chapter 1: introduction

Question 1

Technology is a means for us and has become an extension of ourselves due to the consumption within our lives?

Answer 1

true

Question 2

Study of tech has been approached from a _______ standpoint, consisting of the examination of _____ and ____ ____

Answer 2

Material, tools, and tool use

Question 3

true or False: Examining the social side is NOT essential as our society moves toward greater technological integration in many domains including health, education, transport, work, and commerce?

Answer 3

false

it is essential

Question 4

Who described changes as leading toward a technological society?

Answer 4

Ellul (1964)

Question 5

True of False: Early scholars paid much attention to the social and ethical implications of technology?

Answer 5

false

they paid little attention

Question 6

When examining social and ethical dimensions of technology, what sociology theoretical framework was used and what did it address?

Answer 6

Marxism

Focus on how the social, ethical, and technological come together and influence one another

• examined how the growing use of machinery was a central factor in deskilling.

Question 7

What three words are used for technology that defines our current times and highlights that interaction between humans and the technological?

Answer 7

Simulation, augmentation, automation

Question 8

What is simulation?

Answer 8

Geared towards the development of tools that can resemble or outperform human faculties

eg. snapchat my ai

Question 9

What is augmentation?

Answer 9

Attempts to integrate machines and humans into new hybrid actors with added capabilities

Question 10

What is automation?

Answer 10

move toward employing technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence to fully automate many processes and activities previously performed by humans

eg. garage door opening apps instead of doing it yourself

Question 11

What is the Facebook Controversy Case Study and what important information rose from it?

Answer 11

• Facebook potentially swayed voters during the 2016 US presidential election
• Key takeaway: the technology that we tend to trust and frequently use can influence our lives, opinions, and behaviours in unexpected ways

Question 12

what were the 3 issues that came to light from the facebook controversy?

Answer 12

• fake news - making it diff for users to identify truthful info from misinfo
  
  • prone and sinsitive to clicking on things labeled as clickbait
• russian propaganda - links controlled. by agencies in Russia with aim of influencing public opinion on the US (troll farm)
• cambridge analytica - access info from 85 million facebook users
  
  • included psych profilling, political ads targeting their views and personality

Question 13

3 positives from this include:

Answer 13

• How third parties access and use the site;
• Data sharing practices;
• Increasing transparency and public scrutiny of companies

Question 14

What are the five historical definition of technology?

Answer 14

• Material substance
• Knowledge
• Practice
• Technique
• Society

Question 15

tech as material substance

Answer 15

passive object viewed as tooled created by humans under their control

“radical other to humanity” - exists outside social realm

• problem: disregards interplay between society and tech
  
  • doesn’t examine social change
• tech as being its physical or mat properties

Question 16

What is technology as knowledge? and artifacts def?

Answer 16

tech is based upon, utilizes and generates complex body of knowledge
- stems from human activity such as artifacts

artifacts = objects that have been modified, modelled or produced from a human
- create use or transform objects to achieve certain goals

how technology tools, resources and devices fit into the process of teaching and learning

Question 17

what are the limitations to tech as knowledge?

Answer 17

• knowledge used to create and transform objects is diff entity than object itself
• disregards impact that tech has on society by limiting tech to expertise and skill

use laytons model of tech to remove some limits

Question 18

What model distinguishes between the tech itself and the knowledge available about it?

Answer 18

Layton’s Model of Technology

Question 19

What three components are Layton’s Model of Technology consisted of and explained?

Answer 19

Ideas = thought process that precedes the tool

Design = mediates the gap between abstract ideas and the object - craftmanship needed)

Techniques = the actual artifact or technology made up of material substance and allows humans to complete tasks

Question 20

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Layton’s Model of Technology?

Answer 20

Advantages
- Definition of technology goes beyond just a consideration of the artifact
- Model creates a link between how we visualize technologies and their actual realization

Disadvans.
- No explanation of how technology and technological knowledge are linked to society

Question 21

What is technology as a practice?

Answer 21

Technology is complex practices embedded in everyday activities

• how tech becomes normalized within society over time (strength)
• Structuring force in how we live, play, and work

Limitation
- tech analyzed as a neg force and leads to technological determinism

Question 22

What Canadian scholar contributed information to tech as a practice and what did they say?

Answer 22

Ursula Franklin (1992)

tech in the context of the real world or “a system” involving organization, procedures, symbols, new words and a mindset

Believed tech as being able to “liberate its users” often ends up enslaving them by creating dependence
- people put trust in machines and if it fails blames humans who made it

Question 23

What is technology as a technique?

Answer 23

• Action-oriented POV
• Examined in relation to human activity and describes abstract concept and not an object
• tech is a tool and mechanism through which human needs can be achieved

problem: does not elaborate on the mechanisms by which social change occurs

Question 24

What is technology as society?

