Volti, Chapters 1-5(Questions and Reading Guide)
Technology: "a SYSTEM based on the APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE, manifested in PHYSICAL OBJECTS and ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS, for the ATTAINMENT OF SPECIFIC GOALS."
What's the "normal" process of technological change?
What values characterize the advance of technology?
What's particularly lacking in the technological approach?
How is the legend of Faust related to a technological civilization?
"Novelty creates ambiguity" - how does that also characterize technological change?
Besides being economic and useful, what other factors characterize technology?
What question should one always ask about technological change?
What is a technological fix, and why is it so popular?
What is the chief problem with technological fixes?
What is technocracy, and why is it bound to be unsatisfactory?
Distinguish between two different types of technological change.
What tends to be the more complex and costly stage of technological development, R or D? and why?
What role do "bottlenecks" often play in technological change?
Are technical and economic factors in themselves sufficient to explain technological development?
Why is technology's existence as a "supply - push" not adequate to explain technological change?
What sorts of technological change is not well explained by "demand - pull?"
What sort of economy does Volti think most receptive to technology?
Does he offer any criticism of his opinion?
Why must "planned" societies have greater problems with technological change than "unplanned, or decentralized" societies?
What broad classes of motives are there for technological change? Criticise the idea that technology is applied science.
Give an example of technology leading to scientific change.
How does technology diffuse?
What is the NIH syndrome?
What is the most important secret about technology?
Do patents help or hinder the process of technological change?
Why is the American view of technological change largely one of individual "heroic" inventors, like Edison, Ford, Bell, and the Wright Brothers?
What is the "technological imperative"?