SOSC Science Technology and Society Today: Lesson 12 Politics of Technology October 12, 1998 Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM ieem.ust.hk/dfaculty/duffy/

Administrative n In the coming week u Today- Politics of Technology u Wednesday - Innovations u Friday - no class

The Politics of Technology What do we mean by politics? –Most of you probably associate politics with government (and politicians). –But politics does not equal government. –This week we are NOT interested in the question of technology and government -- that is a very different issue.

Imagine the following machine: –A computer controlled bomb. –The bomb is so powerful that it can destroy every living thing on this planet. –I have programmed it with the following instruction – if the rest of the world doesn’t do what I say, the bomb will detonate. –Once the machine is constructed, it cannot be opened, stopped, modified, or moved.

Would you agree, that no matter how this technological artifact (technology) is used, it is a political technology? –Does this technology change power structures? –Does it give authority to anyone? –What kind of membership does it have?

Since the beginning of the semester we have been talking a great deal about how technologies change society. –Primary results –Secondary results –Etc. We have spent considerable time thinking about how technology shapes society.

Now we’re going in the other direction. We are talking about how society shapes a technology.

You need to remember that when we talk about politics, we are not necessarily talking about the government and technology. Obviously government use of a technology can be political. We need to think about the following characteristics : power authority membership order freedom

Examples: Power/Authority Certain technologies change power structures and give authority to specific groups of people. –Guns (of course)? –How about microphones? –Lecture theater designs? –University architecture?

Membership Are there technologies that exclude some groups of people but not others? Think about this university. –Stairs and escalators? –Ramps? –Bathrooms?

Order All societies must have order -- the lack of order is defined as chaos. Order is maintained by a number of social institutions (e.g. police, military, family). –Walls –Doors with locks (or locks on student lockers) –Have you ever looked at the ceiling of the UST elevators?

Freedom What technologies define our freedom? –Certainly previous examples limit freedom to some extent –walls, –locked doors –codes to labs –There are also technologies that can increase our freedom: –forms of transportation, telephone, newspapers, perhaps the Internet.

So when we talk about how a technology can be political, we want to ask the following questions: –How does a particular technology change (power) relationships in society? –What kind of power structure is associated with a particular technology (authority)? –Do particular technologies exclude certain groups of people (membership)? –We have have social institutions which maintain order within a society. Are there technologies that maintain social (order)? –Are there technologies that limit or enhance our freedom. And we might be thinking of different kinds of (freedom)s

Remember: Dolly?

v innovation: –cloning - already possible v social lag? –adapting to the innovation; any we know of? –ban on further research on human cloning –how should it be used? – Does this technology involve issues of power, authority, freedom, and membership? 5

QOTD n n Q.1. Give an example of how society shapes technology. n n Q.2. What do we mean by ‘politics of a technology’? n n Q.3. Give an example of ‘social lag’ with regard to cloning. What behavior/policy changed after the technology already existed?