Technology.1 - September 11, 2002

Overview of lecture

1. Preview of the historical perspective of Postman
2. What can case studies of different technologies suggest?

His premise: The role of "tools" has shifted dramatically resulting in 3 different kinds of cultures:

2. What can case studies of different technologies suggest? Car, gas stove, and the air conditioner...

1. The case of Neil Postman's car (reported in Of Luddites, Learning, and Life)

His question: "what is the problem to which X is the answer?"

Postman's conclusions:
- "new technologies do not by and large increase people's options...there is an imperialistic thrust of technology, to make us conform to the requirements of what is new"

- "new technologies do not always solve significant problems or any problem at all."


2. Another Case Study: the gas stove and the Sunday dinner...

My conclusions:

- We need to talk about technologies not when they work, but when they don't work...
- need to have a safety net for when the digital technology fails (in this case the T.O. fire department)
- in some cases, the old technology (analog oven) is better -- echoes of Postman's "imperialistic thrust to technology"


3. The case of the air conditioner: How social scientists approach a technology

Fact:
- in July 1995, 736 people died in a week-long extreme heat wave in Chicago.
Questions? Who died?
(the poor and elderly who lived alone)

Why didn't all old/poor people die?
(because some lived in community-based neighbourhoods)

What other reasons explains why the other old/poor died?
Politicians said; "an act of God"...event over which we have no control...

Centres for Disease Control said: lack of air conditioning

Why didn't they have a /cs?
Too poor to own or run + even if had, power failures

Cause of the a/c problem?

How do a/cs work? "Motor and long coil that acts as a heat exchanger, taking hot air out of room and replacing with cold." (Klinenberg as cited by Gladwell, 2002. p. 78)

2 kinds of a/cs

1. unsophisticated motor + small coil = cheap to buy, expensive to run
2. better motor + larger heat exchange = more expensive to buy, cheaper to run

Why don't people use better technology?
A/cs bought by landlords and buildersÉ.users pay for power

Result: U.S. govt. passed minimum standard for a/cs: Clinton raised SEER to 13; Bush lowered it to 12.
** SEER 13 is no more technologically difficult than 12...

Then why the change?
Politics of Bush govt.

What impact does this have on the user?
A/cs consume 3 to 4 Xs daily use of electricity when they're all turned on.

Where is this extra power to come from?
Too costly to have power stations just for "hot days", so it's supply and demand -- (can be 50Xs regular cost)

Decreasing SEER (seasonal energy-efficiency ratio) requirement means (according to Gladwell) that by 2020 in U.S. they'll have to build 50 more power stations.
BUT cost of extra plants + cost of more power to run less efficient machines, means fewer people will be able to afford A/cs

What do we learn from this case study?

- We create technologies but don't see their repercussions (effect of climate change on our need to develop more technologies)
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) > climate change > need more air conditioners

- Users are frequently NOT the prime focus in the development of technologies

- Governments had to get involved (even as much as it did) to force standards in public's best interests. - other lessons?