the impact of technology on society the origins of man to present day

The Impact of Technology on Society

The Origins of Man to Present Day

Dr. David Gibbs

Department of Computing and New Media Technologies University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Stevens Point, WI 54481

David.Gibbs@uwsp.edu

Dr. David GibbsFulbright Fellow 2008

University of Wisconsin-Stevens PointWisconsin, USA

Dr. David Gibbs

Department of Computing and New Media Technologies University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Stevens Point, WI 54481

David.Gibbs@uwsp.edu

Wisconsin, USA

Stevens Point, Wisconsin

Wisconsin Facts

• Population: 5,648,124 (2007) (20th)• Land Area: 65,503 sq mi. (23rd)• Statehood: 1848• First explored: 1634 (French, Jean Nicolet)• Main industries– Agriculture (milk, cheese, peas, potatoes, beans)– Industry (paper, machinery, autos)– Service (insurance, medical, higher education)

• Over 14,000 lakes

University of Wisconsin Stevens Point

• Established 1894• Enrollment 8600 combined grad/undergrad• Comprehensive programs• Largest major fields of study– Education– Natural Resources– Biology– Computing

University of Wisconsin System

26 Campuses

2 Doctoral Institutions11 Comprehensive13 Two Year Universities

approximately 160,000 students

Wisconsin Technical College System

16 Districts

BlackhawkChippewa ValleyFox ValleyGatewayLakeshoreMadison AreaMid-StateMilwaukee AreaMoraine ParkNicolet AreaNorthcentralNortheast WisconsinSouthwest WisconsinWaukesha CountyWesternWisconsin Indianhead

About Dr. Gibbs• Raised on a farm in rural Wisconsin• Undergraduate degree in Mathematics,

Physical Sciences• Master’s Degree in Computer Science• Ph.D. In Educational Technology• Teaching Experience• 2 years secondary school• 27 years university

My Family

Impact of Technology

• Interaction of humans and their tools/technologies

• Origins to present

• Present to 2047

Influences• Neil Postman– Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1993)

• Ray Kurzweil– The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

(2005)

• Life in America (1955 – 2008)– convenience, immediate gratification, pleasure seeking,

the disappearance of childhood, stay young at all costs, quarterly stock earnings reports, maxim of efficiency

Neil Postman

• 1931-2003• NYU Professor of

Communications, media theorist, and cultural critic

• 18 books, 200+ articles

Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

Author: Neil Postman

Published in 1993

Postman’s Writings• Television and the Teaching of English (1961). • Linguistics: A Revolution in Teaching with Charles Weingartner

(Dell Publishing, 1966). • Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969) with Charles

Weingartner.• Teaching as a Conserving Activity (1979). • The Disappearance of Childhood (1982). • Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of

Show Business (1985). • Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language,

Technology and Education (1988). • Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (1992).• The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School (1995).• Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can

Improve Our Future (1999).The Impact of Technology on

Society

“Technopoly”– Postman coined the term – in part because no

term existed

“Culture” – Patterns of human activity and the symbolic

structures that give such activity significance.

“Legend of Thamus”from Plato’s Phaedrus (a dialog between Socrates and Phaedrus)

King Thamus entertaining Theuth, the inventor of numbers, calculation, geometry, astronomy, and writing.

Theuth, to Thamus

Theuth, the inventor, to the King, on his invention of writing:

“Here is an accomplishment, my lord the king, which will improve both the wisdom and the memory of the Egyptians. I have discovered a sure receipt for memory and wisdom.”

Thamus, to Theuth

King Thamus, on Theuth’s writing:

“Theuth, my paragon of inventors, the discoverer of an art is not the best judge of the good or harm which will accrue to those who practice it. So it is in this; you, who are the father of writing, have out of fondness for your off-spring attributed to it quite the opposite of its real function. Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources.”

What will be the impact of writing?

King Thamus, on Theuth’s writing continued:

“What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory. And as for wisdom, your pupils will have the reputation for it without the reality: they will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant. And because they are filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom they will be a burden to society.”

What are the lessons of Theuth & Thamos?

• Cultures negotiate with technology; technology "giveth" and technology "taketh away.“

• It is a mistake to suppose that any technological innovation has a one-sided effect. Every technology is both a burden and a blessing at once.

• Technologies create new definitions of old terms, and this process takes place without our being fully conscious of it. (‘memory’, ‘wisdom’)

• There will always be "winners" and "losers" as the result of a new technology.

• Technologies create “experts,” those with mastery.

• Those who have control over the workings of a particular technology accumulate power.

• There will always be "winners" and "losers" as the result of a new technology.

• At the start of a technological journey, you can't simply conspire to be a winner.

