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Franklin, Chapters 4-6. CCT 2195H January 21, 2013. Franklin contends that prescriptive technologies are a ‘seed-bed for a culture of compliance’ (p. 70). Is this a good or bad thing? She also says that many technologies are ‘anti-people’. Can you give some examples of these?.
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Franklin, Chapters 4-6 CCT 2195H January 21, 2013
Franklin contends that prescriptive technologies are a ‘seed-bed for a culture of compliance’ (p. 70). Is this a good or bad thing? • She also says that many technologies are ‘anti-people’. Can you give some examples of these?
Military technologies • ‘Defense’ and security technologies reap huge profits • War economies • Long-time investment in R&D • Need to create “a credible long-term enemy” (p. 74)
Eisenhower on the military-industrial complex • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY
Planning • By whom? • For whom? • Structures of participation? • Environmental consequences of planning?
Planning • By whom? • For whom? • Structures of participation? • Environmental consequences of planning? • Planning for gain • Planning for disaster mitigation
Franklin’s earthworm theory of technological change • “Social change will not come to us like an avalanche down a mountain. Social change will come through seeds growing in well-prepared soil—and it is we, like the earthworms, who prepare the soil..We also seed thoughts and knowledge and concern. We realize there are no guarantees as to what will come up. Yet we do know that within the seeds and the prepared soil nothing will grow at all….We need a movement from below…more earthworming” (p.122)
Tech decisions need to ask: • Does it promote social justice? • Restore reciprocity? • Confer divisible or indivisible benefits? • Favour people over machines? • Does its strategy maximize gain or minimize disaster? • Is conservation favored over waste? • Is the reversible favored over the irreversible?
People’s real experiences with technologies are important! • We cannot marginalize their voices! • People must be involved in technological decision-making! • We need to develop redemptive technologies
How are Technologies Introduced into Society? • What is the popular discourse about the technology? • What is the technical/expert discourse about the technology? • What is the ‘script’ about how technologies are talked about? Often very optimistic, promising liberation! Harmony!
