Computers and Society 02 - What is Technology

What is Technology?What is Technology?

Only a few species make use of t l Th i id f t tools. There is evidence of stone axes used by Homo Erectus 1.6 million years ago. From their emergence, Homo Sapiens have been using tools.g

Tools were used mainly for existence (food and shelter) existence (food and shelter), but also for social evolution as well. And once a tool is di d discovered, new uses are discovered for its use.

Tools are much older than writing and even older than writing and even older than language, and are known by the body as much as by the

i dmind.

The Earliest Known Forms of Human Adornment - Circa 132,000 BCE – 98,000 BCE

The Earliest Use of Pigments - Circa 400,000 BCE –350,000 BCE

The Earliest Musical Instruments - Circa 33,000 BCE

The Earliest Examples of Figurative Art (Venus of Schelklingen) - Circa 38,000 BCE – 33,000 BCE

Between 8000 and 4000 BCE ( )(that is, about 10,000 years ago)a form of accounting developed that used little clay tokens to record the sale or purchase of record the sale or purchase of goods.

Payment for:Work/labour

Envelopep

1 large measure of barley

Signature/Seal

1 large measure of barley + 2 small measures of something else

4 days

Contents of envelope

4 measures of metal

The first clay tokens were symbolic representations of real things.p g

Eventually, the tokens were y,replaced by symbols representing the tokens.the tokens.

1. Tokens pressed into envelope to indicate contents

3. Token impressions replaced with pictograms for thi t d b t kthings represented by tokens.

2. Tokens pressed onto flat “sheet”, thereby eliminating need for tokens in an envelope.

CuneiformPictograms Glyph

3000 BC

2800 BC

2600 BC(stone)

2600 BC(clay)(stone) (clay)

2000 BC

1800 BC

Technology as a word:Technology as a word:A History

tecProto-Indo-Euro

tecTo make

Greektechneart, skill, craft, methodtechne

logikos

t h l i

logikosreasoning, thinking

technologiasystematic treatment of an art, craft, or technique

Some claim that the first appearance of the word technology in its modern gymeaning was in Dr. Jacob Bigelow’s 1829 book The Elements of Technology.

Is Technology = Applied Science ?

Technology was originally much more of a craft or art than an applied sciencecraft or art than an applied science.

Newcomen’s steam engine or Edison’s inventions were not really dependent upon a knowledge of math or not really dependent upon a knowledge of math or physics.

Prior to the 19th century, what we think of as technology more often than not had female connotations, since technology was associated since technology was associated with the useful arts, such as pottery, beer, and textile making.

B t 1820 1910 th d Between 1820-1910, the word “technology” gradually acquired mainly male connotations.

Do you think that is still true?

Today, the word technologyy, gymeans more than just:

1 Thi /T l1. Things/Tools

2. Techniques

3. Technology as a SystemTechnological systems are a complex web of hardware, knowledge, inventors, operators, consumers, corporations, laws, and others involved in a technologyinvolved in a technology.

Thinking critically about technology thus requires knowledge of the system as a whole, how it was created (history), and how the parts interact.

4. Technology as a Way of Thinking and Seeing the WorldTechnology can also refer to a way of thinking, or a way of interpreting the worldworld.

To understand technology, we have to understand the technological engagement understand the technological engagement with the world.

5 Technology as a Form of Life5. Technology as a Form of Life

Technology is no more a tool than language is a tool. That is, technology becomes an essential part of life; it becomes part of the essence of life and thus becomes becomes part of the essence of life and thus becomes hidden or taken for granted.

To understand technology, we have to de-routinize it, understand its role and its embeddedness in our lives.

"Myth is a dramatic vision of life, and we never cease making myths, accepting myths, believing

h (D h Gh )myths" (Dorothy Van Ghent)

This is true with technology as well. Part of the s s t ue w t tec ology as well. a t o t e purpose of this course is to expose many of our common beliefs about technology as myths.

