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MIT271: Technology & Human Values

MIT271: Technology & Human Values. March 19, 2002: Technology and Social Justice. Administration. Tests back next week Revised reading schedule: Dyson postponed till Thursday. McGinn: Grounds for infringing rights. Survival of society Effective social functioning

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MIT271: Technology & Human Values

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  1. MIT271: Technology & Human Values March 19, 2002: Technology and Social Justice

  2. Administration • Tests back next week • Revised reading schedule: Dyson postponed till Thursday.

  3. McGinn: Grounds for infringing rights • Survival of society • Effective social functioning • Natural resources vital to society • Debilitating financial cost to a society • Significant cultural, historical, spiritual or aesthetic value to a people • Highly valued social amenity

  4. Jeremy Rifkin: • Long-time activist, especially against technology • The End of Work

  5. The End of Work • Increasing unemployment • New jobs = low-paying & temporary

  6. Substituting software for employees • Computer-based technologies “promise to replace the human mind itself” • Companies make more profit

  7. Re-engineering = “restructuring the workplace to make it compatible with high-tech machine culture” • Leads to elimination of some traditional management, compressing job categories and training employees in multilevel skills • Not loss of jobs to foreign production, because manufacturing productivity is increasing

  8. Alarmist? • Rising youth violence • Neo-fascism • Radical right-wing

  9. Discussion • How does Griffin’s concept of “technological maximality” relate to Rifkin’s concerns about Re-engineering?

  10. Corlann Gee Bush • Like McGinn: • Sceptical of “tech-fixes” • Need to think about the context in which technology operates • Rethinking popular assumptions about technology • Technological change itself needs to be transformed

  11. Tech-fix =df technology can be used to solve all problems, even social problems • Used to rationalize inequity, when part of laissez-faire economics and discriminatory public policy • Examples?

  12. Tech-Myths • Partially true but oversimplified: • TRIUMPH (U.S.A) • THREAT • TOOL

  13. Valence = a bias; a “tendency to interact in similar situations in identifiable and particular ways” E.g. guns (versus knives, hammers,) valenced to violence; TV, cars and microwaves valenced to individuation, trains and campfires valenced to accretion

  14. Contexts For technological decisions, information, and innovation • Design/development • most attended • masculine • Use • feminine • Environment • Cultural

  15. Sex role differences • Different expectations, experiences, and training • Create problems because men make most decisions about technology

  16. Effect on women’s roles: e.g. wash Impact assessment? Forseeable problems eliminated in some cases Environmental assessments required as part of technological decision-making User Environment

  17. Sexist society affects technological valence • Innovation builds the status of men’s roles and erodes women’s E.g. Plains Indian women: from dog to horse E.g. Mechanization on the farm

  18. More generally … • Technology provides ADVANTAGE • So we need an “equity analysis”, applied to all contexts

  19. Equity analysis of refrigeration Developmental: • Solves problems caused by heat; distribution? Manufacture? User: • Commercial, medical, food preparation, better nutrition … working lives Environment: • agriculture, disease, pollution Cultural: • Men take over women’s important roles

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