TECHNOLOGY - the ways in which humans modify and harness the physical environment to
respond to the needs of the population in a given context
SOCIETY - an autonomous group of people interacting with others in a distinct geographic
territory and sharing a common culture
The ways in which people in specific societies are expected and are taught to behave largely
depends on culture
Technology - Processes of harnessing resources in order to respond to society’s needs
Science - the knowledge to utilize such resources
Material aspect of culture - objects produced as a result of technology
Non-material aspect of culture - how these were produced and what are the processes and
functions involved, knowledge
Science - body of knowledge utilized to understand the world
Natural sciences:
- Biology
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Geology
- meteorology
TECHNOLOGY AS COMPONENT OF CULTURE
Technology - Processes of harnessing resources in order to respond to society’s needs
- Can also be for curiosity or pure scientific advancement
Symbolic interactionism - social interactions among individuals in society using symbols
- Such symbols have meanings based on respective culture
Structural functionalist - view society from a more macro-level perspective as it focuses on
the interconnection between systems in society which have functions that maintain the
functioning of society
- Everything that exist has a use (positive + negative)
Conflict perspective - focuses on unequal relationships among groups or categories of people
to explain what is happening in society
SPECIFIC VIEWS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
● Technological somnambulism - human relationship to technology consists of merely
“making” and “using” technology
- Langdon winner
● Technological Determinism - a society’s technology largely determines its social
structure and culture
- Thorstein Veblen
● Social Construction of Technology - emphasizes the importance of social context in
the development of new technologies viewed as a product of social processes in
involving several social groups
- Wiebe Bijker and Trevor Pinch
- Both technology and society negotiate the meaning of new technologies
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Ecosystems and ecosystems services
Biosphere - highest level of biological organization
- “ecosphere” - all available ecological systems existing in our planet
Ecosystem services:
● Life support (atmosphere, ozone layer)
● Raw materials
● Amenity values : visual enjoyment, shelter (mangrove, mountain range)
● Waste processing
Biodiversity - the variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia,
terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they
are part
Food Technologies
- Harnessing nature for nutrition
- Developed only for survival
Use of food in society:
- Appearance
- Ability
- Medicine
- Promote togetherness
Food getting and food production
● Foraging societies (hunting and gathering societies)
- Exploit plants and animals in their territory for food
- Fresh wild animals and plants
● Horticultural societies
- Used simple gardening tools in planting food crops
● Pastoral societies
- Domesticated herds of animals for food and for other animal products (eggs,
wool, milk)
- semi-nomadic
● Agriculture
- Utilized more complex tools in both crop and livestock production
Industrialization and market economies led to more advances
- Transportation of foods to where its eaten
- Preservative technology (flash freezing, refrigeration, salting)
Food spoilage is a problem in developing countries near the equator due to hot enviroment
Food must be pre-processed to avoid contamination without sacrificing nutritional value of food
- Required for certain foods due to safety concerns
- Raw food is possible to consume
- Washing may be sufficient for some food
- Social conventions leads to other levels of preparations
Food technologies development - genetically modified organisms
Household Chemistry
- Chemicals are present in our household
- Social determinants of presence and use
- shampoo, detergent & soap + water, legal drugs
- Intended for cleaning, pest control, and general hygiene purposes
Socially determinants use of chemical
- Economics (price)
- Social pressure
- Influence of idols
Surfactant - surface active agent
Hydrophilic - water loving head
Hydrophobic - tail attracted to dirt, grease, and oil
Simple machines
- Common use of physics
● Lever - long, straight or folded bar that can lift a load on one end of its ends while
applying a little physical force or effort on the other end
- seesaw
● inclined plane - any surface, flat or jagged, that is sloping at an angle.
- Two ends are fixed, with one end higher than the other
- Move particularly heavy objects up or down
● Wedge - used to push things apart
- Triangular in shape, thick on one side and thin with sharp edges on the other
● Wheel and axle - consist of a wheel with a rod through its center called the axle
- When a wheel turn = axle turn
● Screw - special variation of an inclined plane
- An inclined plane is twirled about a cylinder or cone from top to bottom to form a
spiral
- Move a load up and down
- Used to press two objects together or push them away
● Pulley - a wheel and axle with a rope or chain attached
- Move objects up
Technology as means of communication as a social tool
● Political - coming together as society
- Keeping together the political systems ( common goal)
● Economic - system of goods
- Information about the market
● Social - foster sense of belongingness and culture of community
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY
Technology is used for the development of society
Philosophical perspective of technology - arguing based on reason
● Based on Heidegger:
- Centered on the human beings and the actualization of its potential
- Caution for the downside as well
- Technology is inseparable from the human condition
● Principle of Causality
- Cause and effect: technology and society
There are four cases according to aristotle:
- Material (causa materialis) - physical elements
- Formal (causa formalis) - essence & material form
- Efficient (causa efficiens) - producer
- Final (causa finalis) - definition of final use
Label with finality (tradition,..)
Technology as Bringing forth - from nothing to something, from concealment to
unconcealment
● Bringing-forth in itself (physis) - lan occasion from nothing to something
● Bringing-forth in another - that is not sudden emergence in itself but is an emergence
that requires the play of the four causes
Technology as challenging forth
- Concealment and enframing - nature become an input to modern science
- Humans becomes inputs as well (humans & climate change, social media & attention
Enframing - humans becomes merely a standing reserves, waiting to be unlocked, transformed,
stored, distributed, switch; in all, life becomes regulated as a mere thing and instrument for
efficiency, productivity, and functionality
Anthropological perspective of technology - holistic perspective
- Cultures based on context
- Avoid ethnocentrism (judge other culture base on standards of your own)
- There are possible ways to objectively judge culture
● Cultural Ecology
- Technology was the window between the natural world and human society and
culture
- Adaptations of human societies to their environment are mainly technological
- Technology is shaped by the need to interact with nature
- Does not explain diversity in similar environments
- If nature is the driving force. Why are there differences in a same
environment
● Cultural Evolution
- Culture is a kind of behavior which is a manifestation of energy
● Sociotechnical System
- Successful innovation requires social integration
- If technology is not wanted by society, it is not used
