TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Building Our Sociotechnical Future EDITED BY DEBORAH G. JOHNSON AND JAMESON M. WETMORE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Inside Technology edited by Wiebe E. Bijker, W. Bernard Carlson, and Trevor Pinch A list of books in the series appears at the back of the book. TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY Building Our Sociotechnical Future edited by Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England ( 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and re- trieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email [email protected] .edu This book was set in Stone Serif and Stone Sans by Asco Typesetters, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Technology and society : building our sociotechnical future / [compiled and edited by] Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-10124-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-262-60073-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Technology—Social aspects. 2. Technological innovations. 3. Technology and civilization. I. Johnson, Deborah G., 1945–. II. Wetmore, Jameson M. T14.5.T44169 2008 303.48 03—dc22 2008002813 10987654321 Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi I VISIONS OF A TECHNOLOGICAL FUTURE 1 1 ‘‘Technology and Social Justice’’ 5 Freeman J. Dyson 2 ‘‘The Machine Stops’’ 13 E. M. Forster 3 ‘‘The Prolongation of Life’’ 37 Francis Fukuyama 4 ‘‘Reproductive Ectogenesis: The Third Era of Human Reproduction and Some Moral Consequences’’ 51 Stellan Welin 5 ‘‘Nanotechnology: Shaping the World Atom by Atom’’ 63 Interagency Working Group on Nanoscience, Engineering, and Technology 6 ‘‘Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us’’ 69 Bill Joy II THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY 93 7 ‘‘Do Machines Make History?’’ 97 Robert L. Heilbroner 8 ‘‘The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts’’ 107 Trevor J. Pinch and Wiebe Bijker 9 ‘‘Technological Momentum’’ 141 Thomas P. Hughes 10 ‘‘Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts’’ 151 Bruno Latour vi Contents 11 ‘‘Code Is Law’’ 181 Lawrence Lessig 12 ‘‘The Intersection of Culture, Gender, and Technology’’ 195 Patrick D. Hopkins III TECHNOLOGY AND VALUES 205 13 ‘‘Do Artifacts Have Politics?’’ 209 Langdon Winner 14 ‘‘Control: Human and Nonhuman Robots’’ 227 George Ritzer 15 White 257 Richard Dyer 16 ‘‘Manufacturing Gender in Commercial and Military Cockpit Design’’ 265 Rachel N. Weber 17 ‘‘Pas de Trois: Science, Technology, and the Marketplace’’ 275 Daniel Sarewitz 18 ‘‘Amish Technology: Reinforcing Values and Building Community’’ 297 Jameson M. Wetmore IV THE COMPLEX NATURE OF SOCIOTECHNICAL SYSTEMS 319 19 ‘‘Will Small Be Beautiful? Making Policies for Our Nanotech Future’’ 323 W. Patrick McCray 20 ‘‘Sociotechnical Complexity: Redesigning a Shielding Wall’’ 355 Dominique Vinck 21 ‘‘The Naked Launch: Assigning Blame for the Challenger Explosion’’ 369 Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch 22 ‘‘Bodies, Machines, and Male Power’’ 389 M. Carme Alemany Gomez 23 ‘‘Crash!: Nuclear Fuel Flasks and Anti-Misting Kerosene on Trial’’ 407 Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch 24 ‘‘When Is a Work Around? Conflict and Negotiation in Computer Systems Development’’ 423 Neil Pollock Contents vii V TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY CHALLENGES 441 25 ‘‘Shaping Technology for the ‘Good Life’: The Technological Imperative versus the Social Imperative’’ 445 Gary Chapman 26 ‘‘The Feminization of Work in the Information Age’’ 459 Judy Wajcman 27 ‘‘Nanotechnology and the Developing World’’ 475 Fabio Salamanca-Buentello, Deepa L. Persad, Erin B. Court, Douglas K. Martin, Abdallah S. Daar, and Peter A. Singer 28 ‘‘Nanotechnology and the Developing World: Will Nanotechnology Overcome Poverty or Widen Disparities?’’ 485 Noela Invernizzi and Guillermo Foladori 29 ‘‘People’s Science in Action: The Politics of Protest and Knowledge Brokering in India’’ 499 Roopali Phadke 30 ‘‘Security Trade-Offs Are Subjective’’ and ‘‘Technology Creates Security Imbalances’’ 515 Bruce Schneier 31 ‘‘Questioning Surveillance and Security’’ 537 Torin Monahan 32 Energy, Society, and Environment: Technology for a Sustainable Future 565 David Elliott 33 Introduction to Environmental Justice: Creating Equality, Reclaiming Democracy 579 Kristin S. Shrader-Frechette 34 ‘‘Icarus 2.0: A Historian’s Perspective on Human Biological Enhancement’’ 599 Michael Bess Index 613 Acknowledgments We thank students at Arizona State University and the University of Virginia for the valuable feedback they gave us as we tested versions of this volume in our courses. Jane Carlson is a powerhouse of energy and competence, and we were fortunate to have her attention on this project. We are grateful to her for obtaining the permis- sions, creating the index, and giving the manuscript a last-minute proofread. This book was developed with support from the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0220748. