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• Now were going in the other direction.
• We are talking about how society shapes a
  technology.

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• You need to remember that when we talk about
  politics, we are not necessarily talking about
  the government and technology. Obviously
  government use of a technology can be political.
  
• We need to think about the following
  characteristics
• power
• authority
• membership
• order
• freedom

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Examples Power/Authority

• Certain technologies change power structures and
  give authority to specific groups of people.
• Guns (of course)?
• How about microphones?
• Lecture theater designs?
• University architecture?

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Membership

• Are there technologies that exclude some groups
  of people but not others?
• Think about this university.
• Stairs and escalators?
• Ramps?
• Bathrooms?

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Order

• All societies must have order -- the lack of
  order is defined as chaos. Order is maintained
  by a number of social institutions (e.g. police,
  military, family).
• Walls
• Doors with locks (or locks on student lockers)
• Have you ever looked at the ceiling of the UST
  elevators?

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Freedom

• What technologies define our freedom?
• Certainly previous examples limit freedom to some
  extent
• walls,
• locked doors
• codes to labs
• There are also technologies that can increase our
  freedom
• forms of transportation, telephone, newspapers,
  perhaps the Internet.

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• So when we talk about how a technology can be
  political, we want to ask the following
  questions
• How does a particular technology change (power)
  relationships in society?
• What kind of power structure is associated with a
  particular technology (authority)?
• Do particular technologies exclude certain groups
  of people (membership)?
• We have have social institutions which maintain
  order within a society. Are there technologies
  that maintain social (order)?
• Are there technologies that limit or enhance our
  freedom. And we might be thinking of different
  kinds of (freedom)s

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Remember Dolly?
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Remember Dolly?

• innovation
• cloning - already possible
• social lag?
• adapting to the innovation any we know of?
• ban on further research on human cloning
• how should it be used?
• Does this technology involve issues of power,
  authority, freedom, and membership?

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QOTD

• Q.1. Give an example of how society shapes
  technology.
• Q.2. What do we mean by politics of a
  technology?
• Q.3. Give an example of social lag with regard
  to cloning. What behavior/policy changed after
  the technology already existed?