Technology.3 -- September 23, 2002
Overview:
1. (From Sept. 18 lecture)
back to diagram of inter-relationships involved in describing
a technology - focus on the "technologists"/ inventors
- problems with this perspective
2. Two Case studies - the clock --> the watch
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1. Focus on the inventors/developers
Who are:
Richard Stallman
Douglas Englebart
Tim Berners-Lee
Linus Torvalds
Theodore Nelson
Vannevar Bush
A. M. Turing
Steve Jobs
Gordon Moore
Bill Gates
How many of them do you know? Why do you know
some and not others? If we concentrate on the inventors and
ignore the "users," the values of society, the natural
environment, we don't take an appropriately larger social Science
overview...
Another case study: the
clock
Mechanical Clock: originated in 12 and 13 in Benedictine
monasteries:
Function: to ensure that the daily rituals of monastery life
-- 7 periods of devotion -- were followed systematically.
By 14 century - moved out of monastery - King
Charles V ordered all citizens of Paris to regulate their lives
by the bells of the Royal Palace clock, which struck every 60
minutes...
RESULT on workers: "regular production, regular
hours and a standardized product" (L. Mumford)
Irony: invented by men to allow them to worship
God; it became the technology for men worshipping accumulation
of money...
Principle: --> unseen consequences of a technic...
The case study of the watch:
do you wear an analog watch or a digital watch?
Analog watch:
- duplicates the amount of time in an hour in its interface
- a mechanical technic from the Industrial Age
Digital watch:
- shows a discrete bit of information
- an electronic technic from the Information Age
Observations cited by Shapiro ("Complexity
in the Interface Age", Ubiquity online):
Students with digital watches had more trouble
telling time: they donât have the sense of addition and subtraction
of time units that you have with analog watch.
Principle: "even though technics can enhance knowledge÷there
are aspects of computerization that subtract from peopleâs knowledge..."
What kind of watches are the most expensive?
Why?
Principle: watches are more highly prized
If they involve ãoldä technology (like my example of the gas
stove)
Where is the watch going? -- "Wherify's
Personal Location System has a global location system + pager
+ wristwatch (digital) together." Security or surveillance?
Principles:
- technics have two sides to them
- technics have a tendency to morph into some
other technic yet the original rarely truly disappears (the
needle, the pencil· what else?)
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