California State University, Sacramento | Sacramento State
Children of Invention, by Morton Winston
Roll Call: My (least) favorite piece of technology is.
Winston’s Preliminary Definition of Technology:
“The organization of knowledge, people, and things to accomplish specific practical goals.”
Odd Implications:
• Technology is not just a collection of useful artifacts.
• People do not possess a technology.
• Technology can not possess a people.
• Technology includes:
o educational structures
o economic systems
o systems of government
Note: These are all just consequences of the definition. They are not substantive truths.
Aspects of technology
• Human know-how
• Basic resources
• Artifacts (created tools)
• Valence (typical use of created tools)
o instrumental
o intrinsic
• Empirical knowledge (knowledge-that)
• Social Context
o systems for organizing
▪ labor
▪ cognition
Full Definition of “technology”
“The complex of techniques, knowledge, and resources that are employed by human beings in the creation of material and social artifcacts that typically serve certain functions perceived as useful or desirable in relation to human interests in various social contexts.” (p. 4)
Technological Revolutions
Hunter-Gatherers
• 2.5 million years BCE to the 20th century.
Agricultural Revolution
• 10,000 years BCE, Asia Minor, North Africa
o Advantages:
o Disadvantages:
Industrial Revolution
• 1700’s, Europe
• Coal-fired steam energy replaced animals.
• Allowed creation of tools for mass production.
• Production line manufacturing.
o Advantages
o Disadvantages
Knowledge Revolution
• Late 20th century
• High Speed Communication
• Globalized Economy
• Artificial Intelligence
Technology and Science
Philosophy, Science, and Technology
Philosophical Inquiry
• Pure Understanding
• Traditionally associated with desire for certainty
Scientific Inquiry
• Practically motivated.
• Associated with the desire for predictive control
Technology
• Very practically motivated.
• Associated with the desire for mastery over the earth.
Although we can distinguish between these in a historical and conceptual sense, they are strongly related. In particular:
• Scientific advances are impossible without technological innovations.
• Desire for technology determines to some extent the scientific research agenda.
Technology and Ethics
Important distinction:
• Products of technology development.
• Sociotechnological practices.
o possible uses.
o intended uses.
o customary uses (valence)
1. Ethical concerns arising from technology:
How do our ethical norms and values apply in new technological contexts?
Contemporary examples:
• Respirators
• Cell phones
• Genetically engineered foods
• Nuclear arms
• Robots
2. Ethical Problems arising from socio-technological practices.
• Organ transplants
• Plastic surgery
• Genetic screening
• My space
• Disposability
3. Distribution of technologies
• Social Justice
• Gap between rich and poor.
4. Scope and impact of modern technology
• Pollution
• Nuclear waste
• Resource depletion
Techno-optimism vs. Techno-pessimism
Problematic notions:
• The good old days
• Progress
Technological Citizenship
• Scientific and technological literacy
• Global awareness
The Nature of Contemporary Moral Problems
• Individual vs. collective action
• Understanding and calculating risk
• Evaluating the importance of the remote future
• Establishing a moral relationship to the non-human world.
• Massive scale of potential threats.
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