STS1411: The Economy of Technology

These flashcards cover the definitions of technology and the historical relationship between technological and economic change from the Industrial Revolution to the modern Information Economy.

Technology as Material Substance

A passive physical entity autonomous from its effects on society.

Technology as Knowledge

Artifacts that are objects modified, modelled, and produced according to a set of humanly imposed attributes.

Technology as Practice

The complex practices embedded in everyday activities.

Technology as Technique

A mechanism or strategic action through which human needs can be achieved.

Technology as Society

The concept that in an advanced society, technology and society are inseparable.

Technology as Assemblage

The combination of people and things that create phenomena, which interact in complex ways and can change according to new networks and groupings.

The Industrial Revolution

The historical time period spanning the $1780s$ to $1880s$ characterized by technological and economic change.

Steam Engine

An invention that allowed for the expansion of the factory system and powered trains, enabling quicker movement of people and centralization of labor.

Factory System

A production method that moved labour from small shops to centralized sites of production like towns and cities.

Commodity Chains

Networks linking resources with consumers, driven by trains, telegraphs, and factories.

Electric Lighting

A technology that allowed for the divorce of human labour from daylight hours.

Global Time Standardization

An economic and social milestone where time was standardized in $1884$ and a common global calendar was settled in the mid $1910s$.

Typewriter

An invention that allowed greater volumes of information to be generated at less cost, leading to the expansion of banking, insurance, and government census taking.

Assembly Line Technology

A mode of production that streamlined manufacturing by bringing together human and mechanical elements to turn component parts into finished products.

Atomic Bomb Development

A tightly guarded military secret that, upon deployment, led some to question technological progress without ethics.

The Green Revolution

The industrialization of agriculture that increased food production but increased dependence on synthetic fertilizer and machines like combine harvesters.

Military-Industrial Complex

A system arising from $WW2$ and the Cold War that legacy the expansion of the information economy in Silicon Valley.

Information Economy

An economic stage from the $1950s$ to the present enabled by the microprocessor and the internet, focusing on the collection, management, and analysis of digital information.