tech and society midterm 2025

The Marxist tradition

• around 1850, its focus on inequality spurred interest in understanding how machines affect labour

• ex: textile industry introduced machines to simplify/speed up processes, resulting in employment of non-skilled workers at lower wages

The Technological Society (Ellul)

• believes that modern society is fundamentally shaped and governed by the pervasive influence of technology

• tech is autonomous - operates independently of human control, shapes world and society

• prioritizes efficiency at cost of critical thinking and creativity

• the impact: alienation and less freedom/autonomy in humans

technology as material substance

• until 19th century: research on tech was conducted primarily by those in technical/applied science fields

• passive object → tools created by humans and used under our control

• problem: Marx → doesn’t lead us to think about tech’s implications on social change/society

technology as knowledge (Layton)

• technological knowledge - understanding how to create, use, or transform objects

• Layton’s Model of Technology:

  • tech isn’t a single entity, embodies 3 main entities:

    • ideas → thought processes

    • design → bridging gaps

    • techniques → actual artifacts (objects that have been produced according to a set of humanly imposed attributes (ex: weapons, utensils, tools))

• limit: disregards sociotechnical context

technology as practice (Ursula Franklin)

• tech is both artifact and complex practices embedded in everyday life

• emphasizes how it was normalized within society and how it structures/isolates people

  • determines how we relate/connect

  • creates power structures (benefits creators of tech in expense of the users)

  • tech was made to liberate us and increase efficiency, but it’s ended up enslaving us to it

• limitation: pessimistic and deterministic

technology as technique (Heidegger)

• distinguishes tech from technique

• technique:

  • 1) goal - what humans want to achieve (ex: building a house)

  • 2) mechanism - means to realize the goal (ex: materials, procedures like wood and blueprints)

• Habermas - tech is a strategic action meant to provide a means for the realization of human goals

technology as society

• technology encompasses knowledge, mechanisms, skills, and apparatus that are geared toward controlling and transforming society

• tech is an agent of change that can control and alter humanity

new definition of technology

tech is a collection of material objects, embodying and reflecting societal elements, such as knowledge, norms, and attitudes that have been shaped and structured to serve social, political, cultural, and existential purposes

technological singularity

a hypothetical point in the future where AI and tech grow so fast and become so smart that they surpass human intelligence

simulation

• the attempt to recreate human intelligence, cognitive processes, and emotionality in non-human activities

• Alan Turing (1950) proposed that AI could be achieved through computation rather than building physical, human-like machines

• although, computers excel at algorithmic tasks but they lack basic human cognitive flexibility

augmentation

• merges humans and tech to intensify or enhance human abilities through connection

• wearable computing (ex: smartphones act as extensions of ourselves), cyborgs (ex: modern prosthetics)

• transhumanism: uses tech to upgrade body/mind beyond natural biological limits

automation

• involves designing machinery/software to execute processes with minimal human intervention

• shifts workflows

• the management vs labour conflict: sees automation as consistent and cost-effective (no sick days, vacations, union demands)

• disruptive tech (ex: driverless cars → when an autonomous system fails/causes an accident, determining liability is difficult)

tech is evolutionary, not revolutionary

• new inventions build on existing knowledge

• ex: Windows 95 combined earlier ideas such as the mouse, icons, and graphical interfaces into a more accessible system

Hero’s engine (the aeolipile)

• first engine ever made, it represents the initial invention that, through technological evolution, led to the development of the automobile

The Stone Age (2.6 million years ago)

• developed primitive tools aiding in hunting, gathering, and basic survival

• shows early human problem-solving and the beginning of material culture

• hunter-gatherer societies began to form nomadic communities

• Neolithic revolution (agricultural revolution):

  • cultivate crops and domesticate animals (farm animals but also human beings)

  • social turning point → humans began to establish settlement → society is more orderly

  • new roles (merchants, craftsmen, political leaders) and power dynamics (gender inequality)

Ancient Technology (500 BCE to 195 CE)

• iron smelting, screws, levers, construction techniques, and the beginnings of systematic scientific inquiry

• Ancient Greeks and Romans demonstrated that ideas and scientific knowledge can lead to practical technological innovations

• Pont du Gard aqueduct - ancient Romans used it to move water 19 km to homes in Nimes

Renaissance (14th to 17th century)

• Gutenberg’s printing press increased the production and spread of information and helped society shift from oral to print culture

  • commodified info and its preservation

  • accelerated levels of literacy

• influence depended on the cultural and social conditions of different regions

Enlightenment and French Revolution (1715-1789)

• characterized by phrase “systematic knowledge in action”

• the Encyclopedia valued practical and technological knowledge alongside academic knowledge and encouraged tech transfer

• military tech advanced (ex: armed drones)

Industrial Revolution (1760-1840)

• machinery, steam power, textiles, and steel transformed production, work, wages, and worker-employer relationships

• machine breaking - workers destroy machines they believed threatened their livelihoods

