TODAY: Appropriate Technology revisited.
Langdon Winner, "Building the Better Mousetrap," [58-84; Ch. 4 Whale.] Ditto, "Decentralization Clarified" [85-97; Ch. 5 Whale and Reactor]

-Problem: how to define "appropriate" in adv. industrial societies.
64. "For fully a century and a half prior to the Vietnam War, the advance of technology and the horizons of human progress had seemed one and the same." Agree? Is the War then a turning point?
-1969ff: obsession with technology? and ecotechnology?
-Who are some of the recent representatives of the Carlyle tradition, who find technology overpowering, for its treatment of nature, its dualism, and adulation of rational thought, so that no "remedy" is possible?
67. For Winner as critic, "the eloquence of criticism" is matched by what?
71. in the Journal of the New Alchemists, what were Todd [New Alchemy Institute], Lovins [Soft Energy Paths],Dickson, Bookchin, and Ivan Illich [Tools for Conviviality; Medical Nemesis] trying to find?
73. What are the characteristics of "soft" technologies?
-Why is it inevitable that "Clark's typology, and all similar ones were bound to fail?"
74. In the list of concerns ranging from limits to growth, fossil fuel shortages, population, famine, alienation from government, large bureaucracies, what notably stands out by its absence?
74f. By appealing to such a broad spectrum of interests, [like the Populist-Progressive movements?], instead of confronting and changing society, what did the "new earth" movement become?
77. What is the "crucial flaw in dreams of modern materialism?"
77f What model for social change exists in all appropriate technology projects?
77. What's the context of "the better mousetrap theory"?
--What have been the two chief defects or flaws in the appropriate technology movements?
80. For Winner, what marks the end of appropriate technology? Do you think that colors his analysis? Does his analysis still hold?
80. For Winner, where do the real achievements lie?
83. Why does Winner term this a "world of bizarre inversions?"

85-88: "Center of what?" Instead of "decentralization" what 4 questions/facets or contexts of "center" should we concentrate on?

Sometimes, one center is ideal.

88-93. "When Centers Matter" Decentralization: increasing the number of centers of social and political policy making. [Paul Goodman?]
     -Centers of decision making are not necessarily centers ofexecution.
90. "Centralism is the indelible stain that soils the hopes of socialists and humanism." Do you agree?
-The relative importance of "center' depends on activity and context: oil industry and Exxon; Chinese restaurants in Portland.
91. When and how do centers matter to us?
-If the overall pattern is clear that "the social history of modern technology shows a tendency .... to reduce the number of centers [of control and action]" what counter example might one cite?

Alienation from Centers.
     -Does Winner feel that technical hardware and organizational practices reflect moving control over production into the centers of everyday life? Can you cite examples from the 1990s, developed or enhanced from the 1980s?
94. What does Winner think the designs of all kinds of technologies embody? How does his conception relate to the idea that artifacts have politics?
     -What does "the system [of increasing dependency on a few, remote centers] works" mean to Winner?
     -In this context, how would Winner's analysis bear on the recent bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City?
     -Which of our other authors share Winner's views?
95-96. "Dreams of instant liberation from centralized social control have accompanied virtually every important new technological system introduced during the past century and a half." Do you agree?
     -What is the purpose of decentralization?
     -What would decentralizing politics and technology require?

TODAY: Computer Technology and Social and Ethical Issues.

Winner, Ch. 6, "Mythinformation," [98-117]
98. What are the goals of the computer revolution? What are the means of the computer revolution?
100. How does W. characterize the descriptions and forecasts about computerization?
101. What might one ask about?
102/105. What is mythinformation?
106. Are the vast majority of new jobs likely to come in computers?
106. Who benefits most from computerization?
107. The real effects seem to be trending toward?
108. "Computer romanticism"?
108. What do you think of the four assumptions?
     1. People are bereft of information.
     2. information = knowledge
     3. knowledge = power
     4. more access to information enhances democracy, equalizes social power
111/112. What is the parable of ground Zero vs. Nuclear Freeze?
113. Re mythinformation as ideology: what is the "information" so crucial?
115. The "telos" of modern society?
115. What does W. suggest we study?
117. What really guides the present course of the computer revolution?

