society without science and technology essay

Without Science the World Stops

S aturday, 15th of February 2014, ten minutes before 15 o’clock. A bunch of people romp about at Praça Luis de Camões, Lisboa. There is a group of people playing rhythmic music, music that normally accompanies Capoeira. The vibe of the music is like a heart beating on high adrenalin, activating the sympathetic nervous system  of all the people aware of what will happen within just a few minutes.

The clock strikes 15 o’clock. A female and a male Ph.D. student standing right next to the Camões statue, facing down to Chiado are unrolling a paper sign: “SEM a CIÊNCIA o MUNDO PÁRA”, without science the world stops. The capoeira musicians stop playing their rhythmical music, two girls holding balloons release them into the air, a couple jamming with their guitars stop, more than 50 people abruptly freeze in whatever movement or behavior they were just engaged in, and there are the dogs, which stop barking, rubbernecking to figure out what just happened.

On the 15th of February, 2014, at 15 o’clock, the vibrant atmosphere of Praça Luís de Camões just froze.

For three minutes people, scientists or non-scientist, working-colleagues, friends, or total strangers gathered to give science a face, to demonstrate that without science, the world would stop.

Following the latest abrupt reduction of the number of Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) PhD and post-doc fellowships, the problems with the management of application lists, and especially the drastic changes in the government’s strategy to manage the scientific system in Portugal, a group of people from different institutes from Lisboa, Porto and Braga joined to organize a flash-mob. This event intended to demonstrate that those changes in regulation don’t affect only individual basic science researchers, but the whole Portuguese population, and actually the whole world.

Unfortunately, sometimes we fail to appreciate how many years of basic research have gone into keeping us relatively healthy throughout our daily lives, and into the different technologies that make our lives so much easier.

For example, we might take for granted that we can switch a button to turn light on and off at will, ignoring the fact that many years of basic research were spent to understand how we can produce and use electricity to be able to read a book before falling asleep at night without firing up the house. It took about 278 years from William Gilber’s early description of  electricity  and  magnetism  in 1600 until Thomas Edisons’s commercially available long-lasting  light bulb  was lit in 1878.

As a consequence of studying different phenomena of nature, by simply trying to understand how things work, knowledge is acquired while different techniques and technologies are established, which, when applied, end up being incorporated into our daily lives to improve everyone’s living standards on different levels.

To understand that we need, science is as simple as understanding that washing your hands with soap prevents you and others from getting sick. Maybe one is not aware, but it was only around 167 years ago, that Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian obstetrician during the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy in 1847, discovered that washing hands with chlorinate lime solutions drastically reduced the number of puerperal fevers. Hard to believe, but Semmelweis´s theories were at first rejected by the medical community. Several years later, Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and microbiologist, discovered the pathology of  puerperal fever and performed experiments to elucidate the relationship between germs and diseases, supporting with many other researchers the  germ theory of diseases  and the usage of soap. Pasteur is actually best known for inventing the technique of pasteurization, a process to reduce the number of pathogens in foods like milk and alcoholic beverages. Further, not content with that, Pasteur created vaccines for chicken cholera, anthrax and rabies. With this achievements profits, Pasteur founded the  Pasteur Institute in 1887, which sustains until today his commitment to basic science research and its practical application. Funding an Institute for basic research was not only a matter of giving back to the field where Pasteur succeeded from, but his greatest legacy to future generations.

Today, science is driven by public funding allowing everyone who is curious the possibility to learn, explore different scientific niches, improve and maintain the flow of human knowledge.

It is up to society as a whole, you and me, scientist or non-scientist, to realize the importance of funding basic research as a means of investing in our future.

Without science there is no human growth, no technological advances, no knowledge generation and the world stagnates. Science is knowledge and without an investment in science the world as we know it would not be possible.

Without science the world would stop.

Simone Lackner studied Molecular Biology at the  University of Vienna . As a PhD student at the Champalimaud Neuroscience Program, she investigates the  neural basis of locomotor behaviors of larval zebrafish

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Modern (1940’s-present)

47 The Modern World and STS

Juliana-Marie Troyan; Maggie Elpers; Taylor Lorusso; Sevanna Boleman; Willis Watts; Joseph Rivera; David Jonah Lamothe; and Anthony Spearman

Introduction

In the study of science and technology in society, the modern world, spanning from the 1940s to the present day, is an overwhelming, yet enriching period to study. Although the 1940s and the 2020s are both considered modern, the average person today would most likely find himself or herself living a very different life in the 1940s. Those differences would regard heavily debated subjects, such as societal views on medical care and defense, as well as daily subjects of entertainment and communication. With changing societal views, science and technology have progressed to satisfy society’s needs and wants. These changes in society brought about by advances in medical care, defense, cybersecurity, entertainment, and communication define our lives today. The modern era has seen and will continue to see extensive changes in society that are driven by politics, religion, and essential events calling for significant developments in science and technology, which has given society the life it gladly accepts today. By the end of this chapter you will be able to understand magnitude and presence of science and technology in the modern era. These ideas will be expanded upon in the following sections, starting with the question: What has science looked like in the modern world?

In the 21st century alone, scientists have been able to detect  gravitational waves  on the moon, sequence the  genome  of a cancer patient, and create human organs using stem cells (“ 10 Greatest Scientific Discoveries and Inventions of 21st Century | ISB Glasgow, ” n.d.). However, perhaps one of the most influential discoveries in the scientific community was the ability to see particles at the  atomic  and  molecular  level. Thus, the field of nanoscience was born, and ever since, there has been an influx of scientific developments that have been translated into technology directly affecting human life. The discovery of nanoscience has led to advances in the fields of computing and engineering, which has the potential to change the gap of accessible healthcare technology between  socio-economic  classes.

The word “nano” stems from a Greek origin meaning dwarf, which proves to be applicable when measuring particles that are one billionth of a meter. One of the original scientists to use the term nanotechnology described the concept as having a goal to manipulate single atoms and molecules for the production of macroscale products (Bardosova & Wagner, 2013). In the early 1980s, two scientists at IBM Research in Zurich developed the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM), which allowed materials to be imaged and manipulated at the atomic level (Baird & Shew, 2004). This allowed scientists and researchers to see smaller structures than ever before, and since then, a wide variety of fields have been impacted. In the US specifically, the establishment of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) federally funded by institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health, has created a push for innovation in the areas of physical, chemical, biological, and materials engineering ( Roco , 2003). Nanoscience and nanotechnology is a rapidly growing field in the modern period of engineering, physics, and computing.

Currently, some of the significant applications of nanoscience are being used in the Biomedical and Biological Engineering fields for a wide range of applications, including disease therapies, vaccines, and even personalized medicine. Emerging as a subfield of Biomedical Engineering, the research area of drug delivery has readily adopted the use of nanoscience. Through the use of nanoparticles ranging in the size of 10 to 1000 nanometers in diameter, researchers can deliver therapeutics such as pharmaceuticals, proteins, and even RNA encapsulated in nanoparticles for the treatment of many diseases including cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The term nanoparticle is perhaps quite vague, as nanoparticles can be synthesized using polymers,  peptides , and  lipids , as well as other synthetic and biological materials. Nanoparticles are advantageous as drug delivery vehicles because they can be readily taken up by cells, they provide a steady release of drugs, and targeting  moieties  can be incorporated to help nanoparticles deliver their cargo at a specific site in the body ( Sahoo & Labhasetwar , 2003). Nanoparticles can be  conjugated  with cell-specific ligands that will carry the nanoparticle to where the matching receptor is overexpressed. For example, a nanoparticle could be tagged with a specific motif that would bind to cancer cells overexpressing a particular receptor on the cell membrane, and it would not be targeted to healthy tissue to avoid common side effects of  chemotherapeutic  drugs.

One of the newer advances in nanoscience and healthcare is the field of personalized medicine. Usually, when a patient is diagnosed with a disease, there is one pharmaceutical or treatment for the disease, and each patient diagnosed with the said disease is given the same treatment. However, with the genetic testing that is now available, scientists can predict which drugs will be more beneficial for individual patients and tailor effective patient therapies towards smaller populations with different genetic profiles (Vogenberg et al., 2010). Another avenue of personalized medicine therapies comes from stem cells. Stem cells are characterized by their ability to grow into multiple types of cells, and in the early 2000’s it was discovered that basic cell types could be reprogrammed into induced  pluripotent  stem cells (iPSCs) that are capable of forming functional tissue-specific cells ( Chun et al. , 2011). For example, a patient’s stem cells could be collected, reprogrammed in a laboratory to grow into a different cell type, and implanted back into the human body to treat a disease or injury. This method is advantageous because it limits the adverse side effects that come from introducing foreign materials into the human body.

It seems as if the field of nanoscience and  nanotechnology  is the future of modern medicine, but it begs the question, can this help everyone? The development of personalized medicine could be widening an already significant gap in access to health care between socio-economic classes. Take, for example, a developing country that does not have the infrastructure or essential utilities to support modern laboratories or patients with enough income to pay for personalized therapies that are doubtfully cost-effective. Do these patients have the same access to therapies compared to patients living in first world countries with research institutes that receive billions of dollars in funding each year? Some scientists argue that personalized medicine has benefits in eliminating health  disparities , such as developing targeted therapies for certain ethnic groups that share common disease characteristics (Brothers & Rothstein, 2015). However, it would be naïve to say that patients in developed countries will not benefit more from personalized medicine than developing countries.

Nanoscience is the future of many disciplines with the ability and potential to affect human life on a large scale. Currently, the globe is experiencing a boom in the use of nanoscience that has the potential to cure incurable diseases and provide better healthcare to developing countries. Whether or not these technologies will be accessible to all is an issue that will undoubtedly be impacted by figures outside the scientific community, such as legislation and national regulations, as more and more technologies arise from nanoscience.

In addition to nanotechnology, 3D Printing is another modern world technology that is continually evolving to encompass a wide range of applications, especially in the medical industry, allowing medical professionals, researchers, and educators alike the opportunity to improve and advance procedures and technology like never before. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, takes a digital model or blueprint of an object of the user’s creation and prints successive layers of material to create a tangible 3D model of that object ( Nawrat , 2018). Compared to other manufacturing methods that subtract material to form a product, additive manufacturing is the addition of material. The initial goal of 3D printing was to develop faster  prototyping   but it has developed into so much more in today’s world. Medical researchers and specialists are using 3D printing to create artificial organs with bio-printers to validate proper drug dosages and practice complicated surgical operations in a cost-effective manner ( Nawrat , 2018). Universities and some primary education schools are implementing 3D printers as a resource for school projects/coursework, prototyping, and learning. Additionally, 3D printing is being used to manufacture custom products, such as  prostheses , at a relatively low cost. Traditional methods to get the same result, such as injection molding, takes weeks to make and costs thousands of dollars. 3D printing allows companies to build their objects remotely and on a case-by-case basis.

One of the most impressive technological advancements in recent years regarding 3D printing in the medical industry is bioprinting. Rather than printing plastics or metals, bioprinters use a computer-guided  pipette  to layer living cells and create artificial living tissues ( Nawrat , 2018). Some of the most common materials used in this type of 3D printing include cell  aggregates  – such as tissue spheroids, cell pellets, and tissue strands – hydrogels, micro-carriers, and decellularized matrix components ( Peng , 2017). Bioprinting has expanded to encompass a wide range of applications in medicine such as pharmaceutical drug discovery, creation of artificial organs called “organoids” for elaborate surgery preparation or organ replacements, and giving medical students more real-world experience without the added patient risk. One of the biggest challenges during new drug discovery is that there are so many strict regulatory and validation requirements that need to be met in order to ensure their safety and  efficacy  for public use. As can be assumed, this is a very tedious and taxing process and unfortunately, leads to inflated  attrition  rates and significant losses in funding ( Peng , 2017). Traditional cell-based studies use 2D monolayer culture methods; however, this is not realistic for drugs that will be implemented in a 3D environment. The implementation of bioprinting allows for more predictive methods of efficacy and safety analysis, decreasing the attrition rates and enabling a “quick-win, fast-fail” mentality, saving time and money, and increasing the amount of drug discovery.

In addition to advancing medical experiments and procedures, 3D printing can also be used to develop more precise surgical instruments and tools for other medical practices in a cost-effective manner. In environments such as hospitals and medical centers, it is very easy for bacteria and infection to spread. However, tools made using 3D printing can be “one-off” or even made for specific tasks on a case-by-case basis, improving procedures, and eliminating the risk of transferring bacteria or viruses. Now, it can be argued that having to purchase or “print” new tools for each surgery would add up in cost. However, by creating the perfect tools for the job for a lot less than they would cost using other manufacturing methods while still getting the added customization benefits would outweigh the additional 3D printing material expenses ( 3D-printed Surgical Tools  n.d.). As this technology continues to increase in popularity, economists estimate that the 3D printing industry will be worth $3.5 billion by 2025 in the medical field alone ( Nawrat , 2018).

3D printing is further expanding its reach in the medical industry by solving many issues and restrictions that arise in this field. Prosthetics are one of the most popular yet most expensive medical devices for amputees used globally today. There are many advantages to incorporating 3D printing into prosthetic development. Firstly, it can be difficult and expensive to produce prosthetics that are the perfect fit for a patient. Every patient’s needs are going to be different. With 3D printing, prosthetics can be modeled and printed at a much lower cost to ensure a proper fit for every patient ( Top 5 Applications , 2019). Children who are candidates for prosthetics typically will not be able to get a quality prosthetic until they are fully grown, but 3D printing technology allows for new prosthetics to be printed every couple of months to keep up with them as they continue to grow without the extreme financial burden. Third world countries who may not even have prosthetics as an option can take advantage of the 3D printed ones ( Top 5 Applications , 2019). Another application of 3D printing in the medical industry is bioprinting. Rather than printing plastics or metals, bioprinters use a computer-guided pipette to layer living cells and create artificial living tissues ( Nawrat , 2018). These “organoids”, or artificial organs, can be used for pharmaceutical testing as a cost-effective and ethical means of helping to identify the side effects of drugs and validating safe dosage amounts ( Top 5 Applications , 2018). Surgeons can also use these organoids and create patient-specific organ replicas to practice before performing the actual operation. This method has been proven to speed up procedures and minimize trauma ( Nawrat , 2018).

The events of the 2016 presidential election revealed the power that  social media  technology possesses in society through its influence of public opinion using   algorithms  that can influence what a social media user sees. These algorithms can cause news-feed echo chambers, dark posts, and bots. Social media has only recently become politically relevant due to its beginnings coming in the early 2000s. Social media sites use news-feed algorithms to order posts that appear on a user’s feed ( Barnhart,  2019). Social media has woven itself into many parts of our lives– sometimes in unexpected ways. One crucial part of our society that has been changed forever by social media is politics. A particularly profound demonstration of the relationship between politics and social media took place during the 2016 presidential election.

One potential effect of the use of news feed algorithms by social media sites is the creation of echo chambers. An echo chamber is a term used to describe a situation in which the information and opinions an individual is exposed to predominately align with their own beliefs ( Digital Media Literacy , 2019). This situation can occur in any circumstance where information flows, but social media algorithms have allowed for the creation of a specific type of echo chamber called a filter bubble. As stated previously, social media algorithms are used to determine how posts appear on a user’s feed. These algorithms often take what types of people and pages an individual interacts with into account ( Digital Media Literacy , 2019). For example, if a user tends to click on pages about dogs, then posts about dogs will appear at the top of their news feed more often. Therefore, users are often exposed to content that is synonymous with what they interact in the first place. In terms of politics, this can prevent users from being exposed to different viewpoints than their own, and it can further polarize views. There has been a trend in American politics in which those on opposite poles of political standpoints are feeling increasingly negative toward each other ( Allcott, & Gentzkow , 2017). While there is no conclusive evidence that echo chambers affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, studies have outlined that news feed algorithms may  exacerbate  political tensions between those on the opposite ends of political views.

Not only are echo chambers a potential problem lurking in the social media and political crosshairs, but “dark posts” should also be considered. Dark posts are advertisements that are only visible to specific users on social media. These types of advertisements are a part of the ad-algorithms for several social media sites. For example, a dark post aimed towards college students would only be visible to college students. Dark posts go a step beyond just a targeted advertisement. These advertisements can use keywords like your actual job title ( Gollin , 2018). In short, dark posts allow customization of the targeted advertisement strategy. In the 2016 election, it was found that a Russian organization bought thousands of ads on several social media platforms, such as Facebook, focusing on political and social issues that actively targeted certain  demographic  groups ( Young et al. , 2018). Facebook testified before the United States Senate that 126 million Americans were subjected to advertisements and posts, including some dark posts, created by Russians ( Gollin , 2018). Social media platforms are making changes to the dark post regulations in order to foster more  transparency  and prevent an issue like this from recurring.

Another issue surrounding social media use in the 2016 presidential election is the use of bots on social media. Bots are social media automated accounts that use algorithms to interact with other users ( Tarantola , 2019). It can often be challenging to differentiate between a bot and a human. Only about 47% of Americans stated that they could recognize a bot account ( Tarantola , 2019). Bots can be used for political strategies as well. These so-called political bots can  disseminate  news information, post spam, and harass other users. Bots were particularly rampant in the 2016 presidential election, with higher levels of bot use than ever before ( Kollyani et al ., 2016). These bots accounted for a large amount of the political content generated and discussed during this election. Since bots are also often used to spread news, they can be used to spread misinformation as well. Since this problem has risen, social media platforms are taking measures to try and reduce the power and prevalence of bots.

Echo chambers, dark posts, and bots had relevance in the events of the 2016 presidential election. They helped reveal the power that social media technology possesses in society through its influence of public opinion using news-feed algorithms. Social media has been beneficial in allowing increased access to information by which people can form their political identities. Unfortunately, the same characteristics that foster the benefits of social media may also provide an opportunity for disinformation to be spread. In an age where social media algorithms value engagement over credibility, it is essential to be aware of the issues that may manipulate public opinion.

Many factors drive the advancements of science and technology in society today. Currently, resources, knowledge, prosperity, and ambition are influences in the decisions to create, investigate, and look for answers and solutions to the problems in the world. One controversial technology has been used in the field of medicine. The scientific breakthrough of new reproductive technology (NRT) has been used to treat  infertility  around the world and is rapidly spreading. Many religions have various viewpoints on NRT.  Christianity,  which is composed of  Catholics  and  Protestants,  is the most prominent religion in North America. It has affected new reproductive technology in three different ways: supporting the means to overcome infertility, encouraging more research in the field, and discouraging its future use.

