Conclusions
Let's go back to where we started--engineering as a
profession
- how has what engineers do changed in the
modern
world?
- how has technology changed the experience of
being
an engineer?
- where do engineers have to worry about
social issues?
How has the role of technology in our lives changed?
- without agriculture people
could not develop cities
- key change:
industrialization
- electricity--having power
available to us via a network
- wider sharing of
ideas--printing press, radio, tv, internet
- technology makes us more
efficient
- technology gives us much
more mobility
Historical sweep:
- humans have always used technology to adapt
to their
environment, but progress was very slow until the middle ages (900-1400
AD)
- then technological progress began to speed
up,
as people in Europe began to believe in progress and to use technology
to
try to get ahead. This lead to industry overtaking agriculture as
the
largest part of the economy in the 19th century
- in the period from 1850 to 1920 mass
production
was perfected, but more importantly technology became increasingly
based
on theoretical science (which was also progressing rapidly). This
allowed
new technology to be developed much faster and further.
- in recent years technology has become more
complex
and we have become more dependent on it and more concerned about its
effects.
- can technology continue to grow faster and faster or are
we
reaching some kind of limits in some areas?
Watch your distinctions:
- industry=privately owned businesses,
industrial
research labs
- government=president/congress/supreme court,
government agencies (NASA, EPA...), military services, government
research labs
- academia=universities, colleges, university
research
labs
Themes of the course--what shapes technology
- change of engineering from a craft to a
profession
- the technological fix--can technological
innovation
solve social problems?
- where do we need to ask about ethics in
technology?
- changing attitudes towards progress,
technology
- how industrialization has changed the
world--our
view of progress isn't universal and has changed over time
- new technologies make more new technologies
possible: speeds up progress
- where do new ideas come come from
- technology for profit vs. technology to serve
the public good
- mass production/consumer culture
- the role of big business
- consequences of technology for consumers,
workers
- intended and unintended consequences
- the shaping of technology by historical
circumstances (eg. internet is decentralized because of cold war)
- the process of technological change (and
attitudes
towards technological change) has changed over time
- we as a society must choose technologies
that give
us the future we want
This page written and copyright
Pamela E. Mack
last updated Dec. 9, 2005