Fourth Law: Although technology might be a prime element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in technology-policy decisions.
Fourth Law: Although technology might be a prime element in many public issues, nontechnical factors take precedence in technology-policy decisions.
I used to be much more of a technological determinist, where I believed that the course of history would play out according to what was technologically possible, and that technology shapes our world in a strong way. I've come to appreciate that culture actually plays such a large role in shaping our world. The ways in which people decide to use tec... See more
The Old is Dying
And since technology is not value neutral, to be a technologist is to be inherently opinionated about how the world ought to be. Each act of creation is a statement about one particular means to an end being the best possible means. As Saffron Huang writes, “[b]ringing something into existence is in fact endorsing that thing itself. As we hurtle al... See more
Rebecca • On being a technologist
The one thing technology doesn’t provide us with is a sense of how to make the best use of technology.
Pico Iyer • The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere (TED Books)
Technologies shape and are shaped by society. They are neither the problem nor the solution.
In many instances, to say that some technologies are inherently political is to say that certain widely accepted reasons of practical necessity–especially the need to maintain critical technological systems as smoothly working entities–have tended to eclipse other sorts of moral and