TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Technology and
society or technology and culture refers to cyclical codependence, co
influence, coproduction of technology and society upon the other (technology
upon culture, and vice versa). This synergistic relationship occurred from the
dawn of humankind, with the invention of simple tools and continues into modern
technologies such as the printing press and computers. The academic discipline
studying the impacts of science, technology, and society and vice versa is
called (and can be found at) Science and technology studies.
Prehistorical
The importance
of stone tools, circa 2.5 million years ago, is considered fundamental in human
development in the hunting hypothesis.
The
Beginnings of Technology
By the 1980's,
the use of technology began to escalate. A 1982 study by The New York Times
stated, "the study was made by the Institute for the Future, a Menlo Park,
Calif., agency under contract to the National Science Foundation. It was an
attempt at the risky business of technology
assessment, peering into the future of an electronic
world".
The study
focused on the emerging videotex industry, formed by the marriage of two older
technologies, communications and computing. It estimated that 40 percent of
American households will have two way videotex service by the end of the
century. By comparison, it took television 16 years to penetrate 90 percent of
households from the time commercial service was begun. Opportunities for Abuse
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, theorizes that the
control of fire by early humans and the associated development of cooking was
the spark that radically changed human evolution. Texts such as Guns, Germs, and Steel suggest that
early advances in plant agriculture and husbandry fundamentally shifted the way
that collective groups of individuals, and eventually societies, developed.
Modern
examples
Technology has
become a huge part of everyday societies life. When societies know more about
the development in a technology, they become able to take advantage of it. When
an innovation achieves a certain point after it has been presented and
promoted, this technology becomes part of the society. Digital technology has
entered each process and activity made by the social system. In fact, it
constructed another worldwide communication system in addition to its origin.
Since the
creation of computers achieved an entire better approach to transmit and store
data. Digital technology became commonly used for downloading music, and
watching movies at home either by DVDs or purchasing it online. Digital music
records are not quite the same as traditional recording media. Obviously,
because digital ones are reproducible, portable and free.
Effects
on Advertising
Intechnic.com
States that, Statistics therefore reveal that the growing trend of advertising
is inclination heavily on Internet. Advertising products and services through
the Internet are more effective and efficient for surely it saves on a lot of
time. Advertisements are immediately published which is not restricted by time
or any geographical boundaries thus reaching global consumers at large. It has
brought business to the finger tips by which a product can be viewed, liked,
order placed and even paid for it online.
Computers are
considered an important factor in our daily lives. In fact, it became all
around in a short period of time. Now it can be seen in desktops, cars and cell
phones.
By 2014, smart phone
markets are going to overtake computer users reaching 30% of the cell phone
business worldwide.
For the
continues desire of wanting better quality in sound, signal and images, cell
phones are now better than ever. It includes everything a person can think of
featuring from blogging, recording and uploading to browsing the Internet. As a
result, iTunes store have reached five billion songs and 1.5 billion iPhone
downloads in 2009. Notably, cell phones have been developed to become a mini
computer including high resolution user interface, digital images and video
cameras, memory storage, preinstalled keyboard and applications, and even more
applications that could be downloaded by the user. Recording videos and audios
are becoming nearly close to DVD quality on cell phones.
This feature
made it simpler for people to record important events and interviews. Moreover,
they could share them online with the society by various video sharing sites,
such as YouTube. Additionally, most cell phones have a built in GPS and that
would allow them to locate events on Google Maps and more.
Modern
technologies have made instructive information for
classrooms and home assignments easier and simpler. It provides children, who
have difficulties in learning the traditional way, with educational games that
would help them in the process of learning. Alternatively from attending
classes, online courses are offered to college students in advantage. The
progress of the innovation of technology is continuing to improve the education
sector for coming generations. Students
today are called ‘screenagers’, ‘digital natives’ or ‘digital kids’ because
they were born in a complicated digital world based on technology.
Teachers are
using digital technology as an essential tool to help in guiding lessons and
student’s communication. In fact, computers have been in the education frame
globally for a long period of time. Students are associating with others more
globally and learning more things in varied ways than at any time in the past.
New types of
technology are going to be introduced continually. Most of these Technologies
are considered to make our life easier.
Economics
and technological development
In ancient history,
economics began when occasional, spontaneous exchange of goods and services was
replaced over time by deliberate trade structures. Makers of arrowheads, for
example, might have realized they could do better by concentrating on making
arrowheads and barter for other needs. Clearly, regardless of goods and
services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in
the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred
objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very
beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more
elaborate economies.