Teich: Turkle [336-358]
Coyle
Postman

TODAY: Ethics and Computers. Readings and Case Histories.
11. Will innovation cease if "rights" of software developers aren't protected?
12. "Who is to blame" if software fails?
12. What is privacy, and how much of it are individuals entitled to?
13. Is AI, in your view, "a proper view for humanity"?
14. What is ethical theory [moral philosophy] and how does it differ from moral decisions?
15. The 3 most influential ethical theories?
--------------------------------------------------
131. Balancing the needs for privacy and security may be difficult because? What is this chapter, chapter 6, about?
136. "ultimately human beings have to make judgments based on the data," and this process is based on what sorts of factors inaccessible to machines? Wouldn't it be better to remove such factors?
138. Is data the lifeblood of information societies?
139. Which are the 3 largest credit bureaus?
139. The major enduring problem with credit information?
141. Who are Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility?
145. What privacy guidelines/publications have many governments
subscribed to? And which do you think are the most important provisions?
147. What is the NSA?
148. the NCIC?
149. DES?
150. DARPA?
151. What do you think of the argument from social engineering, that "What point is there in creating elaborate technological surveillance systems if their locks, keys, and blueprints already have been sold?"
-Do you think the USA should have a [compulsory] national ID card system?
155. With respect to data collection, what is the pressing social need?
159. What kind of precedent do you think "computer based monitoring of employees will set for other invasive practices."? Is this a slippery slope argument?
159. What does the "instrumentalism of efficiency" mean?
160. What, for this author, is the greatest threat to our privacy?
-Related the answer to 160 to ethical theory.
161. "The instrumental treatment of human beings is at the heart of the privacy issue." In so saying, what ethical theory is probably being appealed to?
59. What makes the exchange of data in data banks such an important and complex issue?
61. This author believes the privacy issue is at base a struggle between?
62. What statement about increased information reminds you of Winner?
62. When aren't efficiency and improved decision making good?
63. Note: asymmetry between the power of organizations and individuals.
64. If Warren-Brandeis' right to an inviolable personality holds, then is such recognition tantamount to respecting an individual as an autonomous being? and hence and end in himself?
65. If one cannot control who has information about one, how is it that one loses considerable autonomy?
66. For this author, what does loss of autonomy mean?
67. How then is diminishing individual autonomy for the sake of improved decision making contradictory?

Scenario 5: 2005 and you are infected with HIV. Govt. compulsory, but confidential, testing. Indirect measures of detecting HIV positives.

Scenarios 3.1-3.5, 5.2. : Is there an ethical issue? If so, did actor x act ethically or unethically? To what principles are you appealing?

TODAY: Technology and Nature

Winner, Ch. 7, "The State of Nature Revisited" [121-137]

121. Nature: a vivid contrast to human artifice?
121. Nature: a range of meanings, historically, with glaring contradictions?
122/123 Why does the "natural" seem more real?
-Which 3 perspectives on environmental policy does Winner describe as conventional ones?
123/124. What two policies from the Progressive Era survive today in our approach to the environment?
125. "Trade-off": subject this to a Winner-like analysis.
126. What do you think of Thurow's facemask Gedankenexperiment? as a means of quantifying qualities? How much would you pay for it?
128/129. What is the special vulnerability of the Doomsday syndrome or ecotastrophe scenarios?
129. What is the naturalistic fallacy?
131. What is 'shallow' environmentalism?
131. What is 'deep' environmentalism?
133/135. What is Winner's preferred 4th perspective on Nature?
137. "Nature will justify anything." Comment.
130. Must we dismantle freedom to control Nature? Do familiar social liberties become dangerous luxuries?
132. Leopold's claim?
135. What do you think of the idea that discussion of ecology and the environment tell us more about human society than about Nature per se?

Lynn White, jr., 'The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis'

77/78. What "may mark the greatest event in human history since the invention of agriculture"?
79/80. Why ought we to consider the roots or axioms of Western science and technology?
83. Which is the most significant root for White?
86. The Christian smashing of animism had what environmental consequences?
89. What do you think of White's claim that, "viewed historically, modern science is an extrapolation of natural theology"?
91. What does W. think it will take to get us out of the present ecological crisis?
93. Which Christian axiom is most at fault?
94. Who does W. nominate as the patron saint of ecology? Why?

Volti, Ch. 6, "Technology, Energy, and the Environment" [87-103]

87. The most obvious and long lasting consequence of Technology?
87. Two broad categories of consequence?
88/89. The greatest threat of global warming?
90/91: What are the salient problems for a planet under stress?
91/92. If civilizations have collapsed and catastrophic diseases spread because of technology, why even ask if technology might provide solutions to the problems it causes? [Does Lynn White, jr?]
93/94. The key to solving the resource depletion problem?
94/95. What field, and why, does V. chose as exemplary to illustrate the limits of technological fixes?
96. Are V's criticisms of solar power as broad and sweeping as those of nuclear energy?
97. Do you agree that the "cornerstone of industrial society" is the throughput of energy?
98. Is economic growth compatible with static energy consumption?
100. What arguments or evidence suggest that a highly centralized, authoritarian government is not essential?
101. Why is a "pure market system . . by its nature a threat to the environment?
101/102. If such a threat, what should we do?
103. If better technology is made available [a better mousetrap?], will that ensure its adoption and diffusion?

Against Environmentalism run amok.

Tierney, "Recycling"
Gross/Levitt, 149-178; 227-228;231-233.

TODAY: Risk.
     Why "Tar-baby"? What's W's analysis? Is there no agreed on problem? Experts vs? Laity? Relative risk.

