Lienhard review

1960 television system

history helps us think about change over time:
technologies change but also attitudes change and society changes

• The Jetsons cartoon imagines technology changing without any social change from 1950s patterns
• what changes are going on right now?
  

modernism isn't about technology but about an experience of "new" and "different"
technological advance and modernism aren't the same thing

• what speeds up technological progress in the modern period?
• war
• eagerness to accept new things--weakening of tradition
  
• increasing use of science in developing new technology
• investment--particularly the growth of large corporations
• new corporate strategy: use patents to get a monopoly (more competition due to better transportation)
  
• having more infrastructure available on which to build new technology
• having pieces available that can fit into new technological systems
• what causes and shapes the modern era?
  
• art and culture and science both change in response to technological change and cause changes in technology (eg. design)
  
• technologies like photography push art in new directions
• artists show people how radically you can abandon tradition
• ideas bounce back and forth between art, culture, science, technology
  
• to what extent was technological change the main cause of the modern era?
• how radically was technology changing people's lives (db 7)
• how did people make sense of that--experimenting with changing all sorts of things, faith in progress
  
• how did they make sense of that?
  
• how do our values shape technological change
• we adopt technologies most enthusiastically if we can find ways to use them that align with our values
• consumers shape technology. Example, will SUVs continue to be the most popular cars in the US
  
• what caused the end of the modern era?
• people begin to have have serious doubts that progress is always good
• why? atom bomb, Metropolis, pollution (eg. the first Earth Day)
  

What are the relationships between technology and "modern"?
(look at p. vii)
a variety of causes and effects going in both directions

What is modern?

• the modern era, roughly 1880s or 1900 to 1960s (opinion leaders) or 1970s--a time when there was a radically new way of thinking=modernism
  
• not everyone embraced this, but it was a new dominant culture
  
• throwing out tradition, find new ways to achieve function, increasing efficiency
  
• taking more risks
• more individualism (and value put on privacy)
  
• different is good (up to a point)
• assumption was that progress is good and advances steadily
  
• "everything we can do (with technology) we should do"
  
• by the 1920s city people were moving enthusiastically into modern
  
• it is more complicated than that--not everyone was happy with all of modern, Leinhard is making a generalization about the spirit of the times
• modern rejected the traditional value system and replaced it by belief in (scientific and technological) progress
  

• Lienhard argues that science and technology caused modernism, but it is also back and forth
  
• how does modern affect technology?
• modern ideas encourage faster technological change
• encourage not just linear change but also radically new ways of doing things
• the most important change is that which is not step by step
  

• encouraged people to look to technology as a way of solving problems
  
• anything is possible--we can use technology to control the world
• in the modern era more was completely new, today we mostly have new technologies that build off old technologies (that was true before modern as well)

• how does technology progress differently in the modern era?
• inventors became heroes
  
• the development of science makes it possible to more-systematically develop new technologies
• increasing applied research and development at universities
  
• whole new system for research and development of new products--fast-track
• corporations came to see developing new products as a key business strategy
  
• large corporations putting money into new technologies
• teams of people working together instead of lone inventors
• use of science to systematically find new possibilities
• businesses increasingly relied on new technology for competitive advantage--innovation as a business strategy
  
• the focus was on complex systems of technology
• less focus on the impact of technologies on things outside of the technological system--we are more concerned about the environment today than in the modern era

• to what extent is technology the cause of modernism?
• what is Lienhard's argument about this
• technology gave us new ways of seeing the world (stop action cameras, xrays...) making tradition less important, more confidence in what humans can do
• technologies gave new choices, making it possible for society to choose to go in new directions
  

• first half--1890 through World War I--more radical period
  
• second half--1920-1960--more focused on conformity
• the success of technology suggested that science could give give you the right answer
• mass production made lots of identical things
• the beginnings of some fears of technology, but not yet widespread until the 1960s or 1970s
  

• technology was more and more successful until we reached a point where the power it gave us seemed dangerous
  
• atomic bomb--maybe technology gives us too much power for our own good
• do we want to have the power to destroy or transform the world and ourselves
  
• cold war--technology became so much driven by military goals
  
• moon landing was a great achievement of the modern era, but people began to ask "what's the point?"
• we can't solve any problem we put our mind to--a 1970s effort to cure cancer was not successful, though progress was made
  
• enthusiasm that technology could fix problems, but some problems are more complicated
  
• just because we can do it doesn't mean we want to do it
• we had better worry about the side effects of new technology
• less confidence, can we be sure of anything?
• people lose confidence that we can believe in progress, so is there anything we can believe in together?
• a more cautious attitude towards technology

What replaced it: post-modernism

• more caution about the consequences of new technologies
• doubt about the idea of the inevitable march of progress and the idea we can find truth
  
• some level of relativism: the right answer may depend on your perspective
• architecture became less minimalist: more playful
• some people see the singer Madonna as an iconic post-modern artist
• focus on diversity, flexibility and change--social change catching up with technological change
  

Has something now replaced post-modernism?

• Lienhard argues for an Expanded era that enjoys technology but uses it wisely
• The survey you did argued for Integrative, or they now call it Progressive on their front page
• progressives are trying to be what replaces post-modernism
  
• key values: environmentalism, diversity and inclusion, and social justice
• in politics, Bernie Saunders crystallized an idea of progressive politics as different from liberalism
• social change:
• traditionalists say no
• modernists say go slow
• progressives are eager for social change
• is social change the inevitable result of technological change
  

• transfer of technology from Europe to America, and how it was modified to fit American conditions and values
  
• how did the US go from copying Europe to taking the lead in technology
  
• how society's decisions affect which technologies succeed and which ones fail
• inventing "modern"--something changed  (what caused it?)
  
• what technologies became a symbol of modern
• how society changed (eg. abandoning tradition)--what caused that?
• new openness to new technology--Where did that come from?
• why did technological progress speed up?
• the enthusiasm for invention and doing new things
• modern thinking was technology can solve all problems--utopian view of technology
• how can we use technology to make the world a much better place?
  
• eg. people predicted that technology would do so much for us that we would only have to work a few hours a week
  
• anything we can do we will do
• how are art and science not separate?  sense of radical change
  
• scientists were influenced by romanticism
• artists were visionaries inspiring new ideas in technology
• at the beginning of the modern era, in science and in art the old stable world was challenged
• new technology was influenced by art, both by developments in design and by belief that the future is going to be different
  
• technology is the connection
• the rise and fall of the independent inventor
  
• in what sense has modern ended?
  
• we still have the education system, the corporate research labs, and the consumer marketing and enthusiasm to develop new technologies quickly
  
• we are more cautious about technology--for one thing it can cause problems
• fears of technology
  
• we are less optimistic about the future
• there are things we can do that we may choose not to do