Reflections and Questions:
Technological Revolutions
Technological Revolutions:
- invention of
agriculture about 7000 BCE
- the development of
cities about 3000 BCE
- the medieval
technological revolution approx. 800-1300 AD
- the age of exploration
and the scientific revolution approx. 1400-1700
- the British Industrial
Revolution approx. 1750-1830 and the American Industrial Revolution
approx.
1790-1850
- Mass production
approx. 1840-1920 (this is a second step in industrialization)
- The computer 1946-
Looking in more detail at the
United States:
Changes in the first half
of the
19th century (the American
Industrial
Revolution)
- the development of
textile
factories (starting 1790)
- transportation
- the first
American-trained (by apprenticeship or West Point) engineers
- number of patents begins to increase
Changes in the late 19th
century (some start as early as 1850, but mostly after the civil war):
- the
American
system of manufacture makes possible mass production of many new
products
- mass circulation
magazines and advertising generated interest in new technologies
- development of a
national market
- development of
large
businesses
- urbanization
- a stronger central
government (as a result of the civil war)
- development of
engineering education
- development of
electrical industry and other science-based technology
Changes in the early 20th
century:
detail from Diego Rivera mural, Detroit Institute of Art, PEM photo
Issues to think about:
- Technological revolutions or steady progress?
- How is the process of technological change
different in later technological revolutions than it was in earlier
ones?
- is progress in a particular direction
inevitable and does a particular technological discovery inevitably
lead to a particular social change
- Does technology cause or result from
economic changes?
- the changing relationship between science
and technology
- the impact of technological and economic
changes on how people live their lives
- the way people understand and experience the
world has changed
Is technological change happening faster now than in
the past (before 1980)?
- improved technologies come along faster,
rendering old technologies obsolete
- how much does it affect people's
lives--compare the automobile, mass production, with the internet and
cell phones
- new technologies make more difference to
people than improvements and replacements (eg. cds for vinyl)
- does war spur technological progress?
- how to measure? quantity of
patents? how many different technologies people use? how
much does technology affect our standard of living? how
technology improves communication? how much time do people spend with
particular technologies (eg. computers--but faster computers may make a
difference here), How fast can people get around and get
information? what skills do we have to have--what technology do
we need? longer lives?
-
charts of technological progress (p. 30)
Cowan ch.
9: American ideas
about technology
- the blood pressure
cuff
was initially rejected by doctors because it took away the value of
their
skill in reading the patient directly by pulse diagnosis.
- The machine gave more
accurate information, but other information was lost.
- doctors had the power
to reject at least temporarily a new technology
- this shows how our
ideas about technology influence the development of technology
We think about technology
in different
ways:
- we compare it to
nature
(the other way of doing things is more natural)--eg. genetic engineered
foods
- U.S.--is the end
result natural
- England--is the means
of getting there natural
- Germany--is the
research organized in an open and fair way, don't do research until you
have dealt with possible ethical concerns
- we ask about costs (what is the cost/benefit ratio)
- how do we value accurate limited information relative to
broad
subjective information--how sure do we feel we need to be before acting
on information
- we think about how it
affects social status
- we think about how it
affects skill
- how does it affect being able to take pride in work
- we think about how it
relates to gender--eg. robot lawn mowers
- we ask questions about
God (are we playing God?)
- and we compare it with
our ideas of government--eg. the automobile fits American ideas of
freedom
and individualism
- in the early republic
people worried about whether technology was following God's will--eg.
pain relief for childbirth
- the romantics worried
about what technology was doing to skill--the loss of creative
expression. But those who favored technology argued that it would
liberate people, not enslave them.
These give us different questions
to ask about a new technology and how it comes into use. The more
questions we can ask, the better choices we can make about what
technological future we want.
some artists of the mid-20th
century tried to romaticize and poeticize the man-made world.
how do our romantic and other
ideas about technology affect what technologies we like and what we
don't
like?
Diego Rivera at work
on the Central Panel, North Wall, Detroit Institute of Arts
click
here to see one of the finished Detroit murals
this page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack
History
122
last updated 10/19/2005