1. Fundamentals of Technology
Week 2
Technology as Actors 1

2. Opening the ‘black box’
Input and output

4. Sociotechnical System

5. A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
— Hawking, 1988[1]

6. “Black boxes all the way down”
Deciding which boxes to open and which can stay shut is a big part of what we call “expertise”
Turtles all the way down

7. Every blackbox is a “Sociotechnical System”
The systems approach:
Define the system (“expertise”)
Describe the interactions of components
Elaborate connections to the environment

8. Procedures for Drawing a Systems Model
Draw the frame of attention that selects the boundary
This separates the system from the environment
Make a list of the important input pathways that cross the boundary
This fleshes out the environment and provides “Context” for the system
Make a list of the components believed to be important
These can later be grouped into sub-systems
Make a list of the processes believed to be important within the defined system.
These define interactions and are depicted as arrows or “Flows” of materials, energy, and information

9. Procedures for Drawing a Systems Model
Draw the frame of attention that selects the boundary
This separates the system from the environment
Make a list of the important input pathways that cross the boundary
This fleshes out the environment and provides “Context” for the system
Make a list of the components believed to be important
These can later be grouped into sub-systems
Make a list of the processes believed to be important within the defined system.
These define interactions and are depicted as arrows or “Flows” of materials, energy, and information

10. a sociotechnical system
This is one state of
a sociotechnical system

11. Sociotechnical System
eye contact
Pedestrian
A Driver
A Traffic Light
regulates
distracts
regulation
observes
installs
regulation
The Road
Traffic Laws
Systems approach define the boxes, define the arrowst
Driverless car
cellphone

12. Sociotechnical System
eye contact
Pedestrian
A Driver
A Traffic Light
regulates
distracts
regulation
observes
installs
regulation
The Road
Traffic Laws
Systems approach define the boxes, define the arrowst
Driverless car
cellphone

13. Sociotechnical System
Social relations shape technical relations.
AND
Technical relations shape social relations.

14. Technology => Society

15. Technology => Society
Technological determinism

16. Sociotechnical System
Social relations shape technical relations.
AND
Technical relations shape social relations.

17. ‘Socially shaping’ the bicycle
Anti-bicyclists
Women
Enthusiasts
Racers

18. ‘Socially shaping’ the bicycle

19. ‘Socially shaping’ the bicycle

20. ‘Socially shaping’ the bicycle
Anti-bicyclists
Women
Enthusiasts
Racers

21. Pinch and Bijker, 1987
A network of artifacts, social groups, problems, and solutions
Figure 11 (p. 37)

22. But what does this have to do with the price of tomatoes?

23. Mechanical Tomato Harvester

24. “If we examine social patterns that characterize the environments of technical systems, we find certain devices and systems almost invariably linked to specific ways of organizing power and authority.
The important question is: Does this state of affairs derive from an unavoidable social response to intractable properties in the things themselves, or is it instead a pattern imposed independently by a governing body, ruling class, or some other social or cultural institution to further its own purposes?”
– Langdon Winner, 1986, p. 8

25. “If we examine social patterns that characterize the environments of technical systems, we find certain devices and systems almost invariably linked to specific ways of organizing power and authority.
The important question is: Does this state of affairs derive from an unavoidable social response to intractable properties in the things themselves, or is it instead a pattern imposed independently by a governing body, ruling class, or some other social or cultural institution to further its own purposes?”
– Langdon Winner, 1986, p. 8

26. Sociotechnical System
Social relations shape technical relations.
AND
Technical relations shape social relations.

27. Mechanical Tomato Harvester

28. Fundamentals of Technology
Week 2
Technology as Actors 31

29. "They were deliberately designed and built that way by someone who wanted to achieve a particular social effect …"

30. ”… according to specifications that would discourage the presence of buses on parkways … "

31. "One consequence was to limit access of racial minorities and low-income groups to Jones Beach"

32. "For generations after Moses' death …his public works, especially the highways and bridges he built ... will continue to shape that city."
Are the bridges political?
Or only its designers?

33. Georgetown?

34. “In our times people are often willing to make drastic changes in the way they live to accommodate technological innovation while at the same time resisting similar kinds of changes justified on political grounds.”
– Langdon Winner, 1986, p. 11

35. Politics and Technology
Humans use and design technology for social and political reasons
Human actors work with technology
Technology organizes social and political interactions
What work is the technology doing?