Winner, Ch. 8, "On Not Hitting the Tar-Baby." [138-154]

Risk assessment presumes favoring status quo, i.e. is conservative, but, could lead to no improvement, as well as preventing degradation. Hence, being conservative, risk assessment can impede "socially enforced limits" on relatively free industry.
140. "The fundamental issue here is ?"
141. Salus populi suprema lex: meaning?
141. What conceptual shift is there from hazards to risks? 145. Why is "involuntary risk" nonsense?
146. "Are there any environmental dangers in the world that all reasonable people, regardless of institutional attachment, ought to take seriously?"
147. Can you suggest examples of risk-taking as a badge of courage?
148. What does W. mean that certain social interests must lose by entering the risk debate?
150. What does W. mean that adopting a risk posture/focus concedes things that one may not wish to?
150. Is W. a conservative?
151. What should one do and why?
152. What is Winner's point?
-Why is talking about risk in the recombinant DNA debate acceptable for W?
-How does Winner feel about conservatism?
-What two types of issues ought not to be the "risk" arena?

Allman, "Staying Alive in the 20th Century" Science 85, Oct., 31-41

32. Is there any utility to the public's irrationality and quantitative illiteracy?
32. What's the difference between taking risks for gains or losses?
33. Isn't "control" the key issue in risk?
34. Are there any neutral ways to present information?
-Is death the only thing people think about when assessing risk?
-What sorts of factors do people seem to invoke when estimating risk?

TODAY: Science, Technology, and Embarrassment. Winner, the Reactor, and the Whale: an Epiphany.

Winner, Ch. 9, "Brandy, Cigars, and Human Values" [155-164]

Summary remarks:
     If 'nature' too ambiguous, and 'risk' too uncertain/chancy, what is there to provide conclusion for our search for moral limits to guide technological civilization?
"Values"? A symptom of deep seated confusion. Hollow Discourse. An amorphous category in place of cares, commitments, responsibilities, preferences, tastes, aspirations, etc.      originally, the worth of a thing; with Nietzsche, changed meaning. The fact/value controversy [what is that?] hides a fundamental shift in the meaning of "value," from "an attribute of something" to "a subjective phenomenon."
     Therefore to study values is no longer to think about externalities, but to do an "emotional inventory."
     [a] instead of pursuing things that have values, we "have" values in order to pursue things.
     Is the world a supermarket of values, to which no rational criticism applies? Is it no longer appropriate to talk about the good, the virtuous, the worthy? Isn't even asking such a question quaint and ridiculous?
     [b] We no longer can talk in traditional moral and political language, [Orwell], such as rights, and claims to rights; wisdom;, the difference between opinion and principle, bias and belief, desire and need. [note how this parallels the blurring of distinctions between ends and means, logic and reason, ethics and morals, motives and incentives: no wonder there's a deep seated confusion]
     [c] loss of (attention to) shared reasons for action. [the hope for finding a shared, rational basis for common action is vanishing] 160. "Values": as 'input' to social sciences for policy: data; experts;" doomed. [?]

"Values": a vacuous concept. Practically: the leftover concerns after the real business is done. Social justice or abuse of power is far clearer and more distinctive.

161. N.B. the illusory ritual of moving to "values" as if to warm, caring, humane consideration of the most fundamental issues in human experience.: "values" as hasty afterthoughts, not to be taken seriously.
162. "Embarrassment would do just as well"
Even the use of more specific terms, like motives, preferences, norms, would remain relatively superficial.

The real question? human well being. How are we to live together? gracefully and with justice?

By nature, such questions exclude expertise [and consequently, what place do they have in our world?].

Winner, Ch. 10, "The Whale and the Reactor" [164-178]

Autobiographical: Buddhist church, Diablo Canyon power site; Henry Adams, The Virgin and the Dynamo ~ Langdon Winner, The Whale and the Reactor: an epiphany.
     UCal, 1960s, Kerr's multiversity in the service of industrialism meets the civil rights and Vietnam problems. Systems analysis at the Pentagon: "sheer obfuscation." [rationalizations for expediency]

     Growing up in the 50s: TV, machine in the garden, technological somnambulism. innocence and ignorance: fluoroscopes, hexachlorophene [Phisohex baths for newborns];

171. A vast series of biological social experiments to which we've become accustomed, such that the price that we pay is almost invisible, because the newer, qualitative transformations of the world are conceived only within narrow interest, "the bottom line."

     What's the top line? the best?

The destruction of Quality ~ "Progress". [cf. dairying in S.L. Obispo]

"technology goes where it has never been" : the value of the countryside lies in being not yet developed. // the value of the genome lies in its not yet being engineered. [patented]

Diablo Canyon Reactor - a political technology requiring policing -- a society in which more police are "necessary", a "way of life" D. C. as "un-natural", "inhumane", out of place.

     Final Exercise            Wednesday, 8 December