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the editors and authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Introduction Technology is a powerful component of the modern world. Without technology, many of the most significant feats of the twentieth century could not have been achieved such as sending people to the moon, erecting skyscrapers, damming enormous rivers, and destroying entire cities. But the most significant, though less often recognized, power of technology is its permeation of so many aspects of our everyday lives. We use technology to house, clothe, feed, entertain, and transport ourselves. It is a crucial component of our work, play, education, communication, child rearing, travel, and even reproduction. Technologies have even become a central part of our identity; when we differentiate our world from that of a hundred years ago, or even ten years ago, one of the most striking differences is the technologies we use and the way they shape our daily lives. We have embraced technologies because of the wonders we have accomplished with them and the promise that they will continue to unlock new possibilities. Tech- nologies have helped us to eradicate diseases, communicate with friends around the world, and even eliminate bad breath. New technologies are often equated with prog- ress itself in large part because they can help us to do things that were not previously possible and solve problems that have plagued humanity for centuries. Nevertheless, technological development has not been an unqualified blessing. Technologies frequently have negative social and environmental side effects; can en- able a (desirable or undesirable) shift of power from one group to another; or can be ‘‘misused’’ and have destructive consequences. The effects and implications of some technologies were perceived as disturbing as soon as they were developed—like the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Other technologies manifested problems more slowly—like the damage done to the environment that has accumu- lated over the past few hundred years from chemical pesticides and fertilizers. The negative effects of technology present us with a formidable challenge. It seems obvious that technologies will be indispensable in solving current problems and ensur- ing a better future, and yet we have to acknowledge that deploying technology is likely to create new problems and constraints. The challenge of taking advantage of the ben- efits of technology while minimizing the negative consequences of doing so is one that faces all of us, because all of us make decisions that shape or direct the development and use of technologies. For instance, venture capitalists and government officials de- cide which areas of science and engineering to fund with their budgets. Corporate executives choose the types of products to bring to market. Engineers shape the spe- cific design and applications of technologies. Marketers decide how technologies are presented to the public. Regulators develop systems to help ensure that industries de- velop products that are safe and efficient. Advocates working with Non-Government xii Introduction Organizations (NGOs) encourage the development of alternative technologies corpora- tions may have overlooked; they voice concerns about technologies they believe gov- ernments should regulate. And finally, every individual decides whether, where, when, and how they will use new technologies at home, in public places, and at work. Often these decisions are difficult, must resolve competing values, and require some negotiation. In some cases, the negative effects of a particular technology have been reluctantly accepted as necessary in order to reap its benefits—like the yearly death toll on our highway transportation systems. In a few cases the potential disruptive effects of particular technologies have convinced some countries to ban or restrict their use—like prohibiting CFCs as propellants, not allowing thalidomide to be prescribed to women who are or could become pregnant, and using politics (and sometimes war) to prevent other countries from developing nuclear capabilities. In yet other cases, con- troversies persist as to how a particular technology should be integrated into society— like the unresolved debates about nuclear power,