Electronic Times (1880-1970)

• radio, cinema, and TV created mass media and new forms of communication, entertainment, and social connection

• McLuhan - “the medium is the message”: the form of communication itself influences how people think and interact

  • hot media (books, radio, photographs): engage a single sense, requiring less sensory effort to interpret meaning; high-definition (lots of data → requires little active completion from audience)

  • cool media (TV, comics): engages multiple senses, requires greater effort to understand meaning; low-definition (less data)

• global village: electronic media compresses space and time, connecting people globally

Information Society

• computers, phones, internet, big data, AI, and predictive analytics create a highly connected, data driven society

• phones demonstrate key features of modern tech (mobility, speed, customization, interactivity, multiple functions)

• created field of data science

big data

• characterized by:

  • volume - huge quantities of data

  • variety

  • velocity - data is produced rapidly and continuously

  • veracity - accuracy and reliability

  • virtue - ethical use

  • value - useful insights from data

• example: Google, Netflix, Spotify, Amazon

• helps with real-time analysis, evidence-based policy, and predictive analytics but also creates concerns about privacy, bias, accountability, and regulations

time acceleration

• tech development is happening faster than ever

• humans took millions of years to develop increasingly sophisticted stone tools → modern tech such as Internet and data storage have advanced significantly within decades

• faster innovation creates difficulties to keep up with its variety of consequences

why study theoretical perspectives on tech?

• theories help us assess:

  • impact of tech on society

  • how tech and society shape one another

  • tech progress through a critical lens

  • ethical use/development

• no single approach does this adequately

utopian views

• embracing tech as new means to achieving progress/efficiency → creates better society

• advances produce new societal achievements (improved communication) and societal goals (better security)

dystopian views

• tech causes harm to society (environmental damage, social isolation, distractions)

• can make inequality worse

  • those who don’t have access to tech are at a disadvantage

Feenberg’s categorization of theories

• neutrality: tech is separate from human activity, no effect on natural ends (such as ethics and morality)

• value-laden: tech inherently embodies values, believes, and priorities of society/individuals who design/use it

• autonomous: humans have little choice in deciding how tech will evolve and diffuse in society

• human-controlled: tech is controlled by humans and is a socially constructed entity whose meaning/use are determined by human action

determinism

• technological determinism: tech drives social change

  • develop autonomously, independent of human control (ex: TV shaping family life)

• social determinism: society shapes how innovations are used

  • humans adapt tech for their specific needs based on culture (ex: Amish society shunning cellphones - the individual lacks the choice)

• neutral and autonomous

instrumentalism

• tech is a neutral tool that fulfils users’ specific tasks

• used for positive or negative reasons depending on moral intentions of human agents using them

• up to individual actors, not the whole society

• neutral and human-controlled

substantivism

• tech works under its own inherent logic and reshapes society

• tech has goals and impacts that go beyond human control

• the nature (either liberating or destructive) of the tech predetermines how it will be utilized and its subsequent impacts on society

• autonomous and value-laden

critical theory

• tech isn’t neutral → reflects values and interests of elites

• in a technocracy (system comprising individuals from scientific and technological fields, whose knowledge influences decisions regarding technical/scientific development), hegemonic elites (a dominant group that exerts power/influence over members of society) use tech to maintain power

Science and Technology Studies (STS)

• STS is an interdisciplinary field that studies how scientific and technological changes intersect with society

• confronts 2 major challenges:

  • conducting meaningful research at the micro and macro levels

  • embraces neither utopian or dystopian perspectives

• characteristic:

  • rejects technological and social determinism → they work together

  • holistic approach

  • qualitative methods → case studies, ethnography, observational studies

• SCOT and ANT are within this field

Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

• human action shapes tech → meaning is socially constructed

  • tech gathers meaning through social norms

• perspective employed to understand:

  • technical change

  • the design of tools

  • the technological-societal relationship

• concepts:

  • relevant social groups: (developers, engineers, investors) shape meaning of tech through their visions and values

  • interpretive flexibility: wide range of applications of tech

  • closure and stablization: through negotiation among key groups/users, overtime an artifact is given a specific meaning and use

  • wider context

• example: the Commodore 64 was a popular home computer, it became a toy for hobbyists, a productivity device for businesspeople, and an educational tool for students

Actor Network Theory (ANT)

• the social and natural worlds consist of constantly shifting networks where human and nonhuman entities hold equal importance

• actors or actants can emerge in a variety of forms ranging from human begins to concept or ideas, technologies, institutions, etc

  • actor/agent: a person or entity with the capacity to (inter)act independently within society

  • actant: a non-human actor who engages in relationships with human and non-human actors

• humans and objects play roles in shaping society

• speed bump example: anything that causes an action or makes a difference in the network - both humans (drivers) and non-humans (the speed bump)

technological affordances

• the action possibilities provided by a tech based on its design → shaped by interaction between user and environment

• digital affordances, such as the like button, encourage certain types of user interactions