• New technologies compete with old ones - for time, for attention, for money, for prestige, but mostly for dominance of their world-view.

• Technological change is neither additive nor subtractive. It is ecological.

Legend of Thamus

• Thamus was right – but only half-right, as was Theuth

• Writing is not just a burden – it is both – and at the same time – a burden and a blessing.

Social Aspects of Technology Course

• First written assignment– entitled “Benefits and Harms of Technology”– “technology” as broadly defined in the assignment– 6 technologies

• 3 positive, or beneficial• 3 negative, or harmful

– Oral presentation and defense of those technologies in class• Examples: cell phones, television, i-pods, nuclear power

Technology is non-neutralALL technologies bring blessings and burdens.

CHALLENGE: find a technology that is either ALL good or ALL bad.

REALIZATION: you can’t choose to use a technology only for good (or bad)

MYTH: “It all depends upon how you use it…”The Impact of Technology on

Society

With apologies to Clint Eastwood

Regarding Technology, NOT the Good and Bad, BUT…

The Good AND Bad, and the potentially Ugly*

* The really ugly technologies will be presented in part II: The Impact of Technology on Society: Present Day to 2047 and Beyond.

A Taxonomy of Culture:a timeline describing the intersection of

Tools/Technology and Culture1. Tool-Using: rocks, fire, to 1770s2. Technocracy: 1770s to 19103. Technopoly: 1910 to “present” (i.e. 1993)

The Taxonomy: stage 1

• A Tool-Using Culture (rocks, fire, to 1770s)Tools either – solved the immediate problems of physical life,

such as• water power, windmills, plow

– served the symbolic world of art, religion, politics• cathedrals, castles

• Technocracy (1770s to early 1900s)– A society loosely controlled by social custom and

religious tradition– Tools moving Europe from a tool-using culture to

technocracy:• Clock• Printing press• Telescope

– Origins of the “scientific method”

The Taxonomy: stage 2, cont’d

• Technocracy– Began in late 1700s• 1765 James Watt, steam engine• 1776, as defined by Adam Smith in Wealth of Nations• Roughly corresponds to the Industrial Revolution

– Communications “Revolution” began• Books (now affordable/available), telegraph,

typewriter, transatlantic cable, photography– Life began to “speed up”

• Technopoly (early 1900s – “present” i.e. 1993)– The submission of all forms of cultural life to the

sovereignty of technique and technology.– Began in early 1900s. When?• Henry Ford’s “model T” (Huxley: 632 AF) ?• 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial ?• 1910 Frederick Taylor, Scientific Management –

EFFICIENCY maxims applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission hearings between the Railroad and Labor force

The Principles of Scientific Management

by Frederick Taylor1. the goal of human labor and thought is efficiency

2. technical calculation is superior to human judgment

3. human judgment cannot be trusted (plagued by laxity, ambiguity, unnecessary complexity)

The Principles of Scientific Management

by Frederick Taylor4. subjectivity is an obstacle to clear thinking

5. what cannot be measured either does not exist or is of no value

6. the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts

Why did Technopoly prosper in America?

• The American “character.”

• The genius and audacity of American capitalists (to say nothing for the resources available which they might exploit).– Morse, Bell, Edison, Rockefeller, Astor, Ford,

Carnegie

Why did Technopoly prosper in America? (cont’d)

• The success of twentieth century technology in providing convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene and abundance.– "To every Old World belief, habit or tradition

there was and still is a technological alternative:• to prayer, the alternative is penicillin• to family roots, the alternative is mobility• to reading, the alternative is television• to restraint, immediate gratification• to sin, psychotherapy”

Definition of Technopoly

A Technopoly is a society that believes that "the primary, if not the only, goal of human labor and thought is efficiency, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment ... and that the affairs of citizens are best guided and conducted by experts." (p. 43)

In 1993, Technopoly existed primarily in America. Where does it exist today?

Taxonomic Stages of the Interaction of Culture and Technology

To summarize:• Tool-using

Technology is integrated into the culture• Technocracy

Technology attacks the culture• Technopoly

Technology becomes the culture and efficiency is the paramount goal

Provocations“We make our tools and forever after they shape

us.” – Marshall McLuhan

“The medium is the message.” – McLuhan

“Men have become the tools of their tools.” – Henry David Thoreau

Truisms(Wordnet: “an obvious truth”)

1. To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.2. To a man with a pencil, everything looks like a list.3. To a man with a camera, everything looks like an

image.4. To a man with a computer, everything looks like data.5. To a man with a grade sheet, everything looks like a

number.6. To a man with the scientific method, everything is

solvable by science or engineering.

An Observation

Each technological “advance” increases the efficiency of its predecessor. (That’s why it’s accepted as an advance.)