36. Sociotechnical System
Social relations shape technical relations.
AND
Technical relations shape social relations.

37. A blackbox is a thing that does something.

38. A blackbox is a thing that does something.

39. The Door Closer

40. A Non-Human Groom

41. X
A Non-Human Groom

42. A Non-Human Groom

43. Latour’s Vocabulary Delegation (shifting out):
We have delegated to non-human grooms the work of closing doors.
“Every time you want to know what a nonhuman does, simply imagine what humans would have to do if this [non-human] character was not present” (p. 299)

45. Why the door-closer?
Boring!

47. Sociotechnical System

48. Architecture!

49. There will always be a black box
Deciding which boxes to open and which can stay shut is a big part of what we call “expertise”

51. Introducing the speedbump

52. Introducing the speedbump

53. Maintaining the speedbump system
Move from the on the street to a system: langodn winner
Delegate! To the institution

54. Sociotechnical System

55. There will always be a black box
Deciding which boxes to open and which can stay shut is a big part of what we call “expertise”

56. Maintaining the speedbump system
Move from the on the street to a system: langodn winner
Delegate! To the institution

57. What work is the speedbump doing?
Safety work
and moral work:
RELENTLESSLY!

58. Relentless!

59. Latour’s Vocabulary Delegation (shifting out):
We have delegated to non-human grooms the work of closing doors.
“Every time you want to know what a nonhuman does, simply imagine what humans would have to do if this [non-human] character was not present” (p. 299)

60. Latour’s Vocabulary Delegation (shifting out):
We have delegated to speedbumps the work of slowing traffic.

61. Latour’s Vocabulary Architecture! Users! Algorithm!
Delegation (shifting out) – the assignment of work to another actant
Actant – characters that do things
* Can be human or nonhuman *
Script – what actants do and how they do it
Architecture!
Users!
Algorithm!

62. Latour’s Script Vocabulary
Script – scenarios played out by actants
Transcription – translating a script from one actant or system to another
Prescription – what a script presupposes from the actants of the system
Inscription – the upstream work that supports a technical script
Presciption: “an unskilled nonhuman groom presupposes a skilled human actor”
Inscription: “In computer parlance, a door is an OR not an AND gate”

63. Latour’s Script Vocabulary
Script – scenarios played out by actants
Transcription – translating a script from one actant or system to another
Prescription – what a script presupposes from the actants of the system
Inscription – the upstream work that supports a technical script

64. Technologies prescribe!
Accessibility
Technologies prescribe!

65. Latour’s Script Vocabulary
Script – scenarios played out by actants
Transcription – translating a script from one actant or system to another
Prescription – what a script presupposes from the actants of the system
Inscription – the upstream work that supports a technical script
Presciption: “an unskilled nonhuman groom presupposes a skilled human actor”
Inscription: “In computer parlance, a door is an OR not an AND gate”

66. “If we examine social patterns that characterize the environments of technical systems, we find certain devices and systems almost invariably linked to specific ways of organizing power and authority.
The important question is: Does this state of affairs derive from an unavoidable social response to intractable properties in the things themselves, or is it instead a pattern imposed independently by a governing body, ruling class, or some other social or cultural institution to further its own purposes?”
– Langdon Winner, 1986, p. 8
Prescription!

67. Transcription! Prescription!
"They were deliberately designed …
Prescription!
"One consequence was to …”

68. The bridges program a script for humans to follow
"For generations after Moses' death …his public works, especially the highways and bridges he built ... will continue to shape that city."
Are the bridges political?
Or only its designers?

69. Politics and Technology
Inscription!
Humans use and design technology for social and political reasons
Human actors work with technology
Technology organizes and structures social and political interactions
What work is the technology doing?
Prescription!

70. “In our times people are often willing to make drastic changes in the way they live to accommodate technological innovation while at the same time resisting similar kinds of changes justified on political grounds”
– Langdon Winner, 1986, p. 11

71. of metro alters our daily scripts!
x-Georgetown
The absence
of metro alters our daily scripts!

72. Sociotechnical System
Social relations shape technical relations.
AND
Technical relations shape social relations.

73. 5 minute break… then questions