Many Christians believe that NRT is a means to overcome fertility by giving couples who cannot conceive naturally the opportunity to conceive with this medical advancement. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infertility is defined as “not being able to get pregnant (conceive) after one year (or longer) of unprotected sex” ( Becker , 2019). From 2015 to 2017, nineteen percent of women 15-49 struggle with infertility, so many turn to new reproductive therapy, which includes  in vitro fertilization  (IVF) and  intracytoplasmic sperm injection  (ICSI). In IVF, fertilization occurs outside the female’s body. In ICSI, the doctor injects sperm into the female’s mature egg. Also, in some cases, donor eggs and sperm are used. Protestants, in particular, feel that babies should be celebrated as life is celebrated in the Bible, the sacred text of Christians. Others, like Catrece Caron, believe that “God created these doctors to do this kind of work.” Caron, according to the Washington Post, was a forty-one-year-old mother who had a seven-year-old and a two-year-old through IVF in Boston, where over 90,000 babies have been born as a result of their medical advancements. Another mother, named Lesley Brown, said her daughter, “Louise is truly a gift from God” ( Smith , 2018). Boston is just one city in the United States, where babies were celebrated as gifts from God through NRT.

Protestants have encouraged more research in the medical field concerning infertility and NRT. For example, George Church, a Harvard geneticist, is now beginning a project called the Human Genome Project, which maps the  DNA  in humans. He said he believes Protestants are beginning to encourage this new research as they now have support for IVF from Protestants. Church says, “In the Bible, it says we are given dominion over the Earth. Inventing newer and newer advanced technologies is almost a key component of human nature”( Cha,  2018). Scientists feel they are gaining more support from the Protestants and, in turn, are encouraged to research more into the medical field of infertility through science and technology.

As many Protestants support and encourage the science and technology of the Christian faith, Catholicism discourages its future use. The Catholic Church believes NRT is immoral and illegal. They strongly disapprove of the research and use of NRT. A report by the Catholic Church entitled Respect for Human Life and Dignity of Procreation states, “Children are a gift and a blessing from God and that although science makes some things possible, it does not make them right. Research must continue in the causes of infertility, but the morality of these should be carefully considered.” ( Sallam , 2016) The percent of the World’s population, so they are very influential with their beliefs. The Catholic Church discourages future use and research in the medical advancements of infertility.

Science and technology are often affected by religion. In the 2016 article, Religious Aspects of Assisted Reproduction, it says, “Human response to new developments regarding birth…is largely shaped by religious beliefs. When assisted reproduction was introduced into medical practice in the last quarter of the twentieth century, it was fiercely attacked by some religious groups and highly welcomed by others” ( Sallam , 2016). Christianity, which is widely practiced in North America, has impacted the medical advancements in new reproductive technology. While some support the means and encourage more research, others actively discourage its use. Either way, religion has influenced NRT; therefore, affecting today’s society as a whole.

Key Events & Innovations

The modern era saw the rise of technologies such as  reproductive technology , the  television , man-made  satellites ,  personal computers , and many more. However, there is a specific event that triggered significant technological advancements in medicine and society. With the end of the  Second World War  and the rise of  nuclear  weapons, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States of America rose, which gave rise to the Cold War. This Cold War led to an arms race and growth of nuclear weapons between the Soviets and Americans; these tensions also spread into space. When the Soviets launched the world’s first artificial satellite into space, the United States felt the pressure building, and the Space Race began between the two major powers. During the Space Race, the United States not only landed on the Moon, but they were able to develop groundbreaking technological advancements.

A quick recap: Germany’s instability after the  First World War  led to the rise of Adolf Hilter and his  Nazi  Party. Hitler anointed himself as the supreme leader of Germany in 1934. He and his National Socialist Party broke the Versailles Treaty, which was a peace treaty that ended World War I, by rearming Germany and its military. Later, Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the dictator of the Soviet Union at the time, signed a  pact , and the Soviet Union and Germany invaded Poland from the East and West. Great Britain and France, who have promised military support to Poland if ever invaded, declared war on Germany, which ignited the start of WWII. In 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which became the Axis alliance. Later in German-occupied Poland, more than 6 million  Jews  would be murdered during the Holocaust, mass  genocide  of European Jews from 1941-1945. On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircrafts attacked a major United States Naval Base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which led to the United States entering the Second World War against the Axis alliance. On June 6, 1944, also known as “D-Day,” the Allies began the invasion of Europe by landing troops on the beaches of Normandy, France, which signified German defeat. In order to finalize the war with the remaining Axis power, Japan, the United States crafted some nuclear weapons, called  atomic bombs , that would later be dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The war promptly ended as the Japanese agreed upon the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, a statement that called upon the surrender of the Japanese armed forces (Gilbert, 2014).

Taking a step back before the Second World War was over, the Allied powers held a conference to decide on how to carry on after the war. During this conference, tensions grew between President Harry S. Truman and dictator Joseph Stalin because they were both suspicious of each other’s intentions, especially since Truman made Stalin aware that the United States had created nuclear weapons through their discreet program called the Manhattan Project. These rising tensions helped give birth to a tension-driven period called the Cold War. Over the next few years, after World War II ended, the Soviet Union began experimenting with nuclear weapons. By the 1950s, the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States of America, grew their nuclear arsenal to the point where they could destroy each other (Oreskes & Krige, 2014; McDougall, 2008). With the stress of nuclear weapons and the spread of  communism  breathing down America’s shoulders, the United States started to feel the pressure. The competition between the Americans and the Soviets did not stop on the land, air, and sea; the competition extended to the final frontier: space. The two superpowers explored beyond our world to see how it could benefit their cause, and on October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, into Earth’s orbit. The United States felt this achievement was an immediate threat as the  ballistic missile , Soviet R-7, that launched Sputnik could potentially drop a nuclear missile onto American soil. In 1958, the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, and the Space Race began. In 1959, the Soviets launched a  space probe  that crashed into the Moon. In 1961, the Soviets sent the first man to space, Yuri Gagarin, and he orbited around the Earth. In response to all of the Soviet’s achievements, President John F. Kennedy pledged to have America land on the Moon before the Russians. After a few Apollo missions to space, the Apollo 11 mission began on July 16, 1969; this mission was the first lunar landing attempt. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, a U.S. astronaut, is the first man to step on the Moon. The Space Race ended as the Americans were the first to land on the Moon ( Getchell , n.d.). Landing on the Moon gave Americans hope for a prosperous future as The New York Times reporter states in January 1960, “I can picture a flourishing civilization on the moon twenty or thirty years (after landing on the moon)” (Levitt, 1960).

The Space Race led to significant technological achievements; some inventions are still used today, while some were modified over several years to create the technology we encounter every day in our lives. NASA created scratch-resistant astronaut helmets; in 1983, NASA licensed the scratch-resistant technology to the Foster-Grant Corporation. Foster-Grant combined their ten years of research and NASA’s technology to create a scratch-resistant plastic material that would surpass glass under normal wear. Most spectacle lenses that we use today are made of plastic instead of glass ( Bryan , 2016). Also, modern firefighting equipment is derived from spacesuit material and equipment. The materials used in spacesuits make for good flame-retardance and heat-resistance. Also, firefighters breathing systems are modeled after astronaut life support systems. This technology not only helps save the lives of fire accident victims but also helps the hero firefighters stay alive also. A technology also used to aid in reducing or suppressing accidental fires are adjustable smoke detectors that were created by modifying original smoke detectors. NASA and the Honeywell Corporation worked together to develop a smoke detector that could have its sensitivity adjusted in order to prevent false smoke alarms. Also, although commonly thought that duct tape was created by NASA for its space operations during the Cold War, duct tape was actually invented in the 1940s during World War II, and it functioned as medical tape.

Additionally, CAT scans and MRI’s , which are minimally invasive medical scans used to investigate a person’s tissues, bones, and organs, use technology like NASA’s digital signal technology. During the Apollo missions, NASA used this technology to recreate images of the Moon (“ 20 Inventions We Wouldn’t Have Without Space Travel “, n.d.). Also, NASA used SPOC, a navigation monitoring computer. This computer was a modification of a commercial computer called GRiD Compass, and it was chosen for Space missions because of its compact size, large storage capacity, and high processing speed. A significant modification to allow for portability was the addition of a fan to cool the computer. This modification propelled the portable computer market ( Haggerty,  1985). As we have seen, the Space Race has led NASA to collaborate with others in creating technology that we can appreciate in our daily lives. As The New York Times reporter states in April 1985, “the development of military hardware has often enriched science and technology, and the trend is certain to continue” (Browne, 1985).

The technology was developed due to the urgency of the Space Race and the tensions from the Cold War. After Sputnik I orbited Earth for the first time, the United States decided to create the space program, NASA, to participate in the space race, which led the United States to land on the moon and achieve other goals and innovations. One main technological innovation that has had a significant impact on society is the sending of satellites into space. These satellites enable our modern world to be connected almost instantly through the use of broadband internet. The introduction of satellites and broadband internet has created a platform that allows people to collaborate and learn in a faster and more convenient way than ever before. Today, we use portable computers to surf the internet, but this would not be possible without the modifications of the SPOC navigation monitoring computer used in NASA space missions. This innovation in portable computers and other innovations have driven society through the modern era.

The word “computer” has been in use since the early 1600s when it described a person, rather than a machine, who performed computations. This definition stayed the same until the 19th century when the  industrial revolution  saw the invention of machines with the primary purpose of performing calculations. Since then, computers have come a long way, allowing us to access vast amounts of information, stay in contact with people across the globe, and they have even helped send people to the moon. The computer is one of the most significant technological inventions of modern times. Its creation has changed the way society operates in professional and even personal settings. They have also expanded the overall knowledge of the human race through their computational power and the ease with which they can share information.

Charles Babbage conceptualized the first computer in 1822. It was called the Difference Engine, and it was designed to compute several sets of numbers and print out the results. However, because of funding, a full-scale version was never completed. The first fully functional, programmable modern computer did not come until 1938. The Z1, created by German Konrad Zuse, was created in its inventor’s parents’ living room and is considered the first  electromechanical binary  programmable computer. It took eight years after that for the completion of what we consider to be the first “modern” computer. The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania. It weighed almost 50 tons and is the first example of a fully functional digital computer. Since then, computers have come a long way. Modern versions are exponentially smaller and more powerful. Most people have a computer light enough to fit in their backpack, but with over one thousand times the processing power of the ENIAC. Computers today continue to get smaller and lighter while increasing processing power at a breakneck speed. Where the ENIAC was not even able to store its programming commands, computers today often have dozens of  gigabytes  of memory; some even have  terabytes  of space. Initially, many people were uncomfortable around computers. The term “computerphobia” was used frequently in the ’80s to describe people who held this anxiety towards them, with many publications even offering tips for how to treat it. The term “computerphobia” retained its popularity until the ’90s when people’s technological fears turned from computers to the internet itself.

The development of the internet is arguably the most significant advancement in the history of computers. Computing power and storage used to be limited to the single computer it was found on, which limited their usefulness. During the 1970s and 1980s, small networks started to pop up, limited to a single university computer science department or a business. It was not until 1990 when the first recognizable form of the internet as we know it was invented by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The falling cost of disk space meant that system administrators could set aside vast amounts of storage to host data that could be shared globally in conjunction with the internet. This allowed vast amounts of knowledge to be spread throughout the world, along with software being developed at a much faster pace since collaboration became significantly more comfortable. Nowadays, the internet is a part of all of our lives. We use it to keep in touch with friends across the globe, along with its usage for standard day to day entertainment.

Computers have entirely changed the way our society works. One significant result of their creation and popularity has been some economies shifting from manufacturing to service jobs. Completely new job categories have had to be created to service and implement computer technologies. The networking ability of computers has also allowed businesses to relocate to more remote locations than before. Information processing tasks like payroll and record management can now be easily automated by a computer when they used to require hours of work by a person or group of people. In the field of weather forecasting, our current understanding of weather is almost entirely dependent upon computational models. Biological research now starts with a predictive model that helps determine what to explore in the real world. The computational power of computers has completely changed the way we approach tasks in society.

Due to computers, humans have been able to make accomplishments that our  predecessors  would never have even dreamed of. Their power and versatility have allowed us to map out some of the deepest parts of the ocean while also helping take us to the moon itself. Then, the invention of the internet unlocked almost infinite possibilities for their use. Distance has become almost meaningless when we can communicate nearly instantly, and vast amounts of knowledge that used to be confined to one location can be accessed by people all over the globe simultaneously. Without them, we would not be anywhere near as advanced of society as we are today

Human beings have always been naturally curious about the world that surrounds them. As homo sapiens began to evolve and their intelligence increased, they broke out of their original habitats to explore the surrounding world. After years of evolution and exploration, homo sapiens covered the world, establishing societies on every corner of the planet. As time continued, these societies advanced, and homo sapiens continued to explore the untouched peaks and valleys of the earth. These amazingly intelligent explorers had explored the world, but soon they turned their eyes to exploring the hidden heavens of the sky. In the early 1600s, the first telescope was invented to look at the heavens, and human society has been entranced with the idea of space ever since. A Soviet scientist finally achieved the ability to travel into space and the idea of space exploration by the name of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1903. Tsiolkovsky solved his famous rocket equation that was able to calculate the accurate fuel to weight ratio that was needed to successfully propel a rocket outside of the earth’s atmosphere into the depths of space. As time went on, humans were able to integrate this equation into more advanced and different technologies. These advancements fueled the creation of many different modern technologies that are used in everyday life of society now. Along with the advances in modern society’s technology, space exploration has advanced in many ways as well. Space exploration has evolved from being a government-owned entity that could send small satellites into orbit to being able to build an International Space Station that humans can live in for an extended period. Even public companies like SpaceX and Boeing are joining the coalition of space exploration. This ability of society to explore the depths of space has led to an unbelievable breakthrough in the advancements of modern technology and scientific studies, that many people do not realize, has allowed for the lives that society is living today.

The study and exploration of space have had a drastic effect on modern life down on earth. Many technologies that are used in everyday western life would not even be possible without the idea of space travel. This is because space exploration needed advancements in technology to allow humans to travel further and stay in space longer. These advancements made through space exploration include areas of modern life such as health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, and environmental resources. In the field of health and medicine, space exploration has helped humans understand the effect of  zero gravity  on the human body. In turn, this understanding has helped develop better health practices back under the weight of gravity, allowing humans to be healthier than the times before space exploration.

Along with helping understand the human body better, NASA funded many studies on creating artificial limbs and muscles that, in the past few years, have begun to translate over to basic medicine. This has allowed humans that have had a limb amputated to be replaced with advanced robotic limbs. Another impactful technology created by NASA to help study deep space was the MRI machine that was later released to the public and is now used every day, saving people’s lives. In the field of transportation, NASA funded a study done by Goodyear to develop a rubber that would be strong enough to help land a rover on Mars. This rubber created to land on Mars was then released later to the public to produce more durable tires on cars, reducing the amount of tire blowout and making daily travel safer.

Along with helping create safer tires, space exploration has also helped drive improvements in the field of public safety. One of the main improvements in public safety that space exploration has helped drive is in the field of video enhancements and analysis programs. NASA developed computer programs to help produce better quality videos and to be able to analyze videos frame by frame to help study deep space better. The public now uses this technology to help assist law enforcement in producing quality video footage of any crimes allowing for a safer public. For the modern consumer, NASA helped fund many different products that are used in human’s everyday lives. One of these products, patented in 2000 and released to the public in 2005, is the Bowflex workout machine. This project was funded by NASA to help reduce atrophy of muscle mass and loss of bone density of astronauts that spend long periods in space by allowing them to do resistant style workouts in zero gravity. Five years after its creation, NASA released the designs to the public, and the item became a huge hit. Finally, space exploration helped develop some of the most important technology that is being rapidly adopted by many humans around the world, environmental resources technologies. These technologies include many things, such as solar panel cells, water purification systems, and pollution control technologies. Even without knowing it, many humans use technology that was created for space exploration, and, as time continues, the exploration of space will continue to drive our civilization into a more technologically advanced society.

As space exploration is becoming more widespread and shared, the idea that some government entities must do it is no more. Public companies like SpaceX and Boeing are breaking into the market of building rockets and allowing space travel to the public. The CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has the dream of public space travel along with the colonization of Mars and hopefully, in the distant future other planets or solar systems. With these dreams to travel further and colonize other planets, science and technology are bound to see huge advancements in the future. Some of these advancements may include technologies that allow for a faster form of travel or the ability to terraform a planet to allow it to sustain life. With the more in-depth travel and study of space, science is also bound to advance. These advancements could come by way of understanding the vast quantity of material that humans have been able to measure yet have not had the ability to understand or even the possibility of finding life somewhere else in the universe. Only the future holds these advancements, and space exploration is the driving force.

STS in the MODERN world

The study of science and technology in society underscores the idea that society and its needs drive the progression of technology (Feenberg, 2012). Furthermore, society chooses the technologies it will accept, allowing them to succeed, and the technologies it will reject, causing their failure and often their obsolescence. Innovations in space exploration, detailed above, developed because of the societal need for advanced defense, communication, and research. The technology that developed from those needs was determined by society to solve their problems while offering little to no disadvantages, so society accepted space exploration and technology. Societal needs, however, change with time. A highly anticipated technology designed to satisfy the needs of modern society was  Google  Glass, depicted in the figure below. Although the technology was successful and useful, it was discontinued only one year after it was released due to society’s apprehension towards its possible applications ( Donnell , 2018). The following detailed dive into the failure of Google Glass is useful in emphasizing society’s influence on innovation as it pertains to the modern era of technology. Specifically, in the modern era, privacy concerns dictate the new technologies society will accept, which is evident in the failure of Google Glass.

As mentioned in the paragraph above, although it eventually failed, Google Glass Edition 1 was created to solve societal issues of the modern era. The goal of these glasses was to act as a hands-free smartphone. It would allow the user to access the internet, camera, maps, calendar, apps, and other smartphone features solely through voice and motion commands ( Pogue , 2013). These functions would not only allow convenience, but they would promote modern concerns, such as hands-free driving. This product would also keep pedestrians safe by preventing phone use and walking near busy streets or on crowded sidewalks. Although society and its needs drove the invention of Google Glass Edition 1, as it does most other technologies, this product did not take into consideration other societal needs that would eventually lead to its failure: privacy concerns.

Modern ideals and morals of society, specifically about privacy concerns, lead to the downfall of Google Glass. Invasion of privacy in the modern world is defined as “the unauthorized collection, disclosure, or other use of personal information as a direct result of electronic commerce transactions” (Wang et al., 1998). Market concerns with Google Glass regarded not only personal information, however, but also the information of bystanders. Since the technology utilized a camera mounted to a person’s head, it recorded not only the wearer’s voice but also their surroundings. This capability meant that anyone could be subject to recording or streaming at any time.

Although these glasses intended to solve societal issues, society soon realized that the wearer indeed determined the purpose of the glasses. A user of Google Glass could use the technology to record movies in theaters illegally or cheat in casinos ( Davis , 2014;  Doyle , 2016). They could also discreetly take or stream photos and videos of individuals who never consented to be objectified in such away. Furthermore, even if the wearer was not using the glasses maliciously, no one knew what Google was doing with the data, photos, and videos it collected ( Essers , 2013). Because of these privacy concerns, Glass wearers were barred from many restaurants and bars to ensure the guests of such establishments felt safe and protected ( Davis , 2014;  Weidner , 2020). As mentioned above, society dictates which technologies fail and succeed, and society’s concerns about Google Glass, and its actions in defense of those concerns, eventually caused the product’s failure.

