Benjamin Messer] Good Day Students of SOC430, a Course About Society and Technology

SOC 430 Introduction

[Benjamin Messer] Good day students of SOC430, a course about Society and Technology. Today, I want to first introduce myself and then talk a little about the foundations of the course and my expectations. My name is Benjamin Messer, and you can call me Benn, or Instructor Messer, or Professor Messer, whatever you prefer. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University and will be graduating this December. I am currently living near Reno, NV, where I have been doing research from home and writing my dissertation. I have a long history in technology, and have studied and researched socio-technical issues and developments for over a decade. My first job was actually as a low-voltage technician, in which I installed and worked on types of technological systems, like security systems, fire alarm systems, telephone and paging systems, and the like. I worked in this position for several years before starting my studies in history and technology, history and sociology of technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, where “technology” was heavily emphasized in all the academic majors. In graduate school at WSU I have refined my research to more specific sociological issues in energy, environmental impacts, and politics, but I still maintain a heavy interest in the role of many different kinds of technologies in society and in society’s role in shaping the development of technologies. This, coincidentally, is what the course is all about: the reciprocal relationship between technology and society, how each shapes the other.

As you probably know, technology is all around us, often in taken-for-granted forms. The clothes, or jewelry, or tattoos you might be wearing are technologies; the floor beneath your feet, and the walls, ceiling and windows that surround you (unless you are outside), the computer or phone you are using, the network you are connected to, are all forms of technology. At a very basic level, many of our basic needs like shelter, clothing, food, water, heat, health care, and education are met with the use of technologies. For example, fire my occur “naturally” through lightning strikes, volcanoes, and the like but our knowledge of how to “create and wield” fire makes fire a technology, a technology that revolutionized civilization as we know it. At a much broader and more complex level, we have technological artifacts and systems like the space station, nuclear energy and weapons, 3D printing, the Internet, and others which seem to “have a life of their own” due to their complexity and the potential risks involved in their development and use.

We know that technologies abound everywhere, but so too do definitions of what technology is. In Unit 1 of the course we will discuss various definitions of technology and will arrive at a single working definition that we can all use in the class. WSU’s own Eugene Rosa has done a lot of research in this area and we will borrow heavily from his conception of technology. In addition, we will also read and discuss how technology relates to science, some of the philosophical perspectives on the role of technology in society, and a brief history of technological “revolutions”. These latter two topics will be optional but I encourage you to read over them to get a better understanding of whether technology has “agency”, is value-neutral and purely instrumental, and the cause and effect aspects of technological developments.

In Unit 2 we will delve deeper into the sociological perspectives on the relationship between technology and society. As I mentioned before, society and technology exist in a reciprocal relationship, in which each shapes or influences the other. One of the main learning objectives of this course is to obtain a greater understanding of this reciprocal relationship. For many engineers and others who study design, technics, chemistry, and the like, the problems stemming from technology are often viewed as technical problems, solved through better design, engineering, etc. For many social scientists, technological problems are often viewed as social problems, solved through educating the public, widening or restricting access to technologies, slowing the pace of technological development, etc. If your career tends to be more technical-oriented, I encourage you try to see technology through the perspective of the social scientist, and if your career is more socially-oriented, I encourage you to see technology through the perspective of the engineer. My goal is to help you to achieve this, and Unit 2 is a good place to start.

Once we have learned the different perspectives on the relationship between technology and society, in Units 3 & 4 we will take a closer examination of some of the unintended consequences of technological developments, particularly the inequalities in access to and use of technologies and the risks associated with different technologies. For example, not everyone has access to the Internet in the U.S. and especially around the world. Why might this be? We will see that there are some technological problems to overcome in delivering Internet access to the world but we will also learn there are also some social barriers that prevent universal Internet access from becoming a reality. Also, technologies like space shuttles, nuclear energy, offshore oil rigs, and the like offer much hope in achieving social goals like space travel, clean and cheap electricity, cheap, domestic oil for transportation, and others, but these technologies also come with huge risks like shuttle crashes, nuclear meltdowns, and oil spills, which are also often shared unequally across different social groups.

We will conclude the class in Unit 5 with a study of how social groups affect technological development, particularly in trying to minimizing the social costs of “risky” technologies and facilitating greater access to “everyday” technologies. Achieving these two goals is often a struggle between those affected by technological risk or lack of access to technologies, and those who deem such risks or scarcities to be the “natural order of things”.

I look forward to being your professor and guide this semester. I have taught online classes before so I will try to minimize any problems you might experience in taking this course online. However, there may be some technical or procedural issues that we might have to solve together as we learn about them. Should such a technical issue occur, I ask that you please be patient and I assure that you will not be penalized as the result of the issue.

Also, I would like to provide a couple of “expectations” for taking this course that I think will make everyone’s experience more constructive. First, I encourage you to not focus on only one or a few technologies in which you are interested or an expert. The goal of this class is to take a broader view of “technology” and its role in society; a comment on how this or that specific technology contributes to, for example, social or technological development, is most welcome, but don’t let a specific technology be the only focus of your discussions. If you find 3D printing to be the best thing since the assembly line, then focus your discussion of 3D printing in a historical, social, or broader technological context, and not specifically on the technics, potential abilities, or other specific aspects of 3D printing. This course is not just about technology. Second, please keep discussions of technologies civil, and be aware of and respect that not all students are familiar with different technologies, like 3D printing I mentioned before. If you are discussing a technology, artifact, or development that students might not know about, then provide a brief “definition” or a web link to a website that briefly explains the technology (Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing). Please refrain from participating in uncivil or off-topic arguments over technological developments (Example: “X technology is better than Y technology”) also refrain from belittling anyone for their lack of knowledge in regards to technologies (Example: “I thought everyone in college should have heard of 3D printing by now”). In this course, we are striving for an inclusive and open discussion about society and technology. Finally, please read all course materials and subscribe to all relevant discussion boards, especially the “Instructor’s Announcements” discussion board; this will ensure that you up-to-date on your assignments and are receiving all the latest information from the course. This is your responsibility.

I hope you have a great semester everyone!!