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Introduction to basic concepts and

concerns

ByMr. Abdalla A. Shaame

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General concept and concernDefinitions of science and technology

Scientific and technological communities

The scientist’s responsibility to society

Main Teaching Points

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Science, Technology and Culture (STS) is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture.

Many scholars are interested in a variety of problems including the relationships between scientific and technological innovations and society, as well as the directions and risks associated with science and technology.

General concept and concern

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The aim of this course is to give students the opportunity to explore the wide ranges of social impacts of emerging technologies and new scientific discoveries, using the diverse approaches of the liberal arts, social sciences, and humanities.

Digital information technologies, new communication technologies and new scientific innovations are rapidly transforming traditional ways of working, learning, and living.

Key STS areas include Societal Impacts of Nanotechnology, Gaming, Education, Bio-health, Surveillance, Mobile Technologies, E-society and Computer-mediated communication.

General concept and concern

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 Science and technology permeate every aspect of our lives, from the most private decisions about reproduction and medical treatment to the most public choices concerning risk, development, security, and the quality and sustainability of the human environment

General concept and concern

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Science Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning “knowledge" or

"knowing") is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding of how the physical world works.

Science can be defined as knowledge of general truths. It may also refer to a skilled technique, technology or practice.

Science utilizes the scientific method in order to prove its general truths.

And we can define science as systematic, organised knowledge which concerned with evidence and with theory.

On the other hand, science can be defined as a knowledge attained through study or practice, or knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world.

Perhaps the most general description is that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality.

Such models include experimentation that tries to simulate natural phenomena under controlled conditions and thought experiments.

Knowledge in science is gained through research.

Definition of terms

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Technology: A body of knowledge used to create tools, develop skills, and extract or collect materials; the application of science (the combination of the scientific method and material) to meet an objective or solve problems.

Technology is the application or usage of knowledge in a particular area. It can also be a specialized field.

Broadly, we regards technology as a body of skills and knowledge by which we control and modify the world. Technology is being influenced by scientific knowledge with spectacular results and is very important to human affairs

Definition of terms

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Throughout the twentieth century the use of the term have increased to the point where it now encompasses a number of “classes” of technology:

1. Technology as Objects:Tools, machines, instruments, weapons, appliances - the physical devices of technical performance

2. Technology as Knowledge: The know-how behind technological innovation

3. Technology as Activities: What people do - their skills, methods, procedures, routines

4. Technology as a Process: Begins with a need and ends with a solution

5. Technology as a Sociotechnical System:the manufacture and use of objects involving people and other objects in combination

Definition of terms

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A Society is a collection of relationships between individuals, including different economic, cultural, or political properties with a common end or goal; it can be a community and also a social group or organization.

Definition of terms

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When these three things are combined, it is learned that science technology and society is the application of a skilled technique or a general truth and how it affects our society and vice versa. Science and technology has impacted our society in such a large number of ways that its evidence is everywhere. For instance telephone, computers, etc.

Definition of terms

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Values are changed because expectations and reality are changed.

Ethics are also affected, in cases such as capitol punishment, abortion and euthanasia that have arrived due to technology and/or science.

Technology is also said to simplify people’s lifestyles by which it is easier to gain information via the internet, attend classes (e-learning) and more specialized jobs being created to support the new inventions.

Some effects of STS

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How do you define science, technology and society?

what does technology do for us? What technologies do you see? How do

these technologies solve problems and make your lives easier?

What types of knowledge were required to develop the technology?

Summary

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The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions.

Scientific Community

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In order to appreciate the dilemma of these scientists, we need to know a little bit more about what they do and the communities that they create.

It is all very easy to say that science is a human activity and, as such, should be guided by human ethics. But that will not show us the particular pressures and attitudes that scientists have that isolate them from the culture of everyday life.

The Nature of the Scientific Community

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In simple terms, science is a methodological approach to understanding physical nature (and human beings in so far as they are a part of physical nature).

It is a highly systematic approach designed explicitly to eliminate the possibility of error. It is a highly restricted approach, in so far as it asks questions concerned with how things work rather than metaphysical questions about why the universe is designed the way it is

The Nature of the Scientific Community

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Science is characterized by hypotheses (or theories) that are measured against the empirical evidence. Where there is no empirical evidence to test theories against, there is no science only conjecture.

Where there is no ability to measure (often using observation or quantitative techniques) there is not much possibility of real science.

The reason scientists developed the scientific method in the first place was to try to discover things that are true. Second, scientists wanted to be able to apply this information in ways that allow us humans to control nature in ways that are useful.

The Nature of the Scientific Community

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The systematic search for truth and the development of applications for this knowledge are two very different things.

technology was simply the practical application of scientific understanding. We know realize that technology had its original basis in the trial and error and experiential approach of the crafts. Technology existed prior to the development of science and has some very unique characteristics.

