STS
11 Technology and Human Values |
Thanks
go to Prof. Stephen Cutcliffe, who developed this course and gave me the opportunity
to teach it.
Purpose & Aim
Technology engenders great wonder
and great fear. Its application is sometimes explicitly connected with grand social
goals and at other times pressed into the service of seemingly mundane purposes;
but always technology is freighted with values, inevitably propelling its users
towards unseen, unforeseen and, occasionally, all-too-predictable ends. It is
the aim of this course to explore the shape of the technological systems we live
in, to uncover that choices and chances of technology, to mull the historical
process that landed us here now, and to express "the way we look to us all."
Along the way we will foster the process of critical thinking by reading and seeking
out information sources and by making the effort to create concise and elegant
written responses. We will also practice the fine -- and occasionally frustrating
-- art of group discussion in the hope that more heads are likely to produce better
ideas than one. Ultimately, the process will become personal: at the end of the
course you should be better informed about the development arc and social effects
of new technologies, quite possibly more firmly opinionated about the value of
specific technologies, and adeptly capable of marshalling ideas and finding sources
to continue the study of technology.
Sources & Texts
Our
primary sources are Rudi Volti's Society and Technological Change and Albert Teich's
Technology and the Future, available in the bookstore. Secondary sources are the
online version of The New York Times and any others you locate and bring to class.
I expect you to surf the internet, thumb through books that have caught your eye
as you sat looking blankly at library shelves, and bring in any stray magazines
that you have absent-mindedly filched from offices. You are required to seek variety
in your secondary sources: on this point it is better that your selection is a
little random than that your sources are too limited.
Assignments &
Grading
You will keep a journal for written responses to class readings,
articles and images of interest identified by you and short reports. This journal
will be turned in three (3) times during the semester for grading. There will
be two (2) exams and one (1) final. There will also be one (1) short paper (with
PPT slides) written in preparation for the final and one (1) speech written in
preparation for the 2nd essay. Classes will be primarily discussion-based with
a few videos and other exercises. To get ready for class, read the assigned articles
or chapters. Write two (2) or more discussion questions about the readings. Among
your secondary sources find an article and/or image (loosely) related to the topics(s)
of the readings. Write a short, thoughtful response to the article in the journal.
Questions, doubts, outrage and/or admiration are entirely appropriate. After you've
done the reading, thinking, and writing, type it up, print it out and come to
class OR ...do all of the above, write it up, staple it together, tape the loose
ends, put it in a notebook and come to class.
Course
Outline: Topics and Readings
Part I Thinking About Technology | |
Tuesday, Aug. 30 | Syllabus and Introduction
to the Course |
Thursday, Sept. 1 | Technology’s Impact on
Society |
Tuesday, Sept. 6 | Perspectives on Technology:
Progress and Significance |
Thursday, Sept. 8 | Perspectives on Technology |
Tuesday, Sept. 13 | Perspectives on Technology |
Thursday, Sept. 15 | Perspectives on Technology |
Part II The Process of
Technological Change | |
Tuesday, Sept. 20 | Sources of Technological
Change |
Thursday, Sept. 22 | Technological Diffusion |
Tuesday, Sept. 27 | Review of Parts I and II |
Thursday, Sept. 29 | Exam 1 |
Part III Technology and
the Environment | |
Tuesday, Oct. 4 | Historical Overview |
Thursday, Oct. 6 | Historical Overview |
Tuesday, Oct.11 | PACING BREAK |
Thursday, Oct. 13 | Land Palimpsest |
Tuesday, Oct. 18 | Are Environmental Regulations
Too Restrictive? |
Thursday, Oct. 20 | Modeling Catastrophe:
Imaging the Future |
| |
Part IV Medical and Biological Technologies | |
Tuesday, Oct. 25 | Overview of Medical and
Biological Technologies |
Thursday, Oct. 27 | Genetic Questions |
Tuesday, Nov. 1 | Medical Issues |
Part V Technology and the Transformation of Work | |
Thursday, Nov. 3 | Work in Pre-Industrial
Societies; Technology and Jobs |
Tuesday, Nov. 8 | Technology and Work |
Thursday, Nov. 10 | Review of Parts III and IV |
Tuesday, Nov. 15 | Exam 2 |
Part VI Communication
and Information Technologies | |
Thursday, Nov. 17 | Printing, Radio and Television |
Tuesday, Nov. 22 | Computers and the Information
Society |
Thursday, Nov. 24 | THANKSGIVING BREAK |
Part VII Shaping and
Controlling Technology | |
Tuesday, Nov. 29 | Ethical Roles |
Thursday, Dec. 1 | Technology and its Creators |
Tuesday, Dec. 6 | Shaping and Reshaping
Technology |
Thursday, Dec. 8 | Review of Parts I – VII |
FINAL EXAMS | Exam Date TBA |
| |
FINAL PAPER
You
will select three technologies from the provided list.
In your paper, describe these technologies in terms of significance and
progress – first, as they were imagined by their inventors/initiators; then, as
they spread and gained social acceptance; and finally, as they are understood
presently.