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welcome to philosophy and sociology of
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technology
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i'm andrew feinberg and this is the
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first lecture
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on technology and culture
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the course is based on a theory
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illustrated by
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examples the theory
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is called critical constructivism it's a
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synthesis that i have
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devised of critical theory and social
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constructivism
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it combines the broad critique of
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technology
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in critical theory with methods for
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studying
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particular technologies developed in
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social constructivism
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we'll deal here with examples first
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of social influences on and of
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technology
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and in the second part of the course on
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some of the more extreme
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threats that technology poses
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to begin we'll read the article by
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langdon winter
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entitled do artifacts have politics
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now that article was written in the
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1980s
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and at the time it seems self-evident to
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most people
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that artifacts do not have tech do not
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have politics
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why not because they're rational neutral
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like science like math no one thinks
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that two plus two equals four
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is a political statement however
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winter made a distinction between such
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neutral and rational
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concerns as those of math and science
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and technology and he gave an example
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that was particularly telling
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it's a bridge that was built on the
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instruction of robert moses
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over the southern state parkway in 1927.
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that parkway led people from new york
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city to jones beach
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where in the summer they they
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flocked however the overpasses
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on the parkway were too low for buses
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so poor people and minorities who used
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the bus
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couldn't get to the beach
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from winter's point of view that
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amounted to
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discrimination
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here you can see it it's racial and
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class exclusion
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embodied in stone
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so this example raises several questions
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first of all it seems to me that
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technology is rational i don't see any
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reason to contest that
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for example the bridge is engineered
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according to
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rational principles of engineering so
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it'll stand and won't fall down
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but it's also value-laden it is
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a discriminating bridge
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it discriminates against poor people and
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minorities
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now this is a sort of problem that has
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been discussed a lot in critical theory
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critical theory does not reject
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rationality the rationality of the
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bridge
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is uncontestable but it rejects the idea
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of technical neutrality
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so even though the bridge is rational
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it's not technically neutral
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it's not value neutral
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this means that values in technology
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must coexist
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but how are there different ways of
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being rational
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the way to get a handle on this is to
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think about design
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the design of technologies social
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constructivism
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holds that design is underdetermined
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by this is meant under determined by
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purely technical considerations
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the bridge designers for example had
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many different
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alternative heights to choose among
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they chose among these alternate designs
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the one
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that had the function of discrimination
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so you can see from this that technology
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is always more than technical
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its design is relative to social demands
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and to context in a sense you could say
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that designs
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correspond to or reflect a social world
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and they favor some groups over others
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i call this the bias of technology
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technology is not neutral but it has a
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unique form of social bias
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it's a type of bias very different from
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what we're
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normally accustomed to i'll call
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the usual concept of bias substantive
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bias
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it's based on prejudice or myths
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and is a commonplace in our
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social life the stone bridge represents
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a different kind of bias that i'll call
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formal bias this is a bias that has
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nothing to do
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with pr with the bad feeling
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of the designers it's built into the
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designs
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and often into the technical disciplines
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formal bias is not incompatible with
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rationality
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because it's a matter of the choices
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made among
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equally rational alternatives so you
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could say it's a particular way of being
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rational
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a way that has a potential for
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discrimination
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and the two kinds of discrimination
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involved
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by interest some groups discriminate
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according to their interests in the case
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of the bridge clearly
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moderately wealthy white people had an
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advantage by being able to go to the
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beach
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and not be crowded by all those poor
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people
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and then there's also discrimination by
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custom in that case
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no people may not even be aware that
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there's discrimination involved unless
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they happen
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to be the objects
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so here's my example of a customary
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discrimination
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that's apparently innocent
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scissors are often made in such a way
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usually made in such a way that they're
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easiest to use for people who are
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right-handed
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i looked on the internet and i found the
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left-hand store
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where lefties can buy scissors designed
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for them
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so you can can't imagine that the people
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who design scissors
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have a prejudice against lefties it's
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just accustomed to make scissors in a
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certain way
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and that's the way they make them
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but the effect is discriminatory
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so i've given you two examples to
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develop
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these arguments the first concerns
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australian aboriginals
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this i think this example comes from the
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1920s
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the aborigines made stone axes
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the males in the tribe made the axes and
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lent them out to women and children
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and the axes played an important role as
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symbols
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in their cosmology missionaries arrived
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in their territory and started to hand
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out steel axes
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to the aboriginals for help around the
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mission
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so the women and children got a hold of
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the steel axes and no longer
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had to ask the males in the tribe to
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lend them out and this had
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an enormous effect it altered the social
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hierarchy
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and it destroyed the cosmology
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that the tribe believed in because axes
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were now no longer
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spiritual in character but simple
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utilitarian tools
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and as a result of these changes the
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tribe declined
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of course they were better at chopping
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wood but that was a small matter
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compared
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to the demoralization that resulted
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from this apparently or
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generous act of giving them better
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access
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so you can see that there's a connection
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between the technology and the culture
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the other example concerns samurai
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in old japan samurai were a warrior
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class they ruled
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they were trained in swordsmanship from
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childhood
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and dominated over a mass of peasants
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when europeans arrived in the 16th
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century they handed out guns
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and as in the case with the axes
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the peasants who were weren't supposed
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to be good in battle suddenly
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became competent they could shoot
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samurais it's the old equalizer
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story well firearms were immediately
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abolished by the samurai as soon as
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the civil war ended in early 1600s
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and they remained outlawed until 1853
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when the united states forced japan to
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open up to trade
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why well you can easily imagine that the
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samurais
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did not enjoy being shot by mere
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peasants and wish to retain their
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hierarchical status in the society
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something they could only do
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if they alone were good at killing
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so the significance of the examples is
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clear
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axes are more than efficient tools at
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least for
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aboriginal tribes they also have
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cultural significance
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so artifacts must be viewed as
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culturally
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embedded and not simply as efficient
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we have the same relation to some of our
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artifacts
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of course we'd see an axe as merely an
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efficient tool
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but think about your home it's a
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concatenation of
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a dozen different technologies but is it
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as the architect le corbusier once said
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a machine for a living i don't think so
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a machine for living sounds like it's
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just a matter of efficiency but actually
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when we get home in the evening we
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expect more than efficiency
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we expect to feel comfortable to feel
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protected to feel welcome
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if it's winter to feel cold warm there
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are many
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emotional associations with home that
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would be left
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out of a mere machine
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so we too are not so different from the
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aborigines
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the samurai have a class interest so
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here you have an example
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of class interest influencing
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the place of technology in the society
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they simply abolished the technologies
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that
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violated their interests and we also
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have technologies that serve interests
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as for example that bridge which
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langdon winter discusses in his article
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so we'll talk more about this in the
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next module
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lecture two that's it for now
