ENGR 101/HUM 200 Technology and Society October 5, 2005

Agenda Questions from yesterday “Make It Better” assignment Your topic preferences/constraints (turn in index card at end of class) Speculative Fiction (aka sci-fi!), Possible Futures, and the People Who Build Stuff

“Make It Better” If you want to arrange yourselves into a group, please do so. Write group member names down on card and turn in today. Otherwise, write down up to three general subjects/technologies in which you are interested AND any schedule constraints you may have (i.e. can’t meet after 5 pm any day) and turn in today.

Why Sci-Fi? Themes from The Diamond Age Transportation (pedomotive, blades) Energy (The Feed) Information dissemination (electronic media; ractives, books!) Social structures (claves) Why are we reading this book? Because it reinforces the value of creativity. Fanciful solutions. Imagination. Influence of Star Trek on engineering. Lots of talk about this. Two examples of science fiction informing the pathway of scientific discovery

Why Sci-Fi? Themes from The Diamond Age Transportation (pedomotive, blades) Energy (The Feed) Information dissemination (electronic media; ractives, books!) Social structures (claves) Why are we reading this book? Because it reinforces the value of creativity. Fanciful solutions. Imagination. Influence of Star Trek on engineering. Lots of talk about this. Two examples of science fiction informing the pathway of scientific discovery

Why Not Sci-Fi? Themes from “The Machine Stops” Transportation Energy (power plant in France; centralized and distant) Information Dissemination (lectures, music, The Book) Social structures (mediated interaction, erasure of family structures, economics, individual choice) Erasure of family structures: nurseries Individual choice: where to live?

“The Machine Stops” http://www.tcnj.edu/~casa3/machine_index.html

Possible Futures Some predictions have been a little better than others

Visionary Transportation Why don’t we have flying cars? We were promised flying cars!

Transportation in The Diamond Age Blades Pedomotive Airships

Robotics And robots! We were promised robots!

And Interplanetary Politics… Talk about social structures

And What About Intergalactic Travel?

Sci-Fi As Snapshot of Culture And flying saucers. We were promised a *lot* about flying saucers. But looking at these book covers from the 50s, looking at the machine stops from early 20th century, evne looking at the diamond age, shows us not just visions of what technologies we can imagine, where our cretivity can take us, but, also, what our anxieties are. What are we nervous about? Uncertain about? What societal questions leave us awake at night? And drive artists to imagine technological responses to those anxietites? Imagninings by authors who do actually go one to affect public discourse, the musings of scientists and engineers, whose ideas slowly trickle into research ideas. (the science of star trek) Diamond Age: lots and lots about class. About haves and have nots And pollution. The Mites And justice And books! Literacy! Hang in there. We’ll get to that part of the story soon. Machien Stops: mechanization, loss of first-hand experience.

Next class Read “The Engineering Disciplines” (short) Read Donald Norman, from The Design of Everyday Things (not short, but interesting!) Assignment into “Make It Better” groups