But as well, some ancient myths can still speak to us in regards to technology. People thousands of years ago also had to worry about new technologies and society as well and their myths technologies and society as well, and their myths speak to this concern.

Oedipus and the Sphinx

Th b i ff i f Thebes is suffering from a menace of nature: the Sphinx

what walks on four feet, and two feet, and three feet and has only one voice; when it walks on mostone voice; when it walks on most feet, it is weakest?

HumansHumansThe third foot is techne our ability to techne, our ability to craft and use technology.

In the myth it is this In the myth, it is this third foot, humanity’s technological know-how, that is at the root of Oedipus’s success and failure.

This third foot can also be a sword

Just prior to Oedipus's Just prior to Oedipus s confrontation with the Sphinx, Oedipus slays a stranger—his father—at a crossroad with his father at a crossroad with his sword.

Oedipus thus personifies the ambiguity of the human creature, an ambiguity that lies in his third an ambiguity that lies in his third foot, his ability to use his craft-knowledge for both good and evil at the same time.

This is a tragic vision: g

Technology is both a blessing and a curse, and these two natures are indivisible.

If we want the blessings, then we have to live with the drawbacks.

But this wasn’t the only way that But this wasn t the only way that the ancient Greeks viewed technology.

//www.mwcag.org.au/orange/labyrinth/Theseus_Minotaur_Mosaic.jpg

Theseus and the Minotaur’s LabyrinthThe Labyrinth of King Minos of Crete at Knossos was considered the technological marvel of the ancient world.

Yet at the heart of this technological marvel is a true menace: the minotaur.

One can journey into the labyrinth, but j y y ,slaying the monster concealed in the technology is more difficult …

… as is escaping from the technology

Theseus escaped via the forethought and reason of Ariadne’s thread.

A way out of the confusing labyrinth that is technological change is possible via rational appraisal and by via rational appraisal and by maintaining a link to the past.

This course is an attempt at maintaining a thread of Ariadne …

Prometheus

Gift of Fire to Humanity

His punishment:Having his liver

t eaten every day

Humanity’s punishment:??

Pandora’s Box

Which contains Which contains “toil, pain, and hope”

Plato in his dialogue Plato in his dialogue Protagoras:

Prometheus steals fire as well as “wisdom in the crafts”

“Although man, acquired in this way wisdom of daily life, civic wisdom he had not, since this was still in the possession of Zeus”

Thus according to Plato, Prometheus (and humanity at large) suffer because Prometheus stole only part of what we need to live good lives:need to live good lives:

h l f ( h l ) bPrometheus stole fire (technology), but did not acquire civic wisdom.

That is, having technological mastery That is, having technological mastery without grounding it properly in a just political order is a recipe for suffering.

Plato argued that the tragedy of g g ytechnology can be almost totally avoided by first and foremost thinking about technology in the context of its about technology in the context of its surrounding society and its political order.

This course is all about this practice …

www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/pictures/echo‐narcissus‐1903/

Narcissus and Echo

… as interpreted by Marshall McLuhan

Technologies are extensions or expansions of ourselves

“Now the point of this myth is the fact that men at once become fascinated by any extension of themselves in y yany material other than themselves.”

“To behold, use or perceive any extension of ourselves in technological form is necessarily to embrace it.”

“It is this continuous embrace of our own technology … that puts us in the Narcissus role of … numbness in relation to these images [extensions] numbness in relation to these images [extensions] of ourselves.”

Within the Narcissus trance, we are too numb to recognize that “Man in th l f t h l i the normal use of technology … is perpetually modified by it.”

As such, we tend to be completely unconscious of the real effects of technology on the individual and on technology on the individual and on society and simply embrace each new technology uncritically.

For McLuhan, the best way to avoid this Narcissus trancein the face of technological change “is simply in knowing th t th ll i di t l t t ”that the spell can occur immediately upon contact.”

That is also part of what we will try to be doing in this course: understand both the obvious and also the ometime blimin l nd btle on eq en e of o sometimes subliminal and subtle consequences of our

technological infrastructure.