Answer 24

consideration of technology and its interplay within society

• acts with society and in a way becomes society

Problem: view does not allow us to study how tech intersects w society

Question 25

What did Simpson (1995) say about tech as a society?

Answer 25

technology encompasses knowledge, mechanisms, skills, and apparatus that are geared toward controlling and transforming society agent of change that can control and alter humanity

Question 26

What did Baudrillard (1993) say about tech as a society?

Answer 26

technology does more than effect change in society

Question 27

What did Marcuse (1982) say about tech as a society?

Answer 27

Believes that the introduction of new technologies brought about new standards as well as cultural and social change

Question 28

What are the 6 challenges of technology as society that influence how we approach the study of technology?

Answer 28

1. rapid tech advances 2. unprecedent social chane 3. direction and type of effect 4. target group 5. changing uses 6. ethical dilemmas

Question 29

what does rapid tech advances and unprecedent social change entail?

Answer 29

t ech evolves at a rapid pace and existing techs transform and they often become more complex unprecedented social change in many realms of society, affecting many aspects of social, cultural, and economic life

Question 30

what do direction and type of effect and target group entail?

Answer 30

directionality problem - difficult to determine the extent to which tech affects society or society affects tech particulars of a group have to be examined to understand how that group is appropriating the tech and how the tech has an impact on members' lives

Question 31

what does changing uses and ethical dilemmas entail?

Answer 31

uses of tech change over time - a single tech often mutates into a tech serving multiple purposes ethical dilemmas that more complicated techs bring to the table becomes an important aspect of tech adoption and study

Question 32

How do we make sense of these five different definitions of technology?

Answer 32

- Each one has its merits, helping us understand one aspect of technology - No single definition can capture the full meaning of a particular concept

Question 33

What is the proposed new definition of technology?

Answer 33

Socio-material assemblage of material objects, embodying and reflecting social elements, such as knowledge, norms and attitudes, that have been shaped and structured to serve social, political and cultural and existential purposes

Question 34

What are the four advantages of this new proposed definition?

Answer 34

1. Separates technology from society 2. Does not include technology as an element of society 3. Views technology as embodying and reflecting knowledge, social norms, social structures, etc 4. integrates the concept of socio-material assemblage

Question 35

Regarding the contemporary discussion of technology, what can be said about simulation and Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Answer 35

Goal of AI was to simulate any way or form of human faculties, often including emotionally

Question 36

What is the Turing test?

Answer 36

believed AI could be achieved through computation rather than machinery -assess humans ability to differ between human and - test machines potential to show intelligent behaviour three players = human interrogator and machine are separated from each other and goal is for interrogator to discriminate between the machine and human through - if interrogator cant discriminate then the machine has passed the test

Question 37

What does McCarthy (2007) argue about the Turing test/AI?

Answer 37

Argues that computers and humans are still fundamentally different in the way they solve problems

Question 38

what are intelligence agents?

Answer 38

capable of accruing knowledge and displaying intelligence to achieve goals related to their environment eg. eliza - simulate psychotherapist - based on algorithms that can process large amounts of data

Question 39

chatterbot check in medical diagnosis - appealing for 3 reasons?

Answer 39

1. diagnosis can happen in real time with no gaps and no appointments needed 2. no anxiety around what a specific symptom could mean 3. start treatment without delay and preventing the medical condition to get worse

Question 40

Regarding the contemporary discussion of technology, what can be said about augmentation?

Answer 40

based on principles of connectedness, responsiveness and intensify human qualities and productivity - dont change physical - physical body augmented and connected to digital components with computational and communicational abilities eg. cell phones

Question 41

what is a cyborg?

Answer 41

being or entity containing both artificial and biological components that are seamlessly connected

Question 42

What can be said about the future of augmentation?

Answer 42

Futurists predict that augmentation and the coming together of human and machine are inevitable - One controversial possibility is transhumanism

Question 43

what is transhumanism?

Answer 43

human beings should be permitted to use tech to modify and enhance human cognition and bodily function, expanding abilities beyond current biological constraints product of quasi-religious movement - belief in futuristic tech change of human nature to achieve goals such as freedom from suffering and bodily and material constraints, immortality and super intelligence

Question 44

Regarding the contemporary discussion of technology, what can be said about automation?

Answer 44

Describes the design and implementation of machinery to a process or procedure with little or no human intervention 1950s viewed machines as better alt to human labour - advantages in integrating machines in workflow of assembly lines - machines didn’t complain about unfair work conditions, low pay, get sick, ask for vacation or work related injuries

Question 45

what is disruptive tech?

Answer 45

tech that is responsible for transformative social change exercise radical change that is transformative in nature - eg. driverless cars - difficulties that exist when making ethical decisions and determining who is to blame when automated system fails

Question 46

True or False: The level of interaction and integration between technology and society continues to grow at a slow pace?

Answer 46

False: grows at a RAPID pace