NOTE that the scientific method is itself an improvement in efficiency over its predecessor(s).

NOTE that natural selection takes place between competing technologies.

Gibbsian Truism• Technology serves to distance* people.–Warfare: fists, rocks, spears, arrows, guns,

cannons, chemical warfare, airborne bombs, missiles, biological agents. NOW: air drones, robots as proxy battlefield soldiers, ABMs fired from the other side of the world.

*although distance here is used in the literal sense of physical proximity, technology also serves to distance people in the socio-emotional realm as well.

Gibbsian Truism• Technology serves to distance* people, 2nd

example.–Communications between humans:

gestures, spoken language, smoke signals, glyphs, cursive writing, printing press, telegraphy, radio, telephone, television. NOW: Internet (email, blogs, text messages), chats, virtual worlds (2nd Life). SOON: total VR immersion

*although distance here is used in the literal sense of physical proximity, technology also serves to distance people in the socio-emotional realm as well.

Gibbsian Truism

• What technology makes easy to do, we tend to do.

(A corollary of a law of human nature known as the “path of least resistance.”)

Creation of “Because-You-Can” TAKE the truism:

What technology makes easy we tend to do

ADD:Capitalist zeal, replete with marketing

AND YOU GET:“Because You Can” Technologies (BYC)

What is a (BYC)? “Because-You-Can”When the only possible answer to the question…

“Why would they create that?”

“Because you can!”

you have identified a BYC.

BYC Examples

• Screaming monkey phone call • Gene bank your pet – only $1500• No tears onions • Segway

What typifies Technopoly?These phenomena typify Technopoly…• Information overload• “Scientism”• creation of “expertise”

and a result…• the “disappearance of childhood”

The Information Revolution… leads to Information Overload

1. Printing press; Gutenberg 14502. Telegraph; Morse, 1844 (U.S.)3. Photograph; Herschel and Daguerre, 1840s4. Broadcasting; radio – 1920s, TV – 1950s5. Personal computer; 1980s6. Internet, WWW; 1990s

>> volume, speed, cost*, multiple formats The Impact of Technology on

Society

“sipping from a fire hose…”

• What techniques do you use to manage information and info tools?– mandatory ‘quiet’ periods? (devices turned off?)– Take a day off, e.g. Sunday?

towards “Scientism”• Technopoly values efficiency, information,

predictability, and reliability. • The scientific method was developed via the

discovery of natural law, i.e. "nature's laws". • The combination of the two applied to social

or human situations is "Scientism."

What is problematic about this?

ScientismSocial scientists believe that the study of human

behavior, when conducted according to the rigorous principles established by the physical and biological sciences, will produce objective facts, testable theories, and profound understandings of the human condition.

Examples

The Disappearance of Childhood

“Childhood” was socially constructed, as a result of the printing press…

• In the middle ages humans became “adults” at 6 or 7 (when they could speak)

• Starting with the reformation & literacy*– Books > reading & writing > schools & curriculum

> school “children”– A new “class” of human, with special status and

protections from all things “adult.”*READING is an incredibly demanding cognitive act; try teaching a street-smart illiterate adult to read.

The Disappearance of Childhood, cont’d.

“Childhood” is disappearing, as a result of mass media – primarily television*

• TV is non-linguistic; primarily de-coding images (turn off the volume some time)

• Requires no skills and develops no skills• Unrestricted access, liberal doses of all things,

including those thought of as “adult”Erases the dividing line between children and

adults*does all this apply to the Internet as well?

Observations in support of “The Disappearance of Childhood”

• Apparel• Sports & recreation• Emphasis on youth culture (for ‘adults’)• Emphasis on being older (for ‘youth’)• Social statistics of adult behaviors of children

Regarding the graphical predominance of modern mass media

• TV, movies: “text is dead”• The early Internet: “text is not dead”• txt msgs: “o ys it is”• The more recent Internet: “If it’s not dead,

it’s co-existing.”• Speaking computers (in monotone): “Yes, text

is dead.”

Technology and Malta

• Education• Health Care• Government• Information Access• Commerce

Technology and Educationin Malta

• Times of Malta – February 15, 2008– Talking point: Great Teachers

Technology and Health Carein Malta

Technology and Governmentin Malta

Technology and Commercein Malta

RFID ChipsRadio-frequency-identification

Components– Chip (with unique ID#)– Antenna – Reader

RFID chips (syn: tags, transponders)

• Passive Tags– No internal power source– Activated by a “reader”

• Active Tags– Contain a battery, thus larger– Used in electronic toll

gathering (right), parking lots

Parking Lot with RFID

What’s on the chip?

