S. Gallardo lecture notes

American Attitudes Toward Technology

1. Technology is deterministic, inherently powerful, a first cause for social change. Technology is revolutionary.

2. Technology is beneficent, positive for all.

3. Technology is apolitical, a mere tool that can be used for good or bad.

Why are our impressions of tech so favorable?

"Science and technology are making our lives healthier, easier and more comfortable"

90% agreed strongly or somewhat strongly
83% felt technology did more good than harm

(--1996 poll)

Other attitudes

67% agreed “the computer revolution will ultimately raise production and therefore living standards”
73% believe the computer will allow more people to work at home
61% “like” computers and technology; only 6% disliked
78% feel that science and technology will solve some or most problems faced by our society (1996 Roper poll)

On journalists and media representing technology:

Leonard on the "typical" technology article:

intro new technology in breathtaking prose: "wondrous," "technoparadise"
Positive portrayal of developer
Benefits of new tech - comfort, convenience, timesaving, reduced workload
brief acknowledgement of limitation, side effect, downside, etc. Minimizing.
Affirmation of technology as progress

Diversity in opinions of technology

There are differences, based on experience/identity groups

"Technology would have a negative effect on my opportunities"

Earn $15-19,000 37%
Earn $75,000 + 12%

Reproductive technology for who?

85% approved of IVF to help married couples
who could not otherwise have children
22% approved of IVF for single women
11% approved IVF for lesbians or gay men

Globalization - "the cheapest wombs" - Who decides? Akanksha

Technology always occurs in:

particular social/cultural/historical context
in context of inequalities

Must we always defer to the "specialists"? Aren't technological questions always human questions? Who decides?

Birth technology - Fetal monitor, Induce with Pitocin, Epidural, Caesarean section
CDC/AMA on maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are at the highest in decades

1950	83.0 deaths	per 100,000 live births
1980	9.2	per 100,000 live births
2005	15.1 36.5	per 100,000 live births African American women

Average pregnancy: 39.2 weeks

Specialization as alienation?

"Genetic screening will do more good than harm" (1998)

Yes - 54% of whites
42% of blacks

We do have a long tradition of dissent, critique of technology.

Natural birth advocates
WWII. anti-war weapons
computers and invasion of privacy
biological experimentation / stem cells
Tasers

Peter Berger: Technology is the secular faith of our time

Why has technology not become a more powerful agent of social change?

Amartya Sen on inequality

Who decides? Tech jury?

That instrumentalism must be “resituated within grammars of human motives, relationships, values, concepts of community, and social responsibility, we are all imperiled by the emerging global structures of information-capitalism"

Reclaim human values!

Refocus technology as tool, not an end in itself.

What should goals of technology be?

“Technology is an instrument of society, not an independent or neutral force. Created within a social framework, it necessarily has political implications, which shape its ability to be either beneficial or harmful. Thus it must be intensively critiqued regarding its purposes, how and why it is developed, and its relationship to the quality of our lives.” (Leonard, 3)

Technology must be critiqued, not a panacea
What is progress? How do we define the role of technology in ‘progress,' if any?

What kinds of questions do we need to ask?

Who designs the technology?
For whose benefit?
Who operates it, under what constraints?
Who benefits from the technology?
Who has to live with the consequences?

Bicycles?