In the wake of Google Glass’s failure, Google learned from society and compromised with it in order to use the same technology in an accepted manner. Google quickly reacted to the failure of Glass by discontinuing the product in 2015, which was only one year after its release ( Donnell , 2018). They realized, however, that although society did not accept Google Glass, the technology was sound, innovative, and useful. Google announced in 2019 that they are now developing Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2, which is geared toward business professionals and industry (“ Glass – Glass, ” n.d.). This new use is an attempt to make the technology successful by compensating for societal concern. Bystanders will no longer be subjected to unwanted filming from Google as the new product will be in private offices and factories rather than on public streets. This reintroduction of Google Glass to society in a different way with a different user might allow for its success, which underscores the idea that society dictates accepted technologies.

This case study of Google Glass is useful in discussing the idea that society chooses whether new technologies are accepted or rejected. Google has recognized this dependence on society for success, and they are working to compromise with societal privacy concerns to develop a successful technology. Although society rejected Google Glass Edition 1 based on privacy concerns, societal concerns of health and safety called for the innovation’s development. If the reintroduction is successful, Google Glass Edition 2 will be used to benefit the health, safety, and ergonomic efficiency of employees in offices and factories.

As discussed above, society has chosen which scientific and technological developments will define the modern world. Modern politics, religion, events, and society’s values of safety, privacy, exploration, health, and communication have driven technological progress in those respective fields. Although these sections have only been an overview of modern world STS, they serve as an introduction to the following in-depth studies of modern technology. While reading each subsequent section, think about these fundamental ideas: society’s effect on science technology, science and technology’s effect on society, aspects of society that drive technological and scientific advancement, and what causes society to accept or reject a particular advancement.

Chapter Questions

• True or False: Medical devices produced from 3D printers cannot be used on patients, only for educational purposes.
• True or False:  The first major cause of the Cold War was the increased tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.
• A) Computing and applied mathematics
• B) Materials science
• C) Healthcare and medicine
• D) All of the above
• B) Aesthetics
• C) Privacy Concerns
• D) Lack of Celebrity Endorsement
• Short Answer: Based on the information provided in this chapter, do you believe that 3-D printing things such as artificial organs is ethical? Why or why not? Support your answer with information in the chapter above.
• Short Answer: Briefly discuss how a filter bubble works.

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“Magnetic Nanoparticles for Clinical Diagnostics and Therapy” by Aihua Fu, Ph.D. and Shan X. Wang, Ph.D. is in the Public Domain, CC0

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“Sputnik-1. ” by paukrus is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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To the extent possible under law, Juliana-Marie Troyan; Maggie Elpers; Taylor Lorusso; Sevanna Boleman; Willis Watts; Joseph Rivera; David Jonah Lamothe; and Anthony Spearman have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to Science Technology and Society a Student Led Exploration , except where otherwise noted.

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Without science, we risk making decisions in the dark

The view from CERN: we need a partnership between science and policy Image:  Rob Fiduccia/VIMEO

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The second half of the 20th century saw a convergence of science and policy. This led to the creation of several intergovernmental scientific organisations in Europe, starting with CERN in 1954, which are all now world-leaders in their fields.

Collectively, they cover a broad spectrum of basic research from fundamental physics to life sciences. All have contributed to the knowledge and innovation on which our modern society is built: the world wide web, for instance, was created at CERN and the laboratory has contributed to the development of numerous technologies ranging from medical imaging and treatments to solar energy. This is what happens when science and policy work together.

CERN and similar organisations were born through the efforts of visionary scientists and policy makers wishing to foster scientific excellence and peaceful collaboration across borders, enabling science to serve society more broadly. They are founded on the ideal of individuals and nations collectively working to solve shared problems and achieve common goals. More than ever, the world needs today the kind of science-policy partnership that they embody.

Today’s world is much changed from the one that saw the creation of CERN. We live at a time of tremendous opportunity generated by advances in science and technology, yet at the same time we face major societal challenges ranging from food supply to climate change, all of which require the contribution of science if they are to be overcome. Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is making sure that science is on the policy agenda in the first place.

Any disconnect between science and policy has potentially negative implications for all of us because it undermines evidence-based decision making when we need it the most. If science is not fully engaged with policy-making, we are likely to see ill-informed decisions with global consequences for issues such as climate, and we may be hindered in seizing the opportunities that science and technology have to offer.

In 2015, the United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which provides a great opportunity for policy and science to work together. The Agenda is a unique roadmap for the international community over the coming years, setting ambitious targets in 17 areas ranging from eliminating poverty through ensuring health and wellbeing to promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. In many of these areas, science has an important and indispensable role to play.

Many scientists prefer to stay clear of policy, and indeed stay out of the public eye altogether. Sometimes this is drawn from the frustration of seeing the subtleties of the evidence contorted to produce the startling ‘scientists have proved’ headlines that certain elements of the media crave. Sometimes it is because they are concerned that their results will be misused, and that contributing to policy discussions might undermine their scientific integrity and professional credibility. Sometimes it is simply because their skills are better suited to the laboratory.

Have you read?

5 ways brain science is changing our world, as scientists, we must fight fake news with truth, how changing sustainable production could take us to mars.

The policy arena is not for all scientists, and nor should it be. But for those willing and able to engage with this challenging and complex world, it’s increasingly important that they do so. Our shared future is dependent on it. We need scientists to take part in public debate, and we need the role and the nature of science to be fully understood by those who make decisions.

Science-based policy does not mean that we must have scientists in positions of political power, although in many administrations the number of scientists among our elected representatives is worryingly low. Nor does it mean that we should replace political debate with an exchange of scientific facts. And it certainly does not mean that scientists possess a special kind of moral superiority in the public arena.

What it does mean is that we need scientists and science to be a valued and respected part of global discourse so that policy decisions are grounded in evidence. This will not necessarily lead to one particular outcome on a policy level, but it will ensure that when policy decisions are made, they will not be made blindly. Whatever our decision-makers do, they will do so with a clear knowledge of the likely consequences based on the current state of the scientific evidence. We therefore urgently need to strengthen trust and dialogue between scientists and policy-makers, and for that to happen we need scientists to engage, and policy-makers to listen.

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Three philosophical perspectives on the relation between technology and society, and how they affect the current debate about artificial intelligence

• Ibo van de Poel

Three philosophical perspectives on the relation between technology and society are distinguished and discussed: 1) technology as an autonomous force that determines society; 2) technology as a human construct that can be shaped by human values, and 3) a co-evolutionary perspective on technology and society where neither of them determines the other. The historical evolution of the three perspectives is discussed and it is argued that all three are still present in current debates about technological change and how it may affect society. This is illustrated for the case of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is argued that each of the three perspectives contributes to the debate of AI but that the third has the strongest potential to uncover blind spots in the current debate.

Introduction

Philosophical reflection on technology is perhaps as old as humanity. Since the early days of human evolution, humans have made and used tools for survival, and, henceforth, sometimes have been characterized as homo faber (tool maker) (e.g. Bergson, 1911 ). When humans started to reflect philosophically may be harder to trace historically, but philosophical reflections on technology can at least be traced back to antiquity in the Western world, but are likely older ( Franssen, Lokhorst, & Van de Poel, 2018) . Nevertheless, as a specialized discipline, philosophy of technology is of a much more recent date. Ernst Kapp was probably the first to use the term in 1877 .

In this essay, I am particularly interested in philosophical thinking about the relation between technology and society, and about that between technological change and social change. Consequently, in this article my focus is on what Mitcham (1994) has called humanities philosophy of technology rather than engineering philosophy of technology. The latter is more interested in issues in engineering practice, like the nature and evolution of technological artifacts, design, and the nature of technological knowledge, while the first focuses more on technology as a social, cultural and historical phenomenon, and its relation to society.

While humanities philosophy of technology may have started with writers like Lewis Mumford (Mumford, 1934) and Ortega y Gasset ( Ortega y Gasset, 1939/1997 ), it is often thinkers like Martin Heidegger ( Heidegger, 1962 ) and Jacques Ellul ( Ellul, 1964 ) that are seen as the frontrunners. They expressed a view on the relation between technology and society that conceives of technology as an autonomous force that determines society. While this view has been, and still is, influential, particularly in more popular discussions about technology, it has now been largely surpassed in professional philosophy of technology by a view that has arisen since roughly the 1980s under influence of philosophers like Langdon Winner (e.g. Winner, 1980 ) and the rise of the field of Science and Technology Studies. According to this second view, technology is basically a human product shaped by human interests and values, and it can also be shaped by these according to human will. In addition to these two views, I will distinguish a third one, which is of a more recent date but also has older roots. This third view stresses the co-evolution of technology and society and recognises explicitly the sometimes self-contained character of technology, and its unexpected and unintended consequences.

In current societal debates, we find elements of all three views. In current popular discourse, for example, about the fear that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will take over from humans, we can clearly recognize the idea of technology as an autonomous and determinate force. However, in these debates, we also witness the articulation of a range of values, which should guide the development of AI (e.g. High-Level Expert Group on AI, 2019 ), which very much fits the second view.

Therefore, the three perspectives on technology and society that I sketch below also function as tropes, or figures of speech that we have recourse to when we try to understand technological change and how it relates to, or affects, social change. Each perspective comes with certain core assumptions that define certain development as threats, and others as opportunities. What in one mode of thinking may be seen as malleable and open to choice, in another mode may be seen as given and unchangeable. The different modes of thinking about technology and society are therefore not innocent: they help to determine not only how we interpret technology and its relation to society but also what we see as possible and desirable.

Below, I shall briefly discuss each of the three perspectives, and their intellectual history, and will then illustrate for the case of AI that the perspectives are still present in current debates, although the third perspective seems somewhat underrepresented.

Technology as autonomous and determinate force

The idea of technology as an autonomous force that determines society and societal change can be found in early philosophers of technology like Jacques Ellul and Martin Heidegger. Ellul in his book The Technological Society (La Technique) describes technology as an autonomous force that develops largely independently from human choices ( Ellul, 1964 ). For Ellul, technology stands for a certain way of relating to reality and for certain values, pre-eminently efficiency.

Like Ellul, Heidegger in his essay The Question Concerning Technology (Die Frage nach der Technik) is not so much interested in specific technologies but in Technology, with a big T, as a certain way of relating to, and perceiving reality ( Heidegger, 1962 ). For him, Technology represents, in essence, an instrumental relation to reality, in which everything—nature, fellow humans—appears as a resource or a means to an end.

Somewhat similar ideas can already be found in an earlier book by Karl Jaspers called Man in the Modern Age (Die Geistige Situation der Gegenwart) ( Jaspers, 1931/1933 ), and in the work of Günther Anders, who, in his work Die Antiquiertheit des Menschen (The outdatedness of humans), of which the first volume appeared in 1956, stresses what he calls a growing a-synchronicity between humans and modern technology. Lewis Mumford in his writings, on what he calls modern monotechnics, also leans to describing technology as an autonomous and determinate force ( Mumford, 1967 ). The idea of technology as a modern ideology is also very much present in the Frankfurt School of Philosophy, for example, in Herbert Marcuse’s book One-dimensional man ( Marcuse, 1964 ) and Jurgen Habermas’ essay on science and technology as ideology ( Habermas, 1968 ).

All these philosophers perceive of technology as a more or less autonomous force, that cannot, or at least not easily, be resisted. Moreover, they associate technology, and in particular modern technology, with certain values and a certain relation to reality that is increasingly becoming dominant due to the autonomous force of technology. In line with these two ideas, the first perspective on technology and society may be characterized by the following two key assumptions:

Technology develops autonomously, i.e. according to its own laws, not, or hardly, open to human choice;

The impact of technology on society is deterministic.

The combination of these assumptions can not only be found among techno-pessimists like Ellul and Heidegger but also among techno-optimists. While it is hard to find a contemporary philosopher that represents such a view, it is clearly present in popular culture and among non-philosophers. [1] For example, Smith (1994) describes technological determinism in American culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She writes that the “belief that in some fundamental sense technological developments determine the course of human events had become dogma by the end of the [19 th ] century” ( Smith, 1994 , p. 7). This belief was, among others, installed by advertisements, “[f]from the early 1900s onwards, advertising agencies sold the public on the idea that the latest advances in technology brought not only immediate personals gains but also social progress” ( Smith, 1994 , p. 19).

The ideas of autonomous technology and technological determinism are still very much vivid today, as is witnessed by statements that we hear all too often, such as: “technological progress is inevitable”; “new technologies will eventually be used anyway”; “we cannot un-invent technologies once the genie is out of the bottle”; and “we will need to adapt to new technological realities.” While such ideas are often coupled to a faith that technology will bring progress, we certainly also find today the techno-pessimistic view in popular culture and among non-philosophers. An example is the essay Why the Future Does not Need Us in which Bill Joy, then Chief Scientist at Sun Microsystems, voices the concern that advances in robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology will lead to the destruction of mankind ( Joy, 2000 ).

The idea of machines taking over is an important subtheme under the trope of technology as an autonomous and determinate force, and one that keeps returning over time. It can already be found in novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (first published in 1818) and Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (first published anonymously in 1872) . It has also been regularly voiced by scientists and engineers. For example, in his book Engines of Creation (1986) , the molecular nanotechnologist Eric Drexler sketches the doomsday scenario of minuscule nanobots that have run out of control and that keep replicating, eventually eating up all matter so that only ‘grey goo’ is left.

The main difference between these techno-pessimists and techno-optimists is the values that are associated with technological development and change. For techno-optimists these are positive values like social progress, economic prosperity, freedom and democracy. Techno-pessimists stress negative values like efficiency, instrumentalization, domination of humans, tyranny, alienation, and the end of mankind. Despite these diametrically opposed normative assessments of technological change, they both conceive technological development as an autonomous process that determines societal developments. Consequently, there are few possibilities for human choice in technological development.

For techno-optimists it is probably not a problem that technology seems beyond human control as the inevitable technological changes will eventually bring human progress and other positive values. Techno-pessimists often feel a need to offer some way out, but due to their conception of technology the only way out they usually see is to abandon technology altogether, or at least to abandon ‘modern’ technology and to revalue older ‘more humane’ forms of technology and ‘non-technological’ ways of relating to reality, like religion in Ellul’s writings and poetry for Heidegger. It is here that the second perspective on technology and society offers radically different, and much more diverse, options for remedying potential negative effects of technology and technological change.

Technology as a human product shaped by human interests and values

The second perspective on technology stresses the human-made character of technology. Technology is a human construct. Consequently, technologies are shaped by human interests and values, and open to human choice. This view can already be found in some of the works of earlier philosophers of technology like Lewis Mumford (e.g. Mumford, 1934/1963 ) and Langdon Winner (e.g. Winner, 1977 , 1986 ). Winner, for example, in his book Autonomous Technology draws attention to how technology often appears as an autonomous and determinate force (along the lines of the first approach), but he believes this to be rooted in our (mis)conception of technology rather than in the essence of technology, as Ellul and Heidegger held ( Winner, 1977 ).

One of the earliest and strongest expressions of the view of technology as a human and value-laden product is probably Langdon Winner’s essay Do artifacts have politics? Winner (1980) argues that technological artifacts have political qualities and, hence, are value- and power-laden. Winner makes a distinction between technologies that are, in his view, by their very nature politically-laden, like for example the atomic bomb that according to him requires an authoritarian political structure to control its risks, and technologies that have politics due to their specific design, which could have been chosen differently, for example “concrete buildings and huge plazas constructed on university campuses in the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970 to defuse student demonstrations” ( Winner, 1980 , p. 124). It is particularly examples of the latter kind that fit the thinking of the second perspective (and that have been mostly referred to by later authors).

The idea of technology as a human construct has also been strongly articulated in Science and Technology Studies (STS), in particular in more constructivist approaches. In line with constructivist approaches to science (e.g. Bloor, 1976 ; Latour & Woolgar, 1979 ; Collins, 1985 ), since the 1980s different models and theories for understanding technology and technological change as human constructs have been developed (see e.g. Bijker, Hughes, & Pinch, 1987 ).

One early example is the SCOT, Social Construction Of Technology, model developed by Wiebe Bijker (see e.g. Bijker, 1995 ). According to this model, technological artifacts are interpreted differently by different social groups; such interpretations also typically suggest different paths for further technological development. Depending on what interpretation becomes dominant, technological change will take different paths. What is striking about the SCOT model is that factors such as the state of technological knowledge or what is technically feasible at a certain time do not seem to have an independent place in the model. Technology is just a human construct.

The view of technology as a human product open to, for example, design choices has increasingly been accepted by philosophers of technology and it can, in different degrees, be found also among the second and third generation of philosophers influenced by Heidegger like, for example, Don Ihde, Alfred Borgmann, Andrew Feenberg and Peter-Paul Verbeek (e.g. Ihde, 1993 ; Borgmann, 1984 ; Feenberg, 1991 ; Verbeek 2011 ).

Although there are, of course, many nuanced differences between thinkers that roughly fit this second perspective, I think one can fairly state that often the following three assumptions are present:

Technology is a human product or social construction and, as such, open to human choices;

Technology is value-laden, and different products can embed different values, depending on their design;

We (can) shape new technologies by our interests and values.

Whereas thinkers in the first approach typically have a monolithic idea about Technology, with a big T, in this second perspective they tend to talk about technologies in the plural, and to stress that the normative assessment of technologies may be very different from one technology to another. Different technologies have different normative qualities depending on choices made by humans, for example during the design process.

We find this second view also in popular media, in policy circles, and among non-philosophers. An example is the science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov who has become well-known for his three laws of robotics ( Asimov, 1950 ):

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The idea behind these laws is not that robots will automatically obey them, but that they should be so designed (by humans) that they do. This clearly fits the idea of technology as a human product.

The idea that we can deliberately design values into technology is also key to Value Sensitive Design ( Friedman & Kahn, 2003 ; Friedman & Hendry, 2019 ), and related approaches like Design for Values ( Van den Hoven, Vermaas & Van de Poel, 2015 ) that aim at incorporating values of ethical importance into the design of new technologies.

This way of thinking has also been taken up in policy circles. Initially, it was particularly new variations to technology assessment that made this approach more widespread. Whereas traditional technology assessment was aimed at predicting and assessing the consequences of new technologies, modern varieties like Constructive Technology Assessment ( Rip, Misa & Schot, 1995 ) and real-time technology assessment ( Guston & Sarewitz, 2002 ) stress the importance of feeding insights from the anticipated possible consequences of new technologies into the design and research and development (R&D) phase of new technologies, so that better technologies can be developed.

These ideas have also been taken up in approaches like Mid-Stream Modulation ( Fisher, Mahajan & Mitcham, 2006 ) and, more recently, in the approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) ( Owen, Bessant & Heintz, 2013 ). RRI has particularly been taken up in the European Union where it has been defined as “the on-going process of aligning research and innovation to [sic] the values, needs and expectations of society” ( European Commission 2014 ).

Co-evolution of Technology and Society

The second perspective is more nuanced than the first in the sense that it focuses on technologies rather than monolithically on technology, its essence or its inevitable development. In this way, it also opens possibilities for more nuanced normative assessments of technologies and suggests constructive ways for better governing the development of new technologies.

