Thinking about Technology - I

Leo Marx, "Does improved technology mean progress?"

-From 1789 to1960s, what had been thought the base of social progress?
-How had there been a change in terms of the way Science and Technology were viewed?
-Why was Franklin opposed to patents?
-How did Webster in 1847 help evoke an idea of the "technological sublime"?
-What fundamental inversion of values does Marx see? Do you agree?
-For you, are power, rationality, and efficiency [Fordism] ends in themselves? Which has more appeal to you personally, Fordism or Populism/Progressivism?
-What does Marx mean by "Adversary Culture", and what does he think of it?
-What does anti-technocratic mean?
-What does Marx say is the essential defect of the technocratic mindset?
-What, according to Marx, do we need?

Alvin Weinberg, "Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?"

-What is the purpose of a technological fix?
-What examples does Weinberg give?
-What is the aim of social engineering?
-Should technology replace social engineering?
-Is social engineering a technology? 

Neil Postman, "Technopoly and the Broken Defenses"

-Postman opposes the moral, political, and social against the [efficient, objective, and quantitative]
-What are the virtues of controlling information [excluding it, too] in society? [valuing certain moral or social ends. protection from unwanted information?] Are there any drawbacks?
-What examples does Postman give of social institutions which require a theory about purpose and meaning? [family, law schools, political parties, religion, state]
-"All theories simplify." [and therefore are vulnerable]
-modern religious/state theories give no moral direction [Should they?]
-the moral universe is irrelevant to the modern state
-only practical decisions get made
-technopology defined: ? [gives us no guidance about what is acceptable in the moral realm]
-If Francis Fukayama's essay on the end of history extols the virtues of the liberal democratic principle, what does Vaclav Havel [Postman] think of that principle? [equivalent to commodity capitalism]
-What are the characteristics of the modern religious/state?

1. bureaucracy [efficiency; meaning and context stripped]
   largely serves itself. defines our problems, usually to be ones
   of efficiency. "a coordinated series of techniques" to control, limit, and "rationalize" information.
2. expertise [specialized >>>> social or moral issues]
   disastrous where efficiency is irrelevant
3. technical machinery = a third technique of information control:
   [IQ, intelligence; statistics, norms, classifiers]
   

Wendell Berry, "Why I am not going to buy a computer"

-What basic question does Berry raise
how does that apply to computers?
-What criteria does Berry have for appropriate technology?
-Isn't Berry's a call for a return to the 19th century?
-Are we all guilty, as consumers?
-Is there any proof that computers lead to better writing?

Thinking about Technology - II

Emmanuel G. Mesthene, "The Role of Technology in Society"

-What are the 3 views of technology?
-In what ways does Mesthene show himself to be a technological determinist?
-76. What is Technology?
-What does Mesthene see as a paradox of modern technological decisions?

John McDermott, "Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals"

-What does McD. mean by "laissez-innover"?
-Does McD. believe that technology in America is moving in democratic or antidemocratic directions? Why?
-What is a perverse "Gresham's Law of Technology"?
-What does McD. believe about the current use of technology?
-102. If the elite are knowledgeable, and astruistic, what are the masses?
-Whose interests does laisser-innover fit?
-To what does laisser-innover lead?
-105. What do you think of McD's claim that "technological rationality is as socially neutral today as market rationality was a century ago."?

Samuel Florman, "Technology and the Tragic View"

-What does Florman mean by the "tragic view" of technology?
-With whom does Florman want to ally himself?
-Is Florman, on balance, pro or anti technology?
-If it's true that it takes maturity to appreciate what tragedy means, and if it's true that creative scientists and engineers peak when they're young, is it likely that Florman's cautions are likely to affect the technologists themselves?
-What kind of perspective does Florman seem to have?