In the modern
world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to
robust economies; and in a well functioning, robust economy, economic excess
naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is
such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects,
funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable.
However, while
in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time,
efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the
collective labor and skills of many millions.
Funding
Consequently,
the sources of funding for large technological efforts have dramatically
narrowed, since few have ready access to the collective labor of a whole
society, or even a large part. It is conventional to divide up funding sources
into governmental (involving whole, or nearly whole, social enterprises) and
private (involving more limited, but generally more sharply focused) business
or individual enterprises.
Government
funding for new technology
The government
is a major contributor to the development of new technology in many ways. In
the United States alone, many government agencies specifically invest billions
of dollars in new technology.
In 1980, the UK
government invested just over 6million pounds in a four year program, later
extended to six years, called the Microelectronics Education Programme (MEP),
which was intended to give every school in Britain at least one computer,
software, training materials, and extensive teacher training. Similar programs
have been instituted by governments around the world.
Indian
government has sanctioned Start Up fund for providing seed capital for new
upcoming companies that promote innovative technologies. The grant is now Rs200
crores. DST (dept. of Science and Technology) has started 25 new technology –
business incubators to provide training and the investment for start ups in
this is Rs 4000 crores with 10,000 jobs.
Technology has
frequently been driven by the military, with many modern applications developed
for the military before they were adapted for civilian use. However, this has
always been a two way flow, with industry often developing and adopting a
technology only later adopted by the military.
Many other
government agencies dedicate a major portion of their budget to research and development.
Private
funding
Research and
development is one of the smallest areas of investments made by corporations
toward new and innovative technology. Many foundations and other nonprofit
organizations contribute to the development of technology. In the OECD, about
two thirds of research and development
in scientific and technical fields is carried out by industry, and 98 percent
and 10 percent respectively by universities and government. But in poorer countries
such as Portugal and Mexico the industry contribution is significantly less.
The U.S. government spends more than other countries on military research and
development, although the proportion has fallen from about 30 percent in the
1980s to less than 10 percent.
The 2009
founding of Kickstarter allows individuals to receive funding via row sourcing
for many technology related products including both new physical creations as
well as documentaries, films, and web series that focus on technology
management. This circumvents the corporate or government oversight most inventors
and artists struggle against but leaves the accountability of the project
completely with the individual receiving the funds.
In India few
private cfundig agencies include- Ratna Tata group, Helion venture partners,
Nexus,Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, Sequoia etc.
Other
economic considerations
Appropriate
technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an
economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive
technologies of developed nations and those that developing nations find most
effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash.
Persuasion
technology: In economics, definitions or
assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions
about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about
technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic
growth or measuring wellbeing.
These, and
economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as
persuasion technology.
Technocapitalism
Technological
diffusion
Technology
acceptance model
Technology
lifecycle
Technology
transfer
Sociological
factors and effects
Values
The
implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations
and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values.
There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are
informed by, technological innovations:
Mechanistic
world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts, (like a machine),
that can be individually analyzed and understood. This is a form of
reductionism that is rare nowadays.
However, the
"neomechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot
be understood by the human intellect. Also, while all things are greater than
the sum of their parts (e.g., even if we consider nothing more than the
information involved in their combination), in principle, even this excess must
eventually be understood by human intelligence. That is, no divine or vital
principle or essence is involved.
Efficiency:
A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of
society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher
percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability.
Social
progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social
progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial
Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies
believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history
and the universe. This was, obviously, based on the cyclicity of the seasons,
and an agricultural economy's and society's strong ties to that cyclicity.
Since much of the world is closer to their agricultural roots, they are still
much more amenable to cyclicity than progress in history.
Institutions
and groups
Technology often
enables organizational and bureaucratic group structures that otherwise and
heretofore were simply not possible. Examples of this might include:
The rise of very
large organizations: e.g., governments, the military, health and social welfare
institutions, supranational corporations.
The
commercialization of leisure: sports events, products, etc. (McGinn)
The almost instantaneous
dispersal of information (especially news) and entertainment around the world.
International
Technology
enables greater knowledge of international issues, values, and cultures. Due
mostly to mass transportation and mass media, the world seems to be a much
smaller place, due to the following: :
Globalization of
ideas
Embeddedness of
values
Population
growth and control
Environment
Technology
provides an understanding, and an appreciation for the world around us.