However, the second perspective may also be in danger of overstating the degree to which we can steer or direct technological developments. In addition to the first and second perspective, which stress, respectively, the autonomy of technology and human choice in technology, we might distinguish a third perspective that theoretically starts from the idea of co-evolution of technology and society ( Rip & Kemp, 1998 ).

The idea of co-evolution is certainly not new and many authors I cited for the second perspective may well subscribe to it. What sets the third perspective apart from the second, then, is not just or merely a recognition of the co-evolution of technology and society but rather a recognition of what I would like to call the non-malleability of technology, and of the fact that technology brings novelty and, therefore, unforeseen and unintended (social) consequences.

Let me explain these terms in some more detail. With non-malleability, I do not mean so much to refer to the laws of physics (although these puts limits on what is technologically feasible), but rather to the fact that technological developments are often hard to govern. In the literature, this has been understood in a variety of ways, for example in terms of technological complexity and scale ( Collingridge, 1992 ), in terms of technological momentum ( Hughes, 1994 ), in terms of path-dependence and lock-in ( David, 1985 ; Arthur, 1989 ) or in terms of technological regimes ( Nelson & Winter, 1977 ; Rip & Kemp, 1998 ; Van de Poel, 2003 ). What all these explanations have in common is that they see the non-malleability of technology not as purely technical in nature, but as, at least partly, social in nature. It is due to organizational complexities, economic considerations, power constellations, social institutions, and the like.

Technological development, according to the third perspective, is not just non-malleable but it also brings novelty ( Rip & Kemp, 1998 ). With novelty, I mean here that it creates something that did not exist before and that we cannot fully capture beforehand. This novelty is an opportunity; it may, for example lead to new options that help to solve social and moral dilemmas ( Van den Hoven, Lokhorst & Van de Poel, 2012 ). However, the novelty is also a potential threat in the sense that it may lead to unintended and undesirable risks or side-effects.

We can, again, summarize the third perspective in terms of three key assumptions: Technology and society co-evolve; technology does not determine society nor do societal choices fully determine technology;

Some aspects of technology development are very hard to change or unmalleable, and are hardly (still) open to human choice;

Technology creates novelty and unexpected (and unintended) consequences.

The combination of the second and third assumption results in the so-called dilemma of technological control that was already formulated in Collingridge (1980) . This dilemma states that, in its early phases, a new technology is still malleable, but one lacks sufficient knowledge about its social impact to steer it in the right direction. Later, when this knowledge has become available, the technology is so well-entrenched in society that it has become hard or impossible to change anymore.

The dominant response to this dilemma in the second perspective is to try to proactively steer technology during its early phases, like the R&D and design phase, while addressing the knowledge problem by increased anticipation and deliberation (e.g. through stakeholder involvement). While such an approach is certainly sensible, it also runs the risks of overlooking issues and concerns that are hard, or impossible, to anticipate at these early stages.

An alternative to the anticipatory approach, and more in line with the third perspective, is an approach that addresses the other horn of the Collingridge dilemma by trying to avoid, or at least postpone, the lock-in of a new technology and using this time for an extended period of experimentation and learning about a new technology ( Van de Poel, 2016 ). Such an approach would conceive of the introduction of a new technology into society as a form of social experimentation ( Krohn & Weyer, 1994 ; Felt et al., 2007 ) and would seek better, and more acceptable, forms of social experimentation with technology. Rather than on anticipation, the emphasis is in such an approach on experimentation, adaptability and learning.

In the light of the third perspective, the RRI approach aimed at better aligning technology with the ‘values, needs and expectations of society’ is sympatric, but perhaps somewhat naïve, both in the sense that technology may be harder to govern than expected and that even, when such governance efforts are successful, unexpected consequences and unpleasant surprises will occur from time to time, due to the novelty of technology.

Moreover, from a co-evolutionary point of view, the ‘values, needs and expectations of society’ are not given but evolve, as a result of technological development. They, hence, do not provide a normative rock bottom that can guide technological development. While many may subscribe to such a statement where it concerns societal needs and expectations, some would probably believe that values are more stable and unchangeable and have, or at least can have, a solid normative foundation. Ethicists of technology have, however pointed out that technological developments may induce technomoral change ( Swierstra, 2013 ) or value change ( Van de Poel, 2018a ).

Acknowledging the possibility of value change may, occasionally, lead to a form of moral relativism, but it does not necessarily imply a moral relativist position. One may, as well, argue that new technologies create new realities and new types of moral situations and, hence, new moral problems, that demand new moral values to adequately deal with them. When the idea that technology creates novelty is taken seriously, this is a real possibility. So conceived, the introduction of new technology is also a form of moral experimentation, in which we only along the way find out what the new moral issues created by a new technology are, and, along the way, (re)invent the moral standards and values by which to judge that technology ( Van de Poel, 2018b ).

AI as an example

I want to end this essay with a brief example of how the three philosophical perspectives on technology and society play out in a concrete case, namely Artificial Intelligence (AI). This helps to see how all three are still present and relevant today, as well as to suggest how my discussion of them might be relevant to deal with the new challenges to society that AI introduces.

The first perspective, technology as an autonomous and determinate force, is clearly visible in techno-optimist as well as techno-pessimist visions on AI. On the one hand, there are scientists, governments and industries sketching AI largely as an inescapable development that will bring economic and social progress. The argument is often that we should free up large amounts of money for AI in order not to be surpassed by competitors who will do the same, so contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Also, many techno-pessimists have recourse to the first perspective. An example is Stephen Hawking’s warning that AI could end mankind ( Cellan-Jones, 2014 ), a fear that is now also voiced it in many popular articles about AI and machine learning. Similar fears are voiced in Nick Bostrom’s recent book Superintelligence ( Bostrom, 2016 ). While these voices might help to point out some of the potential perils of AI and can, hence, be seen as a form of early warning, their analyses bring relative few insights as to how to improve the development of AI, and its social impacts.

Here the second perspective has proven more useful. The earlier mentioned report of the High-Level Expert Group on AI (2019) is a clear example of the application of the second perspective; it articulates the ethical principles of respect for human autonomy, prevention of harm, fairness and explicability as the ones that should guide the development and design of AI. These ideas are backed by more scholarly work on responsible AI, Humane AI, explainable AI, and meaningful human control (e.g. Floridi et al., 2020 ; Wachter, Mittelstadt & Russell, 2018 ; Santoni de Sio & Van den Hoven, 2018 ). So, the second perspective is now clearly showing its relevance for better governing the development of AI.

However, the second perspective may – in line with my general discussion above – have two important blind spots. One is that the actual control of AI developments may be much harder than expected, or at least hoped. One problem, as also alluded to by Bostrom, is that AI may give countries a competitive advantage not only economically but also in warfare, which might make it particularly hard to control, especially because some governments are clearly much less interested in developing AI in a responsible manner than others.

Another blind spot may be the novelty and unintended consequences brought by AI. These are partly due to the fact that AI allows the design of artificial agents that are autonomous and adaptive, and can hence learn – often in unpredictable ways – from interaction with their environment (cf. Floridi & Sanders, 2004 ). Moreover, AI may bring social and economic disruption, for example in terms of (un)employment, but also conceptual and moral disruption, as it challenges some key philosophical notions like (human) moral agency and responsibility. The tendency of techno-pessimists, in the first approach, and of those adhering to the second perspective is often to reject such disruptions, and the accompanying AI technologies, either because they are seen as a peril to humanity (first perspective) or because they endanger some of our core human values (like human autonomy, and responsibility) (cf. van Wynsberghe & Robbins, 2019 ).

Here a somewhat more nuanced view might prove fruitful. On the hand, AI does not only bring threats but also opportunities, and some conceptual and moral changes may be desirable, not because they are triggered by AI but because we have independent (philosophical) reasons to consider them good or desirable. What the third perceptive also adds to the other two is a stronger emphasis on the co-evolution of AI and society, and, hence, on developing AI technologies that support humans rather than replace them. Like most other technologies, AI may well improve human capabilities and contribute to a better society.

Given the uncertainties and opportunities as well as threats that surround the development of AI, and in line with the third perspective, one should also aim at a more gradual introduction of AI into society, in which it does not only amount to an uncontrolled de-facto social and moral experiment, but in which we can (first) apply more small-scale and guided forms of social and moral experimentation that allow us to learn and adapt along the way. Such an approach to AI may sound idealistic, but in other realms of technologies, like the medical, we have come to accept over time that new treatments, drugs or vaccines first need to be tested out extensively before they can be safely and responsibly introduced on a larger scale in society.

Three philosophical perspectives on the relation between technology and society can be distinguished. Very roughly, they either interpret technology as the determining force in this relation (first perspective) or view humans and society as the determining force (second perspective) or start from the idea of co-evolution of technology and society (third perspective). As was illustrated for the case of AI, these perspectives are all present in current debates about new technologies. The perspectives can therefore be seen as cultural resources that people have recourse to in debates about such technologies. However, that does not mean that they are equally adequate or desirable from a normative point of view. I believe the third perspective, co-evolution between technology and society, to be preferable for at least two reasons. One is that it able to integrate insights from the other two; the other reason is that I consider it to be more descriptively adequate, although that it admittingly hard to demonstrate. Moreover, as the case of AI suggests, it is able to point out blind spots in current debates in which the first and second perceptive are often still more dominant.

Acknowledgement

This publication is part of the project ValueChange that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 788321.

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Living in a society without technology

Matthew Giannelis

17 Min Read

A society without technology seems almost impossible to imagine. The amount of things that we now use and take for granted that were around 100 years ago, like the telephone and television, would seem almost impossible to think of today. Imagine if all these things were gone. It is very hard to visualize a world without any type of technology. The impact of a society without technology is becoming clear with the issues that are being faced by mental health professionals across the country.

One of the biggest issues facing mental health professionals these days is the increasing rate of mental health professionals who are developing their own websites and businesses solely focused on offering online services to those in need. Because of this growing trend, many of these professionals are starting to experience burnout. They have tried to offer their expertise in one form or another for many years, but they are not receiving the same level of response as they did a few years ago. What can be done about this?

Well, there are a lot of people out there who think that mental health professionals are overreacting. After all, haven’t we heard about the person with a mental disorder living in a small town that bought his own computer and surfed the Internet? Also, we’ve heard about the person who lost their job because of her online gambling problem. These people feel that it is perfectly normal for a person with a mental disorder to do these things. They also feel that society without technology is a society with no problem.

On the contrary, mental health experts are beginning to see the clear benefits of technology on our lives.

Some Benefits

The first benefit is that we have become more knowledgeable about what technology has to offer. Online news sources helps us to keep up with new developments in a timely fashion.

The second benefit is that we are able to tap into and use the power of the Internet and the World Wide Web when we need help. For example, many mental health professionals have been able to help thousands of people learn how to handle depression and anxiety.

Through the Internet, people have been able to learn how to deal with their feelings of anxiety and depression and be able to live a more happy and productive life. Additionally, people are also learning how to utilize their imagination and creativity through online games. Gaming sites have introduced games such as video games and role playing games that allow people to pretend to be someone else and take on that persona when they need a break from their daily life and the stress of work.

The third benefit of technology is that it allows us to live a richer and fuller life. Life is becoming more complicated and we are becoming less able to do it with only manual means. With the help of technology, we are now able to design and create a home that we call “home” and work from there. We are no longer confined to the four walls of our apartment or house. Our lifestyle has changed for the better and we are experiencing more leisure time, greater opportunities and more opportunities for entertainment and education.

One of the greatest benefits of living in a society that has embraced technology is that you will experience a sense of satisfaction and freedom that you would never have thought was possible.

Many have taken to using technology not only because it allows them to make more money, but also to experience a sense of freedom and personal fulfilment.

These are the same feelings that most people experience when they are given the opportunity to live the lifestyle that they have always dreamed about. Technology has opened a world of possibilities for everyone. As the years go by, more people will realize the incredible benefits of technology and adopt it fully into their lives.

How society has changed

It is interesting to note that most people don’t realize how much society has changed in the last half century and how much society has advanced since the advent of the first computer and the Internet. Most people were not even aware of these things until the last decade. Nowadays, people who would not have considered owning a computer or a cell phone ten years ago can easily do so. Education and entertainment are no longer limited to the rich and famous. It is also accessible to the rest of the working class.

Technology And Mental Health

Society is going digital, and this change has profound implications for Mental Health and Technology. We are not seeing the impact here of increasing total income for a particular group or type of worker, but rather increasing opportunities for everyone as the world becomes a more connected place. Schools now look to algorithms to monitor students on the Internet, aiming to identify those struggling with psychological disorders and dangerous behaviour before it reaches school officials. This is a smart move for schools that are constantly looking for new ways to measure student performance on the computer. This type of monitoring is now used in classrooms, but what about when the parent turns over that responsibility to a private company?

Private companies are responding to the need for Mental Health and Technology by developing tools and apps that can monitor and track individuals from home.

Impact of technology on society

Technology, without a doubt, has had an enormous effect on society. With the rapid advancements made by technology every day, the manner in which people think has changed, to the tremendous new possibilities that it offers with each passing day.

One of the greatest effects that technology has had on society is the impact it has had on education. With the advent of the internet, technology has opened up numerous opportunities for individuals, including increased access to higher learning institutions for individuals who would have previously never been able to afford the college education that they now have the opportunity to pursue. Additionally, technology provides individuals with increased access to opportunities in every area of life from work, business, transportation and entertainment.

As individuals continue to embrace and utilize technological systems, the impact that it has on society cannot be overlooked. In this regard, technology is responsible for the vast majority of the growth that has occurred in the Internet. The rapid expansion of the Internet has allowed for individuals to access educational information from any corner of the world at the click of a mouse. In addition to this, as more information is created through the use of computer systems and technological systems, this information creates a wealth of knowledge that can be accessed by anyone interested in learning more about particular topics.

In this day and age, society relies heavily on technological systems to function smoothly. Without these technological innovations, society would grind to a halt. Society has become a very specialized and highly specialized system of operation. The rapid growth of society has also created a very unique set of social structures and values that are unique to particular societies. Due to the impact that technology has had on society, these societies have developed different norms and traditions that have remained intact throughout the years despite the expansion of society and technology.

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it can have an adverse effect on society when it is not handled properly or used in a socially justifiable way. There are many examples of the adverse impact that technology has had on society and on the human life. One example would be the impact that the Internet has had on education.

The Internet has opened up countless new possibilities in terms of education for people all over the world. However, this accessibility of educational opportunities has led to the detrimental impact that the Internet has had on education in some parts of the world, such as South Africa. As a result, there have been efforts by governments and educational experts to introduce and develop online technologies that would provide access to quality education for all.

The impact that technology has had on society can also be seen in many other ways. The impact has been seen in terms of the increased levels of productivity that people are able to obtain from technological systems. Technological systems such as the Telephone have allowed people to communicate with one another in a very efficient and cost-efficient manner. Without the widespread use of the Telephone and the development of other technological systems such as the Internet, many people would be unable to communicate with each other.

Technological innovations do not necessarily cause a negative impact on society, but sometimes these inventions or innovations can have a negative impact on a society, especially if certain individuals, groups or countries utilise the technology improperly.

Governments and educational experts must continue to work closely together in order to protect young minds against the negative impact that improper technology can have on them. It is important for us to remember that technology is only one way that we can improve upon the quality of our lives. We also have to develop other ways of interacting with one another in order to ensure that our society maintains a high standard of social interaction.

Our addiction to technology

One of the problems with modern society is our addiction to technology. Our lives are lived on the Internet, cell phones, and other forms of technological communication. Many people argue that this type of addiction is harmless since it is not physical in nature but rather a virtual addiction. However, for others this addiction has become a physical and social blight which mars the lives of millions of people. In order to combat this societal malady we must take a closer look at the ways in which we use technology and what type of social values we subscribe to based upon our use of technology.

The use of social media is the root of our addiction to technology. We cannot escape our social media connections. Now this doesn’t mean that we check our social media accounts every second day but what it does mean is that we log into these accounts to keep in touch with our friends and family. This form of social connection has its advantages and one of these advantages is the ability to maintain long-distance relationships. Although this type of relationship may be doomed to fail, it has been possible for couples to remain connected through social media.

Another type of technology addiction is found with the apps that we download from the Android and iPhone apps stores. These apps can also be considered a form of social media since they give us the ability to connect with our friends and family. However, many of these apps are nothing more than thinly disguised apps designed to garner more user information from the users. This information is then sold to marketing firms that will bombard the users with junk messages and advertisements that have been carefully crafted to ensure that they’re not turned off by the presence of these apps.

One type of addiction that is most commonly found amongst teenagers and young adults is the addiction to digital media. It may come as no surprise that this would be the most common addiction problem faced by those in their early twenties. It has been reported that adults spend approximately sixty six hours per day on cell phones, more than three and a half hours on social media sites and more than nine hours on digital media games. This amounts to an addicting amount of time that can be used up by simply playing the same game several times in a single day.

Unlike most other forms of addiction, the addiction to digital media is compulsive in nature. This means that the user is actually trying to find a solution to a problem, which is why the addiction is compulsive. This means that users are constantly looking at their profiles to see if they have new things to say, or they are making new connections. The compulsive nature of the addiction means that the user may even look for ways to continue playing the game or app as a means of relieving some of their stress, and this is where the danger truly lies.

Most experts agree that internet addictions can be treated, however it is always recommended that you seek help if you believe that you might be using technology to deal with some of your problems. It is possible that the problem is much more serious than you think. Due to the fact that most people use social media to talk to friends and family, it is not uncommon for them to turn to their social network for solutions to problems such as depression or anxiety. This is not something that should be ignored, especially if it affects your life and the people around you. If you suffer from any type of internet addiction, it is recommended that you speak to your doctor to find out which treatment options are available to you and to get started on the road to recovery.

Growing Mental Heath Concerns

Many online technology news websites reports since the release of smartphones, mental health problems have increased in children and young adults. The rate of adolescents reporting symptoms of major depression in any given year increased by 52% from 2005 to 2017. From 2009 to 2017, it grew by 63% in adults aged 18 to 25. The experience of psychological distress in any given month increased by 71% in young adults from 2008 to 2017. Even worse, the rate of suicidal thoughts in young adults increased by 47% over the same period.

For older adults, there was no significant increase in these mental health problems over the same periods. Children and young adults are most affected. This is not a big surprise as they use social media the most and grew up as digital natives. But the statistics are shocking. More than a third of adults (38%) consider social media use harmful. Only 5% think it is only positive.

Effects on Children and Young Adults

Approximately 25% of teens see social media as having a negative effect. 

Social Media Addiction

Social Media Addiction is not simple thing to measure, but fortunately there are some very easy signs to look for that prove how addicted you are. Social media addiction isn’t something that you can do overnight, it takes some serious reflection of your personal online life balance, and this all depends on you. If you’re like most people, the answer to “Am I addicted?” will probably be a resounding “yes.”

People talk about themselves about 30-40% of the time in person. On social media, people talk about themselves 80% of the time. Therefore, when they receive a positive feedback notification, they experience a positive dopamine experience.