• EPC – electronic product code

• EPC and RFID

• 96 bit code; i.e. 296, or 7.92 x 1028 unique ids

How BIG a number is 1028?

ASIDE: How BIG a number is 1028?

Innumeracy* is rampant in America…• Estimation is a forgotten skill• Understanding probabilities nonexistent• Excessive exposure to big (or small) numbers

results in numbness, apathy– David Beckham contract with LA Galaxy

• £130m– U.S. population:

• just over 300 million– U.S. national budget, proposed, Feb. 4, 2008:

• $3.1 trillion, or $3.1 x 1012

* A term meant to convey a person's inability to make sense of the numbers that run their lives

More big numbers

• U.S. National Debt:– Over $9 trillion and increasing $1.5bn per day

• Number of days a human lives (on average):– 28,105 (77 years X 365 days)

How BIG a number is 1028?

• There are 7.5 x 1018 grains of sand on earth (according to Howard C. McAllister, University of Hawaii) http://www.hawaii.edu/suremath/jsand.html

• How many things can be tagged with 1028 unique ids?– Everything? Clearly, some folks think so– The Internet of “Things”

Early applications of RFID

• automatic highway toll collection

• supply-chain management (for large retailers)

• pharmaceuticals (for the prevention of counterfeiting; $46bn annual losses)

• e-health (for patient monitoring)

RFID anywhere, everywhere

More recent applications

• sports and leisure (ski passes)• tracking cattle (carcasses) • personal security (tagging children at

schools)• access to bars like the Baja Beach Club

in Barcelona• military ID (dog-tags, etc.)• login to your computer! (at right)

RFID in public &private sectors

• RFID in E-government:– drivers’ licenses– passports (immediately “hacked” in the U.K., where 3m

were issued)– currency

• RFID readers are now being embedded in mobile phones:– Nokia, released RFID-enabled phones for businesses with

workforces in the field in mid-2004– launched consumer handsets in 2006.

RFID trackingvaluable “assets”

• Pets: www.homeagain.com

• Livestock: www.digitalangel.com

• Vehicles: www.saco.co.za

• Ore: (ore?): www.saco.co.za

• Asset Tracking: www.saco.co.za

• Man Tracking: www.saco.co.zaThe Impact of Technology on

Society

RFID and humans

• Kevin Warwick, University of Reading professor and self-proclaimed first “cyborg”

• Chip planting for fun (opening doors); oops – also for profit

• Chipping as a serious business – Senior citizens– Infants

The movement needs “leaders”

• Tommy Thompson, former Bush cabinet member (former Wisconsin governor), member of the board of Applied Digital to “get chipped” (July 2005)

• No he won’t (December 2005)• Legislation passed by his former

state (June 2006)

Retail Purchases? 1. Put items in your cart2. Walk out!

(provided you have an RFID yourself – embedded or otherwise)

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rev 13: 16-17

• Good– Market-supply management– Simplifies some pressures (toll booths, secure

passage, queues in checkout lines)• Bad– Big-brother, done to ourselves by ourselves

(what technology makes easy to do we tend to do)• Ugly?– What uses haven’t we even thought of?

Summary of the Age of Technopoly

• Taxonomy– Tool-using (integrate)– Technocracy (attack)– Technopoly (become)

• Efficiency is paramount• Scientific method is a belief system• Subordination of human thought to expert

and machine decisions

Discussion Questions

Let us accept Postman's taxonomy, if only for the sake of this question, in which cultures have moved from tool-users to technocracy to Technopoly.

What do you see as the next phase? What elements of Technopoly will be strengthened?

Weakened? What will be a defining characteristic of the next

phase?

What to do, what to do?

• Reverse the truisms – in your own life– Stop “distancing” people – (HOW??)– Don’t always do what technology makes easy to

do – (DIFFICULT!!)

• Remember the “human”; what do you value? In daily life? In others?

• Remember the “sacred”; there’s a reason those belief systems have been around for millennia

Next Presentation: March 5The Impact of Technology on Society:

Present Day to 2047 and Beyond

2047? Why 2047? The projected date of the “Singularity.”

“… a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.”

To the SingularityThree technologies in succession, Genetics (G),

Nanotechnology (N), and Robotics (R), forming the GNR revolution will pave the path to the Singularity.

• “The Singularity will represent the culmination of the merger of our biological thinking and existence with our technology, resulting in a world that is still human but that transcends our biological roots.”

To the Singularity, cont’d.

“The Singularity will allow us to transcend the limitations of our biological bodies and brains. We will gain power over our fates. Our mortality will be in our own hands. We will be able to live as long as we want (a subtly different statement from saying we will live forever).”

the impact of technology on society the origins of man to present day

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