Most modern
technological processes produce unwanted by products in addition to the desired
products, which is known as industrial waste and pollution. While most material
waste is reused in the industrial process, many forms are released into the
environment, with negative environmental side effects, such as pollution and
lack of sustainability. Different social and political systems establish
different balances between the value they place on additional goods versus the
disvalues of waste products and pollution.
Some
technologies are designed specifically with the environment in mind, but most
are designed first for economic or ergonomic effects. Historically, the value
of a clean environment and more efficient productive processes has been the
result of an increase in the wealth of society, because once people are able to
provide for their basic needs, they are able to focus on less tangible goods
such as clean air and water.
The effects of
technology on the environment are both obvious and subtle. The more obvious
effects include the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources (such as
petroleum, coal, ores), and the added pollution of air, water, and land. The
more subtle effects include debates over longterm effects (e.g., global
warming, deforestation, natural habitat destruction, coastal wetland loss.)
Each wave of
technology creates a set of waste previously unknown by humans: toxic waste,
radioactive waste, electronic waste.
One of the main
problems is the lack of an effective way to remove these pollutants on a large
scale expediently. In nature, organisms "recycle" the wastes of other
organisms, for example, plants produce oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis,
oxygen breathing organisms use oxygen to metabolize food, producing carbon
dioxide as a byproduct, which plants use in a process to make sugar, with
oxygen as a waste in the first place. No such mechanism exists for the removal
of technological wastes.
Construction
and shaping
Choice
Society also
controls technology through the choices it makes. These choices not only
include consumer demands; they also include:
-the channels of
distribution, how do products go from raw materials to consumption to disposal;
-the cultural
beliefs regarding style, freedom of choice, consumerism, materialism, etc.;
-the economic
values we place on the environment, individual wealth, government control,
capitalism, etc.
According to
Williams and Edge the construction and shaping of technology includes the
concept of choice (and not necessarily conscious choice). Choice is inherent in
both the design of individual artifacts and systems, and in the making of those
artifacts and systems.
The idea here is
that a single technology may not emerge from the unfolding of a predetermined
logic or a single determinant; technology could be a garden of forking paths,
with different paths potentially leading to different technological outcomes.
This is a
position that has been developed in detail by Judy Wajcman. Therefore, choices
could have differing implications for society and for particular social groups.
Autonomous
technology
In one line of
thought, technology develops autonomously, in other words, technology seems to
feed on itself, moving forward with a force irresistible by humans. To these
individuals, technology is "inherently dynamic and self augmenting."
Jacques Ellul is
one proponent of the irresistibleness of technology to humans. He espouses the
idea that humanity cannot resist the temptation of expanding our knowledge and
our technological abilities. However, he does not believe that this seeming
autonomy of technology is inherent. But the perceived autonomy is because
humans do not adequately consider the responsibility that is inherent in
technological processes.
Langdon Winner
critiques the idea that technological evolution is essentially beyond the
control of individuals or society in his book Autonomous Technology. He argues
instead that the apparent autonomy of technology is a result of
"technological somnambulism," the tendency of people to uncritically
and unreflectively embrace and utilize new technologies without regard for
their broader social and political effects.
Government
Individuals rely
on governmental assistance to control the side effects and negative
consequences of technology.
Supposed
independence of government. An assumption commonly made about
the government is that their governance role is neutral or independent. However
some argue that governing is a political process, so government will be
influenced by political winds of influence. In addition, because government
provides much of the funding for technological research and development, it has
a vested interest in certain outcomes. Other point out that the world's biggest
ecological disasters, such as the Aral Sea, Chernobyl, and Lake Karachay have
been caused by government projects, which are not accountable to consumers.
Liability.
One means for controlling technology is to place responsibility for the harm
with the agent causing the harm. Government can allow more or less legal
liability to fall to the organizations or individuals responsible for damages.
Legislation.
A source of controversy is the role of industry versus that of government in
maintaining a clean environment. While it is generally agreed that industry
needs to be held responsible when pollution harms other people, there is
disagreement over whether this should be prevented by legislation or civil
courts, and whether ecological systems as such should be protected from harm by
governments.
Recently, the
social shaping of technology has had new influence in the fields of escience and
esocial science in the United Kingdom, which has made centers focusing on the
social shaping of science and technology a central part of their funding
programs.
Source:
Wikipedia
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