Technical Literacy INTD 3990: Alternative and Appropriate Technologies

Objective of Technical Exercises We will do several “technical” exercises in this course (somewhat corresponding to “technicity” as defined by Willoughby). The purpose of these are so that you will have a basic technical literacy so that you can Understand practical limitations of technology Assess things like energy, material, and other resource consumption or requirements, quantitatively Enter into public discussions and political debates that relate to use of resources in an informed manner

Literacy vs. Expertise You probably have your own ideas of what is meant by “literacy” and “expertise”. Here we mean roughly: Technical Literacy allows you to recognize technical terminologies and to have an idea of the approximate quantities of things (energy, materials, etc.) that are required for various goods and services Technical Expertise means that you are “fluent” in the technical matters so that you can analyze, model, design and invent various goods and services

Comment This course is unlikely to make you an expert. But it is likely to help you to become literate, and to see the “big picture”. Sadly, many typical technical courses might make you neither literate nor an expert. A narrow focus on “technicity” has the flaw of learning things out of context, so that while you might be able to do certain calculations, you might not be able to apply these.

Estimation Many of the exercises will ask you to “estimate” something. Literacy implies that you have the skill to get a quick idea (the order of magnitude) of a given quantity before doing a detailed analysis. Because the exercises in this class will be introductory, we will not be pursuing detailed analyses to get precise answers that would require significant research or technical methods. BUT: do not confuse this with being inadequate or inaccurate. The ability to get a good estimate is as important as the ability to do a detailed analysis. Quick example: the mass of an adult may be on the order of 100kg, even though these vary from, say, 40kg to 200kg or more in extreme cases. The point is that the mass is not 10kg or 1000kg.

Relation between Readings and Technical Exercises Many of the readings will expose you to serious aspects of philosophy and socio-political-economic analyses related to technology and appropriate technology. These will help you to become literate in the liberal arts. The technical exercises will at first appear to be disjointed. What does the calculation of energy of heating a glass of water have to do with, say, Schumacher’s critique of politicians? We hope that all of us – the students and instructors alike – will explore and discover these connections together. Broadly speaking, we aspire to gain an integrated literacy of all aspects of technology, ranging along the spectrum from technicity to technology practice.