The Nature of the Scientific Community

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Academic Scientists The purest form of scientific enquiry is that which takes

place in universities (or occasionally in technological institutes). In these places, scientists combine research and teaching roles. They are encouraged to pursue the truth in a number of interesting ways.

In the first place, they are chosen by colleagues in their university for their ability.

Second, they have to publish their findings in refereed journals continuously to prove that they are making a significant contribution to knowledge.

Third, they are not paid for any of these publications, no matter how important the results, because their search for truth is supposed to be impartial.

The primary way a science professor gets promoted is by the number and importance of his/her publications, which is yet another way to ensure that their research is pure.

Scientific Community

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Scientific Laboratories If it is still at least possible to talk about purity in

the case of academic scientists, it clearly isn’t in the case of non-government laboratories.

In Canada, over 40% of R & D is carried out by scientists who work for corporations.

In America, that figure rises to almost 50%. Moreover, that percentage is constantly growing as governments are beginning to move out of areas that some politicians believe can be more efficiently managed by the private sector.

Scientific Community

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Government Research Government laboratories were created when

governments recognized that scientific discoveries and applications were essential to competitive success and international prestige.

Universities were too independent to provide the kind of focused research that governments needed.

Businesses were too interested in profitability and short-term market gains to conduct expensive longer-term research.

Since much necessary and strategic research was too expensive and inconclusive for free enterprise, governments decided to step in and subsidize focused research with tax dollars.

Scientific Community

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By examining the nature of the scientific community, we have begun to make a case for treating the scientist in his/her social context.

We have even hinted at the social responsibility of the scientist and of the responsibility we all have to pay attention to what is going on in science.

The ethical responsibility of the scientist in a way that would make sense to scientists themselves.

The scientists have a right to pursue intellectual questions freely, just as long as the consequences of their research are unforeseen or unforeseeable.

However, is the common hypocritical practice of scientists to deny moral responsibility in those cases where there is a substantial degree of forseeability with respect to the consequences of their actions.

The Ethical Responsibility of the Scientist

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English philosopher William Whewell in 1833 coined, the term ‘scientist’ describes a practitioner of this scientific method. The motivations of scientists can vary, from the selfless desire of understanding to the application of scientific knowledge to benefit other’s health, the environment, and industries.

However not all Scientists follow a path paved with good intentions, as many can be corrupt by personal gain or political conflict, ignoring the wellbeing of humanity for their own recognition and power.

Scientists responsibility to the society

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The responsibilities of scientists are not as clear-cut as those associated with say law or medicine, where the aim underpinning the profession is more clearly defined.

Jacob Bronowski, a British Mathematician, says: “The best science is driven by an insatiable curiosity for how the world works. Applications are secondary”.

In reality it is debatable whether science with no application to mankind is of any worth, however many will argue that applications can breed from information that was found without applications in mind. Such circumstances are demonstrated by quantum mechanics.

Several technologies are now owed to quantum mechanics such as the microchip, electron microscope and magnetic resonance imaging

Scientists responsibility to the society

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Responsibility of scientists is to obtain useful knowledge in such a manner that will not cause any distress, harm or detriment to those involved with the experimentation that acquires the knowledge.

Conversely, there may be situations in which the best outcomes can only be efficiently reached if there is some form of harm or loss of life.

For scientists there is a continuous battle between what is ethically acceptable and whether breaching these ethics will benefit humanity in the long term.

Scientists responsibility to the society

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science and technology are social activities. As social activities scientists and

technologists have responsibility for what they do.

They are accountable for the social effects of their discoveries and applications.

The twentieth-century has rightly been called the age of science and technology because a number of cultural, social and economic factors came together to give science and technology the hegemonic position that they have maintained ever since

The Social significance of Science and Technology

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The first of these factors was the growth of a materialist outlook on life.

Materialism is often thought of as the desire to amass wealth and consumer goods.

But in philosophical terms, materialism means the belief that the best way to understand life is to examine nature and the physical materials of life.

The Social significance of Science and Technology

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It also suggests looking at the world and human beings more as machines than as aesthetic or spiritual entities.

Once one begins looking at the world this way, once one privileges this materialistic way of knowing, once can begin to control or manipulate human nature in ways that are thought to be progressive.

The Social significance of Science and Technology

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It was difficult to question the contributions of, or need for, science and technology even as scientific research became more esoteric and as technology moved to larger scales.

Both of these developments pushed the average citizen out of scientific and technological decision-making

More and more, the decision-making was in the hands of governments.

And even the governments had to rely on the experts who understood the science and the technology

The Social significance of Science and Technology

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it was becoming clear that the scientific and technological approach was potentially destructive to the natural environment.

reaffirm the relationship between society, science and technology and to question the hegemony of the decision makers

The classic case of scientific responsibility was the development of the atomic bomb that ended the War in the Pacific

The Social significance of Science and Technology

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What is distinction between science and technology

Discussion

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The rights and wrongs of science and technology

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