The first and foremost sign of social media addiction that you should look for is a disturbing lack of social interaction. This is an issue not limited to young people, or those who spend a lot of time on Facebook. Many older people suffer from this exact problem, and don’t even realize it. It’s a terrible disconnection between what we think and feel inside, and the way the rest of the world interacts with us.

The other obvious sign that you have an addiction problem is over-self-importantness. If you spend all of your time thinking about yourself, you may as well be thinking about your life in general. You start to get so wrapped up in how much you care about yourself, that you don’t see the bigger picture. You start to think that your social media lives matter more than your real life. This is a hard flaw to overcome, but it’s also one of the main reasons why people develop this problem in the first place.

Another thing that social media addicts tend to do, is obsess about their social lives. They spend all of their waking hours talking to friends on Facebook, Twitter, and any other social platform they are using. These people rarely take the time to stop and think about how their actions affect the people around them. When they do stop and think about it, they become ashamed and afraid that they are harming their close relationships and their employers. All of the sudden, they are trying to change themselves in order to fit in with society, and their new social circle.

People who are not addicted to social media are able to stop and think about their decisions more rationally. They have time to reflect on what their lives are really about. They can determine for themselves whether or not they are living life to its fullest. They can decide whether or not they have hurt people in the past and whether they are worthy of love and friendship. They can decide how much they are spending money on things they don’t need and how much time they are actually spending with their family.

Social media addictions are hard to overcome. It is important for the person suffering from it to take some time out and reflect on their life. Getting help is important and a person needs to make a commitment to seek treatment. This recovery process is just a step along the way to happiness and true freedom

Who Uses Social Media?

About 86% of young people between 18 and 29 use these platforms. Another 80% of people between the ages of 30 and 49 and 64% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 are on social media. A third of adults over 65 also use it, up from just 10% in 2010. The most worrying thing is how many teens use these platforms. One survey found that 97% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 have at least one account.

Living Without Technology

Can we live without technology?

Yes, for some of us, technology isn’t something we give a second thought, but others cannot live without it

Some say that it is impossible. But what if you had no gadgets and no Internet? Would that make your life any different than it is now? You may be surprised to find out that it can be all that you want it to be with no modern technology at all.

These days, many people cannot afford to be living without technology. In fact, there are many people who do not have access to the Internet at all. Instead, they have to rely on books, newspapers and magazines for all of their information. This is not only inconvenient, but it is rather expensive as well. In addition to being inconvenient, it is also very expensive!

The truth is, there are so many advantages of having this technology that it would be impossible to imagine anyone living without it! But this does not mean that it is something that you should be stuck with, and that you cannot be innovative and enjoy new things. In fact, you will find that these days’ technology has made it easier to do almost anything.

Extended Summary Of Thoughts

Technology has become part and parcel of our everyday lives; this is the reason that many people refer to a society without technology as “backward” or “less advanced”. However, it must be understood that technology is not something that is present in a society that does not have it. On the contrary, technology is present in such a society but is so integrated and useful that it is not possible for people in such a society to do without it. As a result, they are able to live a healthy and peaceful life.

In a society that uses technology, everyone has access to information and to all of the tools that they need to live. It is a very good idea to utilize technology because it makes the life of living easier and more convenient. One cannot truly say that living in a society without technology is possible because it will not be possible for a society to function without a wide range of technologies.

For instance, without the Internet, it would be very difficult for libraries to stay open and for individuals to find all of the information that they need. Thus, it can be said that technology is a part and parcel of living in a society.

Essay on Impact Of Science And Technology On Society

Students are often asked to write an essay on Impact Of Science And Technology On Society in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Impact Of Science And Technology On Society

Changes in daily life.

Science and technology have changed how we live every day. We use smartphones to talk, get information, and have fun. Washing machines clean our clothes, and microwaves cook food fast. Life is easier and we can do more things in a day.

Health Improvements

Doctors use new tools to treat sickness. Medicine helps us live longer and healthier. Vaccines stop diseases from spreading. We can fix hearts and even replace some body parts. People are healthier now than ever before.

Education and Learning

Learning is different now. Children use computers and the internet for homework and research. They can watch videos to understand tough subjects. Teachers can reach students far away through online classes.

Work and Jobs

Robots and computers do many jobs that people used to do. This can make things faster and cheaper, but some people may lose their jobs. New jobs in technology are created too, so people need to learn new skills.

Environment and Challenges

Science helps us know about pollution and climate change. We can make clean energy like solar and wind power. But technology can also harm the environment. We must be careful and protect our planet.

250 Words Essay on Impact Of Science And Technology On Society

Science and technology have changed the way we live every day. Long ago, people had to do everything by hand. Now, we have machines that wash our clothes and dishwashers that clean our plates. We can talk to someone far away by using a phone or a computer. These tools save us time and make life easier.

Thanks to science, we are healthier and live longer. Doctors use new tools to find out what is wrong with us and have better ways to treat illnesses. We have medicines for diseases that once had no cure. This means fewer people get sick and can enjoy their lives more.

Learning has changed a lot because of technology. Students can find information on the internet and learn from videos and games. They don’t have to go to a library to read about things; they can learn from anywhere with a computer or a tablet.

Environment and Energy

Science helps us understand our planet and how to take care of it. We know more about how to save energy and use less water. There are also new types of energy that don’t harm the earth, like solar and wind power.

Jobs and the Economy

Technology creates new jobs and helps the economy grow. People can work with computers and robots, and there are jobs that didn’t exist before, like designing apps for phones. This means more people can work and have money to buy things they need.

In conclusion, science and technology have a big impact on our society. They make our lives better, help us stay healthy, change the way we learn, protect our planet, and give us new jobs. The world keeps changing, and science and technology will continue to be a big part of that change.

500 Words Essay on Impact Of Science And Technology On Society

Introduction to science and technology.

Science and technology are like two sides of the same coin. They both help us understand the world and make our lives better. Science is about discovering new things and understanding how everything works. Technology uses science to solve problems and create tools that make our lives easier. Together, they have a big effect on how we live every day.

Communication and Information

One of the biggest changes science and technology have brought is the way we talk to each other. Long ago, sending a message to someone far away could take days or even months. Now, with computers and phones, we can talk to anyone around the world instantly. The internet lets us find information about anything in seconds. This has made learning and sharing ideas much easier and faster.

Health and Medicine

Science and technology have also changed how we stay healthy. Doctors use new tools to find out what’s wrong with us and to help us get better. We have medicines for illnesses that once had no cure. Because of this, people are living longer and healthier lives. Even in places that are hard to reach, mobile health services can give medical care to those who need it.

Travel and Transportation

Think about how we move from one place to another. Cars, buses, trains, planes, and ships have all become faster and safer thanks to technology. We can travel long distances in a short time, which has made the world feel smaller. It’s easier to go to new places, meet new people, and learn about different cultures.

Work and Industry

Robots and machines are now doing many jobs that were once done by people. This can be good because it means products can be made quickly and without mistakes. But it also means that some jobs are not needed anymore, and people have to learn new skills to work with these machines. This change is a big challenge for society.

Science and technology can help protect our planet too. We have learned how to make energy from the sun, wind, and water, which are cleaner than burning coal or oil. Scientists are also working on ways to reduce trash and pollution. Still, technology can harm the environment if we use it without thinking about the consequences.

In the end, science and technology have both good and bad effects on our lives. They make many things easier and better, but they can also cause problems if we’re not careful. It’s important for everyone, not just scientists and engineers, to think about how we use technology. By working together, we can make sure that science and technology help make a better world for all of us.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Science, technology and innovation in a 21st century context

• Published: 27 August 2011
• Volume 44 , pages 209–213, ( 2011 )

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• John H. Marburger III 1  

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Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

This editorial essay was prepared by John H. “Jack” Marburger for a workshop on the “science of science and innovation policy” held in 2009 that was the basis for this special issue. It is published posthumously .

Linking the words “science,” “technology,” and “innovation,” may suggest that we know more about how these activities are related than we really do. This very common linkage implicitly conveys a linear progression from scientific research to technology creation to innovative products. More nuanced pictures of these complex activities break them down into components that interact with each other in a multi-dimensional socio-technological-economic network. A few examples will help to make this clear.

Science has always functioned on two levels that we may describe as curiosity-driven and need-driven, and they interact in sometimes surprising ways. Galileo’s telescope, the paradigmatic instrument of discovery in pure science, emerged from an entirely pragmatic tradition of lens-making for eye-glasses. And we should keep in mind that the industrial revolution gave more to science than it received, at least until the last half of the nineteenth century when the sciences of chemistry and electricity began to produce serious economic payoffs. The flowering of science during the era, we call the enlightenment owed much to its links with crafts and industry, but as it gained momentum science created its own need for practical improvements. After all, the frontiers of science are defined by the capabilities of instrumentation, that is, of technology. The needs of pure science are a huge but poorly understood stimulus for technologies that have the capacity to be disruptive precisely because these needs do not arise from the marketplace. The innovators who built the World Wide Web on the foundation of the Internet were particle physicists at CERN, struggling to satisfy their unique need to share complex information. Others soon discovered “needs” of which they had been unaware that could be satisfied by this innovation, and from that point the Web transformed the Internet from a tool for the technological elite into a broad platform for a new kind of economy.

Necessity is said to be the mother of invention, but in all human societies, “necessity” is a mix of culturally conditioned perceptions and the actual physical necessities of life. The concept of need, of what is wanted, is the ultimate driver of markets and an essential dimension of innovation. And as the example of the World Wide Web shows, need is very difficult to identify before it reveals itself in a mass movement. Why did I not know I needed a cell phone before nearly everyone else had one? Because until many others had one I did not, in fact, need one. Innovation has this chicken-and-egg quality that makes it extremely hard to analyze. We all know of visionaries who conceive of a society totally transformed by their invention and who are bitter that the world has not embraced their idea. Sometimes we think of them as crackpots, or simply unrealistic about what it takes to change the world. We practical people necessarily view the world through the filter of what exists, and fail to anticipate disruptive change. Nearly always we are surprised by the rapid acceptance of a transformative idea. If we truly want to encourage innovation through government policies, we are going to have to come to grips with this deep unpredictability of the mass acceptance of a new concept. Works analyzing this phenomenon are widely popular under titles like “ The Tipping Point ” by Gladwell ( 2000 ) or more recently the book by Taleb ( 2007 ) called The Black Swan , among others.

What causes innovations to be adopted and integrated into economies depends on their ability to satisfy some perceived need by consumers, and that perception may be an artifact of marketing, or fashion, or cultural inertia, or ignorance. Some of the largest and most profitable industries in the developed world—entertainment, automobiles, clothing and fashion accessories, health products, children’s toys, grownups’ toys!—depend on perceptions of need that go far beyond the utilitarian and are notoriously difficult to predict. And yet these industries clearly depend on sophisticated and rapidly advancing technologies to compete in the marketplace. Of course, they do not depend only upon technology. Technologies are part of the environment for innovation, or in a popular and very appropriate metaphor—part of the innovation ecology .

This complexity of innovation and its ecology is conveyed in Chapter One of a currently popular best-seller in the United States called Innovation Nation by the American innovation guru, Kao ( 2007 ), formerly on the faculty of the Harvard Business School:

“I define it [innovation],” writes Kao, “as the ability of individuals, companies, and entire nations to continuously create their desired future. Innovation depends on harvesting knowledge from a range of disciplines besides science and technology, among them design, social science, and the arts. And it is exemplified by more than just products; services, experiences, and processes can be innovative as well. The work of entrepreneurs, scientists, and software geeks alike contributes to innovation. It is also about the middlemen who know how to realize value from ideas. Innovation flows from shifts in mind-set that can generate new business models, recognize new opportunities, and weave innovations throughout the fabric of society. It is about new ways of doing and seeing things as much as it is about the breakthrough idea.” (Kao 2007 , p. 19).

This is not your standard government-type definition. Gurus, of course, do not have to worry about leading indicators and predictive measures of policy success. Nevertheless, some policy guidance can be drawn from this high level “definition,” and I will do so later.

The first point, then, is that the structural aspects of “science, technology, and innovation” are imperfectly defined, complex, and poorly understood. There is still much work to do to identify measures, develop models, and test them against actual experience before we can say we really know what it takes to foster innovation. The second point I want to make is about the temporal aspects: all three of these complex activities are changing with time. Science, of course, always changes through the accumulation of knowledge, but it also changes through revolutions in its theoretical structure, through its ever-improving technology, and through its evolving sociology. The technology and sociology of science are currently impacted by a rapidly changing information technology. Technology today flows increasingly from research laboratories but the influence of technology on both science and innovation depends strongly on its commercial adoption, that is, on market forces. Commercial scale manufacturing drives down the costs of technology so it can be exploited in an ever-broadening range of applications. The mass market for precision electro-mechanical devices like cameras, printers, and disk drives is the basis for new scientific instrumentation and also for further generations of products that integrate hundreds of existing components in new devices and business models like the Apple iPod and video games, not to mention improvements in old products like cars and telephones. Innovation is changing too as it expands its scope beyond individual products to include all or parts of systems such as supply chains and inventory control, as in the Wal-Mart phenomenon. Apple’s iPod does not stand alone; it is integrated with iTunes software and novel arrangements with media providers.

With one exception, however, technology changes more slowly than it appears because we encounter basic technology platforms in a wide variety of relatively short-lived products. Technology is like a language that innovators use to express concepts in the form of products, and business models that serve (and sometimes create) a variety of needs, some of which fluctuate with fashion. The exception to the illusion of rapid technology change is the pace of information technology, which is no illusion. It has fulfilled Moore’s Law for more than half a century, and it is a remarkable historical anomaly arising from the systematic exploitation of the understanding of the behavior of microscopic matter following the discovery of quantum mechanics. The pace would be much less without a continually evolving market for the succession of smaller, higher capacity products. It is not at all clear that the market demand will continue to support the increasingly expensive investment in fabrication equipment for each new step up the exponential curve of Moore’s Law. The science is probably available to allow many more capacity doublings if markets can sustain them. Let me digress briefly on this point.

Many science commentators have described the twentieth century as the century of physics and the twenty-first as the century of biology. We now know that is misleading. It is true that our struggle to understand the ultimate constituents of matter has now encompassed (apparently) everything of human scale and relevance, and that the universe of biological phenomena now lies open for systematic investigation and dramatic applications in health, agriculture, and energy production. But there are two additional frontiers of physical science, one already highly productive, the other very intriguing. The first is the frontier of complexity , where physics, chemistry, materials science, biology, and mathematics all come together. This is where nanotechnology and biotechnology reside. These are huge fields that form the core of basic science policy in most developed nations. The basic science of the twenty-first century is neither biology nor physics, but an interdisciplinary mix of these and other traditional fields. Continued development of this domain contributes to information technology and much else. I mentioned two frontiers. The other physical science frontier borders the nearly unexploited domain of quantum coherence phenomena . It is a very large domain and potentially a source of entirely new platform technologies not unlike microelectronics. To say more about this would take me too far from our topic. The point is that nature has many undeveloped physical phenomena to enrich the ecology of innovation and keep us marching along the curve of Moore’s Law if we can afford to do so.

I worry about the psychological impact of the rapid advance of information technology. I believe it has created unrealistic expectations about all technologies and has encouraged a casual attitude among policy makers toward the capability of science and technology to deliver solutions to difficult social problems. This is certainly true of what may be the greatest technical challenge of all time—the delivery of energy to large developed and developing populations without adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The challenge of sustainable energy technology is much more difficult than many people currently seem to appreciate. I am afraid that time will make this clear.

Structural complexities and the intrinsic dynamism of science and technology pose challenges to policy makers, but they seem almost manageable compared with the challenges posed by extrinsic forces. Among these are globalization and the impact of global economic development on the environment. The latter, expressed quite generally through the concept of “sustainability” is likely to be a component of much twenty-first century innovation policy. Measures of development, competitiveness, and innovation need to include sustainability dimensions to be realistic over the long run. Development policies that destroy economically important environmental systems, contribute to harmful global change, and undermine the natural resource basis of the economy are bad policies. Sustainability is now an international issue because the scale of development and the globalization of economies have environmental and natural resource implications that transcend national borders.

From the policy point of view, globalization is a not a new phenomenon. Science has been globalized for centuries, and we ought to be studying it more closely as a model for effective responses to the globalization of our economies. What is striking about science is the strong imperative to share ideas through every conceivable channel to the widest possible audience. If you had to name one chief characteristic of science, it would be empiricism. If you had to name two, the other would be open communication of data and ideas. The power of open communication in science cannot be overestimated. It has established, uniquely among human endeavors, an absolute global standard. And it effectively recruits talent from every part of the globe to labor at the science frontiers. The result has been an extraordinary legacy of understanding of the phenomena that shape our existence. Science is the ultimate example of an open innovation system.

Science practice has received much attention from philosophers, social scientists, and historians during the past half-century, and some of what has been learned holds valuable lessons for policy makers. It is fascinating to me how quickly countries that provide avenues to advanced education are able to participate in world science. The barriers to a small but productive scientific activity appear to be quite low and whether or not a country participates in science appears to be discretionary. A small scientific establishment, however, will not have significant direct economic impact. Its value at early stages of development is indirect, bringing higher performance standards, international recognition, and peer role models for a wider population. A science program of any size is also a link to the rich intellectual resources of the world scientific community. The indirect benefit of scientific research to a developing country far exceeds its direct benefit, and policy needs to recognize this. It is counterproductive to base support for science in such countries on a hoped-for direct economic stimulus.

Keeping in mind that the innovation ecology includes far more than science and technology, it should be obvious that within a small national economy innovation can thrive on a very small indigenous science and technology base. But innovators, like scientists, do require access to technical information and ideas. Consequently, policies favorable to innovation will create access to education and encourage free communication with the world technical community. Anything that encourages awareness of the marketplace and all its actors on every scale will encourage innovation.

This brings me back to John Kao’s definition of innovation. His vision of “the ability of individuals, companies, and entire nations to continuously create their desired future” implies conditions that create that ability, including most importantly educational opportunity (Kao 2007 , p. 19). The notion that “innovation depends on harvesting knowledge from a range of disciplines besides science and technology” implies that innovators must know enough to recognize useful knowledge when they see it, and that they have access to knowledge sources across a spectrum that ranges from news media and the Internet to technical and trade conferences (2007, p. 19). If innovation truly “flows from shifts in mind-set that can generate new business models, recognize new opportunities, and weave innovations throughout the fabric of society,” then the fabric of society must be somewhat loose-knit to accommodate the new ideas (2007, p. 19). Innovation is about risk and change, and deep forces in every society resist both of these. A striking feature of the US innovation ecology is the positive attitude toward failure, an attitude that encourages risk-taking and entrepreneurship.

All this gives us some insight into what policies we need to encourage innovation. Innovation policy is broader than science and technology policy, but the latter must be consistent with the former to produce a healthy innovation ecology. Innovation requires a predictable social structure, an open marketplace, and a business culture amenable to risk and change. It certainly requires an educational infrastructure that produces people with a global awareness and sufficient technical literacy to harvest the fruits of current technology. What innovation does not require is the creation by governments of a system that defines, regulates, or even rewards innovation except through the marketplace or in response to evident success. Some regulation of new products and new ideas is required to protect public health and environmental quality, but innovation needs lots of freedom. Innovative ideas that do not work out should be allowed to die so the innovation community can learn from the experience and replace the failed attempt with something better.

Do we understand innovation well enough to develop policy for it? If the policy addresses very general infrastructure issues such as education, economic, and political stability and the like, the answer is perhaps. If we want to measure the impact of specific programs on innovation, the answer is no. Studies of innovation are at an early stage where anecdotal information and case studies, similar to John Kao’s book—or the books on Business Week’s top ten list of innovation titles—are probably the most useful tools for policy makers.

I have been urging increased attention to what I call the science of science policy —the systematic quantitative study of the subset of our economy called science and technology—including the construction and validation of micro- and macro-economic models for S&T activity. Innovators themselves, and those who finance them, need to identify their needs and the impediments they face. Eventually, we may learn enough to create reliable indicators by which we can judge the health of our innovation ecosystems. The goal is well worth the sustained effort that will be required to achieve it.

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Kao, J. (2007). Innovation nation: How America is losing its innovation edge, why it matters, and what we can do to get it back . New York: Free Press.

Taleb, N. N. (2007). The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable . New York: Random House.

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Marburger, J.H. Science, technology and innovation in a 21st century context. Policy Sci 44 , 209–213 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-011-9137-3

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Published : 27 August 2011

Issue Date : September 2011

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-011-9137-3

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Kate Billingsley

introduction

Technology is the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. Technology is a tool that can be used to solve real-world problems. The field of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) “seeks to promote cross-disciplinary integration, civic engagement, and critical thinking” of concepts in the worlds of science and technology ( Harvard University, n.d.). As an aspect of everyday life, technology is continuously evolving to ensure that humanity can be productive, efficient, and follow the path of globalization . STS is a concept that encompasses countless fields of study. “Scientists, engineers, and medical professionals swim (as they must) in the details of their technical work: experiments, inventions, treatments and cures. “promotes cross-disciplinary integration, civic engagement, and critical thinking” It’s an intense and necessary focus” ( Stanford University , n.d.). On the opposite side of the spectrum is STS, which “draws attention to the water: the social, political, legal, economic, and cultural environment that shapes research and invention, supports or inhibits it — and is in turn shaped by evolving science and technology” ( Stanford University , n.d.). Technology is a crucial part of life that is constantly developing to fit the changing needs of society and aiding humanity in simplifying the demands of everyday life.

According to Oberdan (2010), science and technology share identical goals. “At first glance, they seem to provide a deep and thorough going division between the two but, as the discussion progresses, it will become clear that there are, indeed, areas of overlap, too” (Oberdan, 25). Philosophers believe that for a claim to be considered knowledge, it must first be justified, like a hypothesis, and true.  Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, Galileo Galilei , was incredibly familiar with the obstacles involved with proving something to be a fact or a theory within the scientific world. Galileo was condemned by the Roman Catholic church for his beliefs that contradicted existing church doctrine (Coyne, 2013). Galileo’s discoveries, although denounced by the church were incredibly innovative and progressive for their time, and are still seen as the basis for modern astronomy today. Nearly 300 years later, Galileo was eventually forgiven by the church, and to this day he is seen as one of the most well known and influential astronomers of all time. Many new innovations and ideas often receive push back before becoming revolutionary and universal practices.

INNOVATION IN TECHNOLOGY

Flash forward to modern time where we can see that innovation is happening even more around us. Look no further than what could be considered the culmination of modern technological innovation: the mobile phone. Cell phone technology has developed exponentially since the invention of the first mobile phone in 1973 ( Seward , 2013). Although there was a period for roughly 20 years in which cell phones were seen as unnecessary and somewhat impractical, as society’s needs changed and developed in the late 1990s, there was a large spike in consumer purchases of mobile phones. Now, cell phones are an entity that can be seen virtually anywhere, which is in large part due to their practicality. Cell phones, specifically smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone , have changed the way society uses technology. Smartphone technology has eliminated the need for people to have a separate cell phone, MP3 player, GPS, mobile video gaming systems, and more. Consumers may fail to realize how many aspects of modern technological advancement are involved in the use of their mobile phones. Cell phones use wifi to browse the internet, use google, access social media, and more. Although these technologies are beneficial, they also allow consumers locations to be traced and phone conversations to be recorded. Modern cell phone technologies collect data on consumers, and many people are unsure how this information is being used. Additionally, mobile phones come equipped with virus protection which brings the field of cybersecurity into smartphone usage. The technological advances that have been made in the market for mobile phones have been targeted towards the changing needs of consumers and society. As proven by the rise in cell phones, with advancements in the field of STS comes new unforeseen obstacles and ethical dilemmas.

​Technology is changing the way we live in this world. Innovations in the scientific world are becoming increasingly more advanced to help conserve earth’s resources and aid in the reduction of pollutants . Transportation is a field that has changed greatly in recent years due to modernization in science and technology, as well as an increased awareness of environmental concerns. The transportation industry continues to be a large producer of pollution

due to emissions from cars, trains, and other modes of transportation. As a result, cars have changed a great deal in recent years. A frontrunner in creating environmentally friendly luxury cars is Tesla, lead by CEO Elon Musk. Although nearly every brand of car has an electric option that either runs completely gas free, or uses significantly less fuel than standard cars, Tesla has taken this one step further and created a zero emissions vehicle. However, some believe that Tesla has taken their innovations in the transportation market a bit too far, specifically with their release of driverless cars.

“The recent reset of expectations on driverless cars is a leading indicator for other types of AI-enabled systems as well,” says David A. Mindell,  professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT. “These technologies hold great promise, but it takes time to understand the optimal combination of people and machines. And the timing of adoption is crucial for understanding the impact on workers” ( Dizikes , 2019).

As the earth becomes more and more polluted, consumers are seeking to find new ways to cut down on their negative impacts on the earth. Eco-friendly cars are a simple yet effective way in which consumers can cut back on their pollution within their everyday lives.

THE INTERSECTION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The way in which energy is generated has changed greatly to benefit consumers and the environment. Energy production has followed a rather linear path over time, and is a prime example of how new innovations stem from old technologies. In the early 1800s, the steam engine acted as the main form of creating energy. It wasn’t until the mid-late 1800s that the combustion engine was invented. This invention was beneficial because it was more efficient than its predecessor, and became a form of energy that was streamlined to be used in countless applications. As time has progressed, this linear path of innovation has continued. As new energy creating technologies have emerged, machinery that was once seen as efficient and effective have been phased out. Today, largely due to the increased demand for clean energy sources, the linear path has split and consumers are faced with numerous options for clean, environmentally friendly energy sources. Over time, scientists and engineers have come to realize that these forms of energy pollute and damage the earth. Solar power, a modern form of clean energy, was once seen as an expensive and impractical way of turning the sun’s energy into usable energy. Now, it is common to see newly built homes with solar panels already built in. Since technology develops to fit the needs of society, scientists have worked to improve solar panels to make them cheaper and easier to access. A total of 173,000 terawatts (trillions of watts) of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously, which is more than 10,000 times of the world’s total energy use ( Chandler , 2011). This information may seem staggering, but is crucial in understanding the importance, as well as the large influence that modern forms of energy can have on society.

Technology has become a crucial part of our society. Without technological advancements, so much of our everyday lives would be drastically different. As technology develops, it strives to fulfill the changing needs of society. Technology progresses as society evolves. That being said, progress comes at a price. This price is different for each person, and varies based on how much people value technological and scientific advancements in their own lives. Thomas Parke Hughes’s Networks of Power “compared how electric power systems developed in America, England, and Germany, showing that they required not only electrical but social ‘engineering’ to create the necessary legal frameworks, financing, standards, political support, and organizational designs” ( Stanford University ). In other words, the scientific invention and production of a new technology does not ensure its success. Technology’s success is highly dependent on society’s acceptance or rejection of a product, as well as whether or not any path dependence is involved. Changing technologies benefit consumers in countless aspects of their lives including in the workforce, in communications, in the use of natural resources, and so much more. These innovations across numerous different markets aid society by making it easier to complete certain tasks. Innovation will never end; rather, it will continue to develop at increasing rates as science and technological fields becomes more and more cutting edge.

Chapter Questions

• True or False: Improvements in science and technology always benefit society
• Multiple Choice : Technology is: A.   The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry B.  Tools and machines that may be used to solve real-world problems C.   Something that does not change D.   Both A and B
• Short Answer: Discuss ways in which technological progression over time is related and how this relationship has led to the creation of new innovation.

Chandler, D. (2011). Shining brightly: Vast amounts of solar energy radiate to the Earth constantly, but tapping that energy cost-effectively remains a challenge.  MIT News. http://news.mit.edu/2011/energy-scale-part3-1026 

Coyne, SJ, G. V. (2013). Science meets biblical exegesis in the Galileo affair.  Zygon® ,  48 (1), 221-229. https://doi-org.libproxy.clemson.edu/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2012.01324.x 

Dizikes, P., & MIT News Office. (2019). MIT report examines how to make technology work for society. http://news.mit.edu/2019/work-future-report-technology-jobs-society-0904

Florez, D., García-Duque, C. E., & Osorio, J. C. (2019). Is technology (still) applied science? Technology in Society.  Technology in Society, 59.   doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2019.101193

Groce, J. E., Farrelly, M. A., Jorgensen, B. S., & Cook, C. N. (2019). Using social‐network research to improve outcomes in natural resource management. Conservation biology , 33 (1), 53-65. https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/cobi.13127

Harvard University. (n.d.) What is STS? .  http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/about/whatissts.html .

Union of Concerned Scientists. (2018). How Do Battery Electric Cars Work?   https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/how-do-battery-electric-cars-work .

Oberdan, T. (2010). Science, Technology, and the Texture of Our Lives. Tavenner Publishing Company.

Seward, Z. M. (2013). The First Mobile Phone Call Was Made 40 Years Ago Today . The Atlantic.   https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/the-first- mobile-phone-call-was-made-40-years-ago-today/274611/ .

Stanford University. (n.d.). What is the Study of STS? . https://sts.stanford.edu/about/what-study-sts .

Wei, R., & Lo, V.-H. (2006). Staying connected while on the move: Cell phone use and social connectedness. New Media & Society, 8 (1), 53–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444806059870

Winston, B. (2006). Media Technology and Society: A History From the Telegraph to the Internet . London: Routledge.

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Essay on Science and Technology for Students and Children

500+ words essay on science and technology.

Essay on Science and Technology: Science and technology are important parts of our day to day life. We get up in the morning from the ringing of our alarm clocks and go to bed at night after switching our lights off. All these luxuries that we are able to afford are a resultant of science and technology . Most importantly, how we can do all this in a short time are because of the advancement of science and technology only. It is hard to imagine our life now without science and technology. Indeed our existence itself depends on it now. Every day new technologies are coming up which are making human life easier and more comfortable. Thus, we live in an era of science and technology.

Essentially, Science and Technology have introduced us to the establishment of modern civilization . This development contributes greatly to almost every aspect of our daily life. Hence, people get the chance to enjoy these results, which make our lives more relaxed and pleasurable.

Benefits of Science and Technology

If we think about it, there are numerous benefits of science and technology. They range from the little things to the big ones. For instance, the morning paper which we read that delivers us reliable information is a result of scientific progress. In addition, the electrical devices without which life is hard to imagine like a refrigerator, AC, microwave and more are a result of technological advancement.

Furthermore, if we look at the transport scenario, we notice how science and technology play a major role here as well. We can quickly reach the other part of the earth within hours, all thanks to advancing technology.

In addition, science and technology have enabled man to look further than our planet. The discovery of new planets and the establishment of satellites in space is because of the very same science and technology. Similarly, science and technology have also made an impact on the medical and agricultural fields. The various cures being discovered for diseases have saved millions of lives through science. Moreover, technology has enhanced the production of different crops benefitting the farmers largely.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

India and Science and Technology

Ever since British rule, India has been in talks all over the world. After gaining independence, it is science and technology which helped India advance through times. Now, it has become an essential source of creative and foundational scientific developments all over the world. In other words, all the incredible scientific and technological advancements of our country have enhanced the Indian economy.

Looking at the most recent achievement, India successfully launched Chandrayaan 2. This lunar exploration of India has earned critical acclaim from all over the world. Once again, this achievement was made possible due to science and technology.

In conclusion, we must admit that science and technology have led human civilization to achieve perfection in living. However, we must utilize everything in wise perspectives and to limited extents. Misuse of science and technology can produce harmful consequences. Therefore, we must monitor the use and be wise in our actions.

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Short Essay on Life Without Technology [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF 

In today’s session, you will learn to write short essays on the topic of Life Without Technology. There will be three sets of essays covering different word limits. 

Short Essay on Life Without Technology in 100 Words 

Today, technology has become an important part of our daily lives. Mobile phones, tablets and computers have made connecting with people around the world an easy task. We can send and receive pictures, videos and documents over the internet. Technologically advanced machines like automatic washing machines, dishwashers, cleaning robots, smart televisions and various smart appliances have made life very comfortable for people.

However, these appliances have also made people lazy. People today have lost the connection with nature, with real people, with their friends and families. They hardly need to do their day-to-day work by themselves and have become physically unfit. Life without technology seems impossible today, but one must make sure to strike a balance between depending on technology and doing their work themselves. 

Short Essay on Life Without Technology in 200 Words 

There is no doubt that technology has made life easier for people. A hundred years ago, people wouldn’t have imagined that today, we will have so many gadgets to help us with our daily life. 

Today, mobile phones, tablets and computers have made connecting with people around the world an easy task. We can send and receive pictures, videos and documents over the internet. Technologically advanced machines like automatic washing machines, dishwashers, cleaning robots, smart televisions and various smart appliances have made life very comfortable for people. Even students are now dependent on online platforms to learn and understand their subjects better. If we want to travel, we do not use physical maps anymore but depend on GPS. 

However, these appliances and applications have also made people lazy. People today have lost the connection with nature, with real people, with their friends and families. They hardly need to do their day-to-day work by themselves and have become physically unfit. If someone loses their mobile phone, it feels as if they have lost an organ. Life without technology seems impossible today, but one must make sure to strike a balance between depending on technology and doing their work themselves. Only then, technology will prove to be a boon and not a bane for us. 

Short Essay on Life Without Technology in 400 Words

Today, technology has changed the way we conduct our lives and it is hard to imagine getting through the day without help from one or the other type of gadget. 

Today, mobile phones, tablets and computers have made connecting with people around the world an easy task. We can send and receive pictures, videos and documents over the internet. Technologically advanced machines like automatic washing machines, dishwashers, cleaning robots, smart televisions and various smart appliances have made life very comfortable for people.

Even students are now dependent on online platforms to learn and understand their subjects better. For their research and assignments, they need the help of the internet. If we want to travel, we do not use physical maps anymore but depend on GPS. One needs so many gadgets in the office like desktops, printers, xerox machines, fax machines, et cetera. Even in the kitchen, one needs mixer-grinders, food processors, microwave ovens and refrigerators. If we want to go somewhere and need to book train, bus or flight tickets for the same, we still use the internet. 

However, these gadgets, appliances and applications have also made people lazy. People today have lost the connection with nature, with real people, with their friends and families. They are always glued to their phone screens, happy in their virtual world and dislike going out. They hardly need to do their day-to-day work by themselves and have become physically unfit. If one wants some information, instead of thoroughly reading about it and understanding the topic completely, they can just search on the internet and get a short, concise answer.

All this has slowed down our brains and made us lose our creativity. Our lives have become entirely dependent on technology and gadgets. One cannot survive without mobile phones today. Be it an office employee or a school student, everyone needs a phone to stay connected with their family, friends, work and school. If someone loses their mobile phone, it feels as if they have lost an organ. 

A hundred years ago, people wouldn’t have imagined that today, we will have so many gadgets to help us with our daily life. Life without technology seems impossible today, but one must make sure to strike a balance between depending on technology and doing their work themselves. Only when things are well-balanced, technology will prove to be a boon and not a bane for us. Otherwise, it wouldn’t take long for us to lose ourselves in gadgets and the virtual world and destroy our health and peace of mind. 

In today’s session, I have written these sample essays with a very simplistic approach for a better understanding of all kinds of students. If you still have any doubts regarding this topic, kindly, keep me informed through some quick comments. I’ll try to answer all your queries to the best of my ability. To read more such essays on various other important topics, keep browsing our website. 

Thank you for being with us. Have a great day.

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Science And Technology Essay

The knowledge of science is the knowledge that enlightens the route, directs one to the right path, and frees the individual from the burden of worldly responsibilities. Technology is the creation, alteration, or modification of the natural environment to fulfil reportedly unsatisfied human desires and needs. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘science and technology’.

100 Words Essay On Science And Technology

Technology is the practical application of science that improves the quality of life, whereas science is a systematic approach that uses observation and experimentation to gain information and develop abilities. Technology is a product of systematic research, which is what science is. Technology development usually follows scientific progress, and the latter is just a logical consequence of the former, so science and technology go hand in hand.

Today, science and technology are vitally important to a country’s overall development. These two describe the progress in nearly every field, i.e., infrastructure development, communications, defence, industrialisation, etc. Because of advancements in science and technology, the world is changing quickly and at an unprecedented rate.

200 Words Essay On Science And Technology

In order to have a strong national economy, science and technology are essential. Gross domestic product growth helps the economy advance technologically. They encourage the development of high-tech industries, boost productivity, build capital, and promote healthy global competitiveness. There is a real impact of science and technology on the agriculture industry. It goes without saying that their engagement has boosted crop yield. In addition, science and technology are assisting farmers in implementing new methods and equipment to minimise physical labour.

Medical, educational, economic, sporting, employment, tourism, and other fields are examples of science and technology. All of these developments demonstrate how equally important both are to our lives. By directly contrasting the lifestyles of the ancient world and the modern world, we can observe the differences in our way of life. The high level of scientific and technological development in medicine has made it easier to treat numerous ailments than it was before. It aids in the efficient treatment by medical professionals in the treatment of different illnesses through medications and operations and aids in the research of diseases like cancer, AIDS, diabetes, Alzheimer's, paralysis, etc.

Every day, advances in science and technology bring people closer together. In the department of transportation and telecommunication, we observe discernible development. Physical distance is no longer an obstacle thanks to the internet and the metro network. Every aspect of our lives has received a virtual makeover because of them.

500 Words Essay On Science And Technology

Science and Technology play significant roles in our daily lives. We turn out the lights at night and get out of bed when our alarm clocks ring in the morning. Science and technology have enabled us to purchase all of these luxuries. Most importantly, the development of science and technology alone is the reason we can do most things in our lives in such a short period. Without science and technology, our modern way of life is difficult to imagine. Indeed, it is now essential to our continued survival. New technologies are developing daily that make life easier and more comfortable.

We are in a scientific and technological age. Due to science and technology, many civilizations have been established. This establishment grows every day. People benefit from these, which makes life more enjoyable and relaxing.

Benefits Of Science and Technology

Considerable advantages of science and technology come to mind. They range in size from minor to significant. For instance, the morning newspaper we read, which provides us with trustworthy information, is a product of scientific advancement. Additionally, technological growth has led to the development of electrical appliances like refrigerators, conditioners, microwaves, and other items that make living easier.

Furthermore, if we consider the situation involving transportation, we see that science and technology also play a significant part in this case. Thanks to improving technology, we can travel to various parts of the world within hours. Science and technology have made it possible for a man to look beyond the Earth. The exact science and technology have enabled the establishment of satellites in orbit and the finding of new planets.

The domains of medicine and agriculture have similarly been impacted by science and technology. Millions of lives have been saved thanks to science's varied disease remedies. Technology has also improved the yield of various crops, greatly helping farmers.

India And Science And Technology

India has engaged in negotiations worldwide since the end of the British era. Science and technology have aided India's advancement since it attained independence. It is now a crucial source of innovative and fundamental scientific advancements worldwide. In other words, the Indian economy has benefited from all the remarkable scientific and technological advances made in our nation.

In the years that followed, science and technology helped advance in several sectors, including mathematics, astrophysics, space technology, nuclear energy, and more. The railway system, smartphones, the metro system, and many other innovations are excellent examples of these advancements.

Looking at the most recent accomplishment, Chandrayaan 2 was successfully launched by India. India's lunar expedition has received praise from critics all across the world. Once more, science and technology were responsible for making these accomplishments feasible.

We must acknowledge that technology and science have helped human civilization reach the highest living level and will continue to do so. However, we must use everything sparingly and in moderation. Technology and science misuse can have adverse effects and we are dealing with some of those. Therefore, we must keep an eye on usage and exercise caution while using the gift of science and technology.

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Essay on Science: Meaning, Scope, Nature, Technology and Society

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Essay on Science:- 1. Meaning and Definitions of Science 2. Scope of Science 3. Nature of Science 4. Physical Science 5. Science and Social Environment 6. Science and Technology 7. Science and Society 8. Scientific Method and Its Steps.

• Essay on Scientific Method and Its Steps

Essay # 1. Meaning and Definitions of Science :

Meaning of Science:

The English word Science is derived from a Latin Verb ‘Scire’, which means ‘to know’ and Latin Noun ‘Scientia’ which means ‘knowledge’. Meaning of Science is based on German word ‘ Wissenchaft’, which means systematic, organized knowledge. Thus, Science is a systematized knowledge.

The necessity and curiosity of man to know about himself and his surroundings has led him to investigate, find and to know about living beings and nature, which to verifiable knowledge of facts. But Science is not always about the collection of facts or development of new concepts or ideas. It is all about the passion for the discovery that drives one to explore the environment and the nature in every aspect.

Science is basically founded to investigate the nature and its processes. Although there are a number of other methods that can be utilized to acquire the knowledge about nature, but science is considered as the only one that results in the acquisition of reliable knowledge. Hence, Rene Descartes said, “Science is a method of investigating nature that discovers reliable knowledge about it.”

Science is the investigation of unknown phenomena and it also looks and compares with existing principles, theories and practices. Science is both a particular kind of activity and also the result of that activity. Science uses tools like observation, measurement and scientific experimentation and is entirely based on the observable facts.

Science is observation, identification, description, experimentation, investigation and theoretical explanation of the phenomenon that occur in nature.

Science could be described as the study, which attempts to perceive and understand the nature of the universe both living and non-living in its part and as a whole.

Definitions of Science :

During early times people perceived Science, as what the scientist does. There are many definitions available, though not a single definition could be universally accepted.

Some of the definitions are mentioned here to understand it from different angles:

1. According to Columbian Dictionary:

“Science is an accumulated and systematized learning in general usage restricted to natural phenomenon”.

2. Einstein (1879-1955):

“Science is an attempt to make the chaotic diversity of our sense experience corresponds to logically uniform system of thought”.

3. Fitzpatrick (1960):

“Science is a cumulative and endless series of empirical observations, which results in the formation of concepts and theories, with both concepts and theories being subject to modification in the light of further empirical observations. Science is both a body of knowledge and the process of acquiring it”.

4. Bronowski, J. (1956):

“Science as the organization of our knowledge in such a way that it commands or makes possible the explanation of more of the hidden potentialities found in the environment”.

5. Conant (1957):

“An interconnected series of concepts and conceptual schemes that have developed as a result of experimentation and observation and are fruitful of further experimentation and observation”.

6. Fisher (1975):

“Science is the body of Knowledge obtained by methods, based upon observation”.

The above definitions clearly reveal that Science is both a process and product. A comprehensive definition of Science would be “science is a systematized knowledge gained through human observation and experi­mentation of cause revealing the unknown phenomenon of nature and universe both living and non-living involving the process of critical, creative thinking and investigation including sometimes sudden insights too.”

Science = Process + Product

= Methods + Knowledge

= Scientific Method + Scientific Attitude + Scientific Knowledge

Essay #  2. Scope of Science :

Science is a body of knowledge obtained by methods based upon observation. Observation is authentic and that it is only through the senses of man that observations can be made. Thus, anything outside the limits of man’s senses is outside the limits of science. In other words, science deals with the universe and galaxies in the forms of matter and energy which is in the form of living and non-living.

Science employs a number of instruments to extend mail’s senses to the extremely minute to very vast, to the short-time duration or long-time duration, to dilute or to concentrate and so on and so forth which does not alter the conclusion that science is limited to that which is observable.

Thus, as in any other discipline contemporary experimental techniques set up some practical limitations but these are not to be confused with the intrinsic limitations inherent in the very nature of science. The knowledge of science is tested and retested and also reinvented.

Today the disciplines of Science and Social Sciences are drawing into each other. Behavioural zoologists study the sociology and psychology of animals. Archaeologists derive new insights from the rapid advances in chemical and physical analysis. Hence sciences should be understood with interdisciplinary approach within science as a whole. Biology draws on chemistry, physics and geology.

ADVERTISEMENTS: (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Essay # 3. Nature of Science:

Human by birth has quest for knowledge as they are curious of knowing about nature. They have a highly developed brain because of which they can observe precisely, correlate observations and predict future happenings on the basis of their observation. This ability helped humans to adjust to nature. The process of observing, describing, exploring and using the physical world is science.

Science has certain characteristics which distinguish it from other spheres of human endeavour.

These characteristics define the nature of science as discussed below:

Science is a Particular way of Looking at Nature :

1. Science is a way of learning about what the nature is, how the nature behaves and how the nature got to be the way it is.

2. Science focuses exclusively on the nature.

3. It is not simply a collection of facts; rather it is a path to understand the phenomenon underlying.

(i) Science is, just the nature existing around you.

(ii) Every day we look at the rising sun and pay great respect to it for bestowing the earth with its light in energy form.

(iii) The knowledge of all that is in the universe from the tiniest sub­atomic particles in an atom to universe and galaxies.

Science as a Rapidly Expanding Body of Knowledge :

1. Science is the dynamic, ever expanding knowledge, covering every new domain of experiences.

2. Knowledge refers to the product of science, such as the concepts and explanations.

3. Research being carried out in the field of science resulted in developing more knowledge at a faster pace sometimes by replacing old concepts, ideas or principles.

The technological developments that took place in recent times enhanced the acceleration of knowledge.

Science as an Interdisciplinary Area of Learning:

1. In the last two decades there have been studies claiming that science is becoming even more an interdisciplinary area of learning.

2. Science cannot be taught in isolation. All the branches of science are interdependent upon all other and there are a number of facts and principles which are common to various science subjects.

3. Knowledge started expanding day by day; scientists started specialising in certain areas. Hence the knowledge has been organized for convenience into different disciplines.

Environmental science is an interdisciplinary academic field that integrates physics, biological and information sciences (including ecology, biology, physics, chemistry, zoology, mineralogy, oceanology, limnology, soil science, geology of atomospheric science and geodesy).

Science as a Truly International Enterprise :

1. International collaboration in most of the projects is the order of the day.

2. In collaborative research, visibility among the peer and active exploitation of complementary capabilities increase.

3. Share the costs of the projects that are large in scale and scope.

4. Able to access expensive physical resources.

5. Exchange ideas in order to encourage greater creativity.

The large Hadron collides; at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has been build up by scientists drawn from many countries including India. The experiment on this machine is being conducted by scientists from many countries including many Indian scientists. In this sense, science do not belong to any single country or a group of countries and it would be morally and ethically wrong to deny the fruits of scientific development to any country in the world.

Science as Always Tentative :

Scientific models are always being questioned. Up-and-coming scientists always find gaps or errors in existing scientific models and develop a new one in place of them. In scientific field models have been tested and refined to such an extent that errors are likely to be minor. The real evidences need to be scrutinized carefully.

Marine researchers have expressed concern about the effect of global warming on the future of coral reefs because increasing sea temperature cause coral bleaching. Bleaching happens; the corals expel the algae that live within their cells die, when temperature rises. Recent research have tentatively showed that some algae may be able to adapt to temperature rises, consequently improved the chances that corals can survive.

Tentative Nature of Scientific Theories :

1. Scientific theories took decades in their development.

2. When two competing theories explain their observations related to a certain phenomenon, Scientists prefer to accept a theory which explains larger number of observations with few assumptions.

There was a time when both the geocentric and the heliocentric theories explained all the planetary observations. However geocentric theory had to introduce a new assumption every time. On the other hand, the heliocentric theory with just one assumption that all the planets revolve round the sun, it explained every available observation and eventually survived.

The fact remains that scientific theories are tentative and are always subject to change.

Science Promotes Skepticism :

“In science, keeping an open mind is a virtue just not so open that your brains fall out”-James Oberg.

1. Skepticism does not mean doubting the validity of everything, rather to judge the validity of a claim based on objective empirical evidences.

2. David Hume, the 18th century philosopher viewed that we should accept nothing as true unless the evidences available makes the non-existence of the thing more miraculous than its existence.

3. We examine the available evidences before reaching a decision until sufficient evidences are found.

Scientists are Highly Skeptic People :

‘Science is what scientists do’.

1. The scientists in different fields try to describe the phenomena in nature and establish their relationships.

2. After having described the phenomena, scientists attempt to find out the reason behind and make predictions.

3. Scientists use ideas of their own and of others as tools for testing and gaining knowledge. They use many resources to get valid answers to their questions and problems, by designing their own experiments and invent new tools with which they observe and check different phenomena. Hence, scientists are highly skeptic people.

For instances, if we look at Newton’s story the way he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree speaks his skeptic nature. Though many scientists and other common men were aware that all the objects descend perpendicularly to the ground, they never pondered upon it. This incident prompted Newton to explore the possibility of connecting gravity with the force that kept the moon on its orbit. This led him to the universal law of gravity.

Charles Goodyear (1800) a chemist and manufacturing engineer who developed vulcanized rubber. His discovery was accidental, where he explored the situation and after five years of searching for a more stable rubber and stumbling upon the effectiveness of heating.

Science Demands Perseverance from its Practitioners :

1. The important characteristic of science that brings development and progress is perseverance of scientists.

2. Scientists getting an inspirational idea or a creative thought have to persist with the idea to take it to its logical conclusions, based on facts or observations.

3. Scientists may work alone or join with others in developing the idea further to find out ways to discover or invention, While at other times the scientists can make only a beginning and then others join them in developing the idea further.

The discovery of the wonder drug pencillin by Alexander Fleming in 1929 is the result of an incident happened by a chance which led to serious observation followed by hard work paved the way for discovery of many other antibiotics like Streptomycin and Erythromycin.

Science as an Approach to Investigate and as a Process of Constructing Knowledge :

1. The investigations in science involve some form of scientific method.

2. Scientists for seeking solution to a problem use different methods like observation, prediction and sometimes experimentation to study the cause and effect relationship.

3. Whatever we observe through our senses (information) is sent to the brain and the brain processes the information by registering, classifying, generalising etc., and converts into knowledge. Sensory perception is primary in knowledge development.

4. Here, the individual constructs the knowledge on his own by applying their own mental abilities and intelligence to process the information received through senses.

5. The basic unit of knowledge is fact. In science any repeatedly verifiable observation becomes a fact.

6. Scientific approach always is based on cause and effect relation.

Examples of facts are:

i. Solids have definite shape and volume.

ii. The rainbow is seen in a direction opposite to that of the sun.

Essay #  4. Physical Science :

The child is interested to learn things which are related to his experiences. This could be possible only when the subjects are integrated and correlated rather than in isolation. The other physical sciences also have equally contributed a lot to the field of biological studies.

Obviously we can’t teach and understand each and every thing about a particular branch of science without the help of other sciences. The child on the other hand can’t appreciate and understand the branches of science in isolation from others. The study of interrelatedness helps the child to understand the concepts easily, more interesting and natural.

Science cannot be taught in isolation. All the branches of science are interdependent upon each other and there are a number of facts and principles which are common to various science subjects. This however does not mean that the teacher of one branch of science ought to know everything of other branches of science.

But it is very much essential that he should have sufficient knowledge of other sciences so as to bring about integration of subjects. He should also know where to depart from his own subject and how much should he venture into areas which are not his own.

The following example may be taken:

1. A teacher while teaching the sense organs says an eye should make a parallelism with a camera, which the student has learnt in physics. To understand the images, knowledge of image formation by the convex lens is essential.

E.g. (a) The rays which pass through the centre of the lens travel straight without any change in direction.

(b) The rays which run parallel to the principal axis pass through the focus of the lens after refraction from the lens.

Again when the teacher is teaching the same topic in the period of human physiology, the defects in the eye i.e., short sightedness (by the elongation of the eyeball and the image in formed a little in front of the retina and not exactly on the retina) he should know other factors also which cause the shifting of the image.

E.g. (a) By changing the distance between the lens and object.

(b) By changing the distance between the lens and the screen.

(c) By changing the total length of lens.

If the teacher possesses knowledge of physics he can most successfully correlate his topic with other branches of science and make the whole knowledge easily acceptable to the children.

2. Similarly while teaching digestive system the teacher should have adequate knowledge of chemistry without the help of which he cannot justify the topic.

The teacher must correlate it by telling about:

(a) Soluble and insoluble constituents of our diet.

(b) Chemistry of different digestive juices and their effect on the constituents of food that we take.

(c) The final products and the process of assimilation of products by the membranes of different organs. This will involve the reference of concepts of osmosis, density and the pressure etc.

Science is universal; it has no barrier of any kind as too has no barriers. The recent advances in the field of science and technology and its wide application as well as their use in daily life situation justify the utilitarian value of science. Taxonomy reveals the unity in diversity. Evolution and mutation theories help us understand the relation of living forms.

Motion, Mass and Energy related theories relate Universe, Sun, Earth and all other planets and their existence. Further their relation to life forms. Hence in nature everything is in relation and co-existence. This is what has to be understood by the student in the study of scientific theories and phenomenon.

Essay # 5. Science and Social Environment:

Relating science education with the environment of a child has been the prime concern of educationists. The environment of the child includes natural and social environment.

In science we learn about the nature’s phenomena. Human is a part of nature. Therefore, every effort should be made to integrate science with learning the environment. The science curriculum should address issues and concerns related to environment such as climate change, acid rain, growth of water, eutrophication and various types of pollutions etc. Further, it should be applied to society to understand social phenomenon in a scientific way and solve all social problems with all objectivity and universal application.

Science teachers should aim to enlighten the young minds with the wonders of science. They should be engaged to construct the knowledge through an interdisciplinary approach appreciating its relation and impact on the social and natural environment. They can recognize the competence of science by doing activities related to their everyday life.

Current issues and events in science like new technological innovations, scientific discoveries, can be examined through social, economic and ethical perspectives to help students in relating these issues with one another and explore their areas of interest.

The significance of chemistry to society can be highlighted by discussing the chemical components used in products that have altered agriculture, food, health, medicine, electronics, transportation, technology and the natural environments. To understand its relevance to home economics, one can think what happens to the electricity bill if solar cooker, solar heater, solar lanterns and CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) are used.

For Instances- Bhopal Tragedy Unforgettable Industrial Disaster :

Industries are the symbols of development, but other side of the coin is lack of safety measures and irresponsibility of emitting pollutants. On 2 nd December 1984 about 3000 human beings died and 5000 were effected seriously, thousands of cattle, birds, dogs, and cats died in just one night at Bhopal tragedy.

These mass deaths were due to the leakage of Methyle Isocyanate (MIC) into the air from an insecticide factory managed by union carbide. Thousands of lives helplessly crushed in this incident. This is unforgettable industrial disaster towards air pollution.

Essay # 6. Science and Technology :

Technology is often equated to applied sciences and its domain is generally thought to include mechanical, electrical, optical, electronic devices and instruments, the house hold and commercial gadgets, equipment used in physics, chemistry, biology, nuclear science etc. These various sub-domains of technology are interrelated. Modern technology is an applied science because the basic principles of sciences are applied to develop the technology.

Science and technology are linked to each other. Discoveries in science have paved the way for the evolution of new technologies. At the same time technology has been instrumental in the development of science.

Han’s Christian Oersted, one of the leading scientists of the 19 th century, played a crucial role in understanding electromagnetism. In 1820 he discovered that a compass needle got deflected when an electric current passed through a metallic wire placed nearby. Through this he showed that electricity and magnetism were related phenomena. His research later created technologies such as radio, television and fiber optics.

The development of microscope by Antony Van Leeuwenhock, where he interwined optical principles with astronomical and biological understanding which further led to the development of the telescope.

Thus, science influences technology by providing knowledge and methodology. But on the other hand technology also influences science by providing equipments to find out the unknown phenomenon of the nature. This shows interdependence of science and technology.

In science we inquire how a natural phenomenon occurs, while in technology we deal with how the scientific processes can also be used for human welfare. Technology as a discipline has its own autonomy and should not be regarded as a mere extension of science.

Basically science is an open ended exploration; its end results are not fixed in advance. Technology on the other hand, is also an exploration but usually with a definite goal in mind. Science is universal; technology is goal oriented and often local specific.

People today are faced with an increasingly fast-changing world where the most important skills are flexibility in adapting to new demands and creativity in taking advantages of new opportunities. These imperatives have to be kept in mind in shaping science education.

Essay # 7. Science and Society :

The applications of science and technology have led to the remarkable improvement in the quality of human life. It has given lot of comfort and leisure to the human kind on one side and equipped it with skills needed for problem solving and decision making on the other side. It has changed the outlook of the individual on different beliefs, myths, taboos and superstitions.

People started working with logical thinking, objectivity and open mindedness. Modern society believed in the co-existence of diversity in social and political thinking. Science always works for the welfare of our future generations by talking about sustainable development. Society is also showing its concern using the scientific knowledge for peace and prosperity of the society.

For instances, consuming tobacco (Gutkha, cigarettes, beedi, khaini) damages the internal organs of the body. The numbers of addicted people at the age of 15 or below are 57.57 lakhs (68%) both in Telengana and Andhra. When they reach 30 yrs. of age thin internal organs becomes damaged, this may lead to several problems and sometimes lead to death.

It is a dangerous trend in our country. So, we have to inculcate healthy habits in children by teaching science. Many youth are also addicted to alcohol which damages the liver and other body organs which in turn also affects human resource development.

Let Us Think It Over:

Do you know that our eyes can live even after our death? By donating our eyes after we die, we can give sight to a blind person.

About 35 million people in the developing world are blind and most of them can be cured. About 4.5 million people are with corneal blindness, can be cured by corneal transplantation of donated eyes. Out of these 4.5 million, 60% are children below the age of 12 yrs. So, if we got the gift of vision, let us pass it on to somebody who does not have it.

Essay # 8. Scientific Method and Its Steps:

1. The development of scientific attitude and training in scientific method are two cardinal aims for the teaching of science. In other words it is a method of solving a problem scientifically.

2. Scientific method involves reflective thinking, reasoning and results from the achievement of certain abilities, skills and attitudes.

Definition of Scientific Method :

Carl Pearson says, ‘The scientific method is marked by the following features:

1. Careful and accurate classification of facts.

2. Observation of their co-relation and sequence.

3. Discovery of scientific law by creative imagination, and self-criticism.

4. The final touch-stone of equal validity for all normally constituted needs.

Steps of Scientific Method:

Observation :

Observation is the base for science. It knows the phenomenon through senses. Without control of external or internal situations.

1. It is the way we perceive the nature and using the senses and processed through the faculty of brain.

2. It is a process of checking conclusions. After observation we try to explain what we have seen based on cause and effect relation. In science repeatedly verifiable observations becomes a fact.

Facts are specific verifiable information obtained through observation and measurement. They are verifiable with reference to time and place.

Some facts do not require the time and place to be mentioned. Ex- Iron is a greyish hard metal.

Some facts are specific like ‘water boils at 100°C at 760mm Hg of pressure.

A concept is an idea or a mental image of an object is generalised forms of specific relevant direct experiences interpreted in a language or word form for communication.

1. Concepts. Ex. plant, animal etc.

2. According to Bruner, every concept has five elements i.e. name, example (positive & negative), attributes (characteristics) attribute value and rule (definition).

3. Concepts formed without direct experiences may lead to misconceptions. Hence, care should be taken in provide direct experiences in learning process.

Principles :

Principles are based on several concepts. They are the representation of phenomena on which the activities or behaviour can be generalised to some extent.

A number of concepts combine in a way to convey meaning which can be tested and verified universally, becomes a principle.

Ex- Mytosis, Meiosis, Glycolysis, Photosynthe sis, Mutations, Evolution etc.

Scientific Inquiry :

It occupies a prominent place in science as it helps pupils to understand how scientific ideas are developed.

1. It is broadly defined as a search for truth or knowledge. Emphasis is placed on the aspects of search rather than on the mere acquisition of knowledge.

2. Empirical testing, reasoning and controlled experimenting are some of the methods of science inquiry.

The steps in scientific methods are illustrated with a specific example:

The teacher demonstrates an experiment to the students to show that water boils at low temperature under low pressure.

1. Sensing the Problem:

The teacher provides a situation in which the students feel the need of asking some questions. Teacher may also put questions which require reflective thinking and reasoning on the part of the students, this may become a problem to solve. The interest of the students, availability of the material and its utility should be considered.

A flask was taken and filled it half with water. Boil the water over a flame. Remove the flame. Cork the flask. Invert it and pour cold water on the flask. The students observe the process carefully and saw that water has begun to boil again when cold water is poured on the bottom of the inverted flask. They at once sense a problem for themselves finding out the reason and explanation of what they have seen.

2. Defining the Problem:

The student now defines the problem in a concise, definite and clear language. There should be some key-words in the statement of the problem, which may help in better understanding the problem.

The student can give different statements such as:

(i) Why is water boiling?

(ii) Why did the water boil first?

(iii) Why was the flask corked and then inverted?

(iv) Why was cold water poured over the bottom of the inverted flask?

(v) Why did the water boil in the flask when cold water is poured over the inverted flask?

Of all these statements, the last one is in fact the problem which should be solved.

3. Analysis of the Problem:

The student now fined the key words and phrases in the problem which provide clue to further study of the problem. At the same time, the students must have knowledge of every key word and the understanding of the whole problem. In our selected problem ‘water boil’ or the boiling of the water are the key words which gives us clue to find information regarding the boiling of water under different conditions.

Collection of Data :

After analysis of the problem the teacher suggests references on the problem. The student needs to plan the subsequent activities. They have to discuss, consult references, use audio-visual aids such as models, pictures, specimens, organise field trips and do the experimentation carefully. Unnecessary data should also be discarded.

Formulation of Tentative Solutions or Hypothesis :

After collection of data, the students are asked to formulate some tentative hypothesis. A hypothesis is the probable solution to the problem in hand, which should be free from bias and self-inclination.

The students can suggest the hypothesis like:

Water will also boil:

(i) When flask is not inverted.

(ii) When water is not boiled but only warmed.

(iii) When hot water is poured over the inverted flask containing cold water.

(iv) When hot water is poured over the inverted flask containing boiled water.

(v) When cold water is poured over the flask containing cold water.

(vi) When cold water is poured over the inverted flask containing boiled water.

These are some of the hypothesis the students can suggest.

Selecting and Testing the Most Appropriate Hypothesis :

The students can select the most tenable hypothesis by rejecting others through experimentation and discussion.

The students have found out that water begins to boil again in an inverted flask when cold water is poured over it. In no other condition this was possible and so all other hypothesis were rejected.

Drawing Conclusions and Making Generalisations :

In this step, conclusions are drawn from the experiments. The results should support the expected solution. Experiments can be repeated to verify the consistency and correctness of the conclusion drawn and should be properly reported. When some conclusions are drawn from different sets of experimentation under similar situations, they may go for generalisation of their conclusion.

The generalisation can be made by arranging a set of experiments which also show the same conclusion already reached at.

The effect of varying pressure on boiling point of water can be found out by conducting experiments. From these conditions, one can generalise that pressure has a direct effect on the boiling point of water i.e. the increase in pressure raises the boiling point of water and vice-versa.

Application of Generalization to New Situations :

The student should apply generalization under new situations in his daily life minimising the gap between classroom situation and real life situation.

The student will apply the generalization that increase in pressure increases the boiling point of water and vice-versa, to explain the reason of – ‘why’ is it difficult to cook meat and pulses at higher altitudes.

Why do the pulses take lesser time for cooking in pressure cooker.

In this way the student will apply the generalization to other life situations.

Scientific Method- A Critical View :

A few points about the scientific method need to be emphasized.

Scientific method is not a prescribed pathing for making discoveries in science. Very rarely the method has remained a key to discovery in science. It is the attitude of inquiry, investigation and experimentation rather than following set steps of a particular method that leads to discoveries and advancement in science.

Sometimes a theory may suggest a new experiment at other times an experiment may suggest a new theoretical model. Scientists do not always go through all the steps of the method and not necessarily in the order we have outlines above. Investigation in science often involves repeated action on any one or all steps of the scientific method in any order.

Many important and path breaking discoveries in science have been made by trial and error, experimentation and accidental observation. The Rontgen and Fleming both of them did not set out the following scientific steps to discover X-rays and penicillin, but they had qualities of healthy intuition and perseverance which took them to their goals. Besides intuition informed guesswork, creativity, an eye for an unusual occurrence, all played a significant role in developing new theories, and there by progress in science.

The validity of a hypothesis depends solely on the experimental test and not on any other attributes. There is no authority in science that tells you what you can criticize and what you cannot criticize. Thus, science is highly objective discipline.

A scientific method with its linear steps makes us feel that science is a ‘closed box approach’ of thinking. However in practice science is more about thinking ‘out of the box’. There is tremendous scope for creativity in science. Many times in science an idea or a solution to a vexing problem appears to arise out of creativity and imagination. Ex- The stories of Archimedes, Newton, Robert Hook, Fleming and Madam Curie etc.

People keep floating all kinds of theories; often they narrow their arguments in scientific terms. This may create lot of confusion among them, but we should remember that a theory is valid only if it passes the test of experimentation, otherwise it may just be a matter of faith.

The scientific method imposes operational limitation on science. It does not help us to make aesthetic or value judgment. For example, frequency of the colour of paintings may be determined but there is no scientific method to label the paintings of two artists as great or not so great. Scientific method does not prove or refute the ideas such as existence of God and existence of life after death.

Following scientific method does not ensure that a discovery can be made. However, the skills learnt in making observation, analysis, hypothesis, prediction from a hypothesis and it’s testing by experimentation help us in developing scientific attitude.

All of us will benefit immensely if we imbibe the spirit of scientific method in our personal lives. The scientific method tells us to be honest in reporting our observations or experimental results, keep an open mind and to be ready to accept other points of view. If our own view is proved wrong.

Scientific method is a logical approach to problem-solving.

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• Essay on Environmental Science
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Science and Technology Will Change Our Future Essay

Introduction, papers are replaced by computer interface, credit card type media, changes in travel, lowering the cost of living, works cited.

Science and technology have continued to play a central role in providing means through which people improve their well-being and health, alleviate poverty, and define themselves as a nation and people. Many societies are built on a firm foundation of science and technology and irrevocably dependent on them. As such, science and technology will continue to play a major role in shaping our lives and nation. It will change how people communicate and interact with each other, how people work, travel and how students learn. Technological innovation in the next 50 years will rival innovation that took place in the past 400 years.

According to Reuters, businesses and schools will go paperless as papers are replaced by computer interfaces built into furniture and walls. Advances in communication, energy distribution, and storage in consumer products and businesses will support a technology known as “room ware” that will support this breakthrough. Offices Tables, walls, and cafeteria tables will double as terminals that will allow a person to write down the idea and send it to a personal desk or computer located somewhere else. School and office Walls and windows will have the capability to display maps and direction commands to help locate particular offices, staff, classrooms, etc ( Reuters, 2009). As offices/schools go paperless, the environment will benefit from reduced dependent on the tree for paper production.

After a long period of stability as the main choice of storage DVD and CD, media will be replaced by credit card type media by 2015. As the internet becomes more flexible coupled with the availability of cheap massive storage space, high data transfer rate, people will no longer need physical storage media to store data. File storage and access will be done remotely due to the convenience brought by the internet. Movies will only be available for download from the internet and that the user will need to access code to get movies and data. (B, 2009)

Innovation in Science and Technology will also change travel. People will be traveling on sky car that will be cruising comfortably at a speed of 300Miles per hour using regular fuel. The sky car will be equipped with onboard computers and will be fully automated. This means that one will not need a license to fly the sky car. The sky car will be equipped with redundant engines for safety purposes just in case the main engine fails (FutureCars.com, 2010). The cost of a new sky car will be equal to that of a luxury car once mass production begins. Sky car will be cost less to main and will launch and land at a pad the size of the dining room. Using sky car, people will be able to avoid traffic, spending tickets and save travel time.

Other speculations about the future include the availability of cheap, advanced personal equipment for self-diagnosis for illnesses that currently require a costly medical diagnosis. This will reduce the cost of health care and health insurance, hence lowering the cost of living. It will also lead to better health. Robots will also become part of mainstream life, in form of interactive toys, household items like carpets and pets will require no maintenance (Mooneyham, 2005).

The future will be shaped greatly by continued innovation in science and technology. Offices will go paperless and papers will be replaced by a computer interface inbuilt on office furniture and walls. DVD and CD media will be replaced by credit card types of media as people turn to online data storage and access. Technology innovation will also have a great impact on travel with the introduction of sky cars, which will result in reduced travel time and traffic congestion. New health equipment will help people to diagnose themselves for diseases, hence reducing the cost of health care, leading to better health.

Reuters. (2009). 2018 milestone: “Paperless Offices”. Web.

B, D. (2009). The Future of – Online/Remote Data Storage. Web.

Future Diagnostics Group. (2009). Nuclear Medicin. Web.

FutureCars.com. (2010). Moller Skycar – Long Time Coming. Web.

Mooneyham, J. (2005). Substantial regeneration treatments for various organs. Web.

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Technology is probably changing us for the worse—or so we always think

For nearly a hundred years in this publication (and long before that elsewhere) people have worried that new technologies could alter what it means to be human.

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MIT Technology Review is celebrating our 125th anniversary with an online series that draws lessons for the future from our past coverage of technology. 

Do we use technology, or does it use us? Do our gadgets improve our lives or just make us weak, lazy, and dumb? These are old questions—maybe older than you think. You’re probably familiar with the way alarmed grown-ups through the decades have assailed the mind-rotting potential of search engines , video games , television , and radio —but those are just the recent examples.

Early in the last century, pundits argued that the telephone severed the need for personal contact and would lead to social isolation. In the 19th century some warned that the bicycle would rob women of their femininity and result in a haggard look known as “bicycle face.” Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein was a warning against using technology to play God, and how it might blur the lines between what’s human and what isn’t.

Or to go back even further: in Plato’s Phaedrus , from around 370 BCE, Socrates suggests that writing could be a detriment to human memory—the argument being, if you’ve written it down, you no longer needed to remember it.

We’ve always greeted new technologies with a mixture of fascination and fear,  says Margaret O’Mara , a historian at the University of Washington who focuses on the intersection of technology and American politics. “People think: ‘Wow, this is going to change everything affirmatively, positively,’” she says. “And at the same time: ‘It’s scary—this is going to corrupt us or change us in some negative way.’”

And then something interesting happens: “We get used to it,” she says. “The novelty wears off and the new thing becomes a habit.” 

A curious fact

Here at MIT Technology Review , writers have grappled with the effects, real or imagined, of tech on the human mind for nearly a hundred years. In our March 1931 issue , in his essay “Machine-Made Minds,” author John Bakeless wrote that it was time to ask “how far the machine’s control over us is a danger calling for vigorous resistance; and how far it is a good thing, to which we may willingly yield.” 

The advances that alarmed him might seem, to us, laughably low-tech: radio transmitters, antennas, or even rotary printing presses.

But Bakeless, who’d published books on Lewis and Clark and other early American explorers, wanted to know not just what the machine age was doing to society but what it was doing to individual people. “It is a curious fact,” he wrote, “that the writers who have dealt with the social, economic, and political effects of the machine have neglected the most important effect of all—its profound influence on the human mind.”

In particular, he was worried about how technology was being used by the media to control what people thought and talked about. 

“Consider the mental equipment of the average modern man,” he wrote. “Most of the raw material of his thought enters his mind by way of a machine of some kind … the Twentieth Century journalist can collect, print, and distribute his news with a speed and completeness wholly due to a score or more of intricate machines … For the first time, thanks to machinery, such a thing as a world-wide public opinion is becoming possible.”

Bakeless didn’t see this as an especially positive development. “Machines are so expensive that the machine-made press is necessarily controlled by a few very wealthy men, who with the very best intentions in the world are still subject to human limitation and the prejudices of their kind … Today the man or the government that controls two machines—wireless and cable—can control the ideas and passions of a continent.”

Fifty years later, the debate had shifted more in the direction of silicon chips. In our October 1980 issue , engineering professor Thomas B. Sheridan, in “Computer Control and Human Alienation,” asked: “How can we ensure that the future computerized society will offer humanity and dignity?” A few years later, in our August/September 1987 issue , writer David Lyon felt he had the answer—we couldn’t, and wouldn’t. In “Hey You! Make Way for My Technology,” he wrote that gadgets like the telephone answering machine and the boom box merely kept other pesky humans at a safe distance: “As machines multiply our capacity to perform useful tasks, they boost our aptitude for thoughtless and self-centered action. Civilized behavior is predicated on the principle of one human being interacting with another, not a human being interacting with a mechanical or electronic extension of another person.”

By this century the subject had been taken up by a pair of celebrities, novelist Jonathan Franzen and Talking Heads lead vocalist David Byrne. In our September/October 2008 issue, Franzen suggested that cell phones had turned us into performance artists. 

In “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” he wrote: “When I’m buying those socks at the Gap and the mom in line behind me shouts ‘I love you!’ into her little phone, I am powerless not to feel that something is being performed; overperformed; publicly performed; defiantly inflicted. Yes, a lot of domestic things get shouted in public which really aren’t intended for public consumption; yes, people get carried away. But the phrase ‘I love you’ is too important and loaded, and its use as a sign-off too self-conscious, for me to believe I’m being made to hear it accidentally.”

In “Eliminating the Human,” from our September/October 2017 issue, Byrne observed that advances in the digital economy served largely to free us from dealing with other people. You could now “keep in touch” with friends without ever seeing them; buy books without interacting with a store clerk; take an online course without ever meeting the teacher or having any awareness of the other students.

“For us as a society, less contact and interaction—real interaction—would seem to lead to less tolerance and understanding of difference, as well as more envy and antagonism,” Byrne wrote. “As has been in evidence recently, social media actually increases divisions by amplifying echo effects and allowing us to live in cognitive bubbles … When interaction becomes a strange and unfamiliar thing, then we will have changed who and what we are as a species.”

Modern woes

It hasn’t stopped. Just last year our own Will Douglas Heaven’s feature on ChatGPT debunked the idea that the AI revolution will destroy children’s ability to develop critical-thinking skills.

As O’Mara puts it: “Do all of the fears of these moral panics come to pass? No. Does change come to pass? Yes.” The way we come to grips with new technologies hasn’t fundamentally changed, she says, but what has changed is—there’s more of it to deal with. “It’s more of the same,” she says. “But it’s more. Digital technologies have allowed things to scale up into a runaway train of sorts that the 19 th century never had to contend with.”

Maybe the problem isn’t technology at all, maybe it’s us. Based on what you might read in 19th-century novels, people haven’t changed much since the early days of the industrial age. In any Dostoyevsky novel you can find people who yearn to be seen as different or special, who take affront at any threat to their carefully curated public persona, who feel depressed and misunderstood and isolated, who are susceptible to mob mentality.

“The biology of the human brain hasn’t changed in the last 250 years,” O’Mara says. “Same neurons, still the same arrangement. But it’s been presented with all these new inputs … I feel like I live with information overload all the time. I think we all observe it in our own lives, how our attention spans just go sideways. But that doesn’t mean my brain has changed at all. We’re just getting used to consuming information in a different way.”

And if you find technology to be intrusive and unavoidable now, it might be useful to note that Bakeless felt no differently in 1931. Even then, long before anyone had heard of smartphone or the internet, he felt that technology had become so intrinsic to daily life that it was like a tyrant: “Even as a despot, the machine is benevolent; and it is after all our stupidity that permits inanimate iron to be a despot at all.”

If we are to ever create the ideal human society, he concluded—one with sufficient time for music, art, philosophy, scientific inquiry (“the gorgeous playthings of the mind,” as he put it)—it was unlikely we’d get it done without the aid of machines. It was too late, we’d already grown too accustomed to the new toys. We just needed to find a way to make sure that the machines served us instead of the other way around. “If we are to build a great civilization in America, if we are to win leisure for cultivating the choice things of mind and spirit, we must put the machine in its place,” he wrote.

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Threads is giving Taiwanese users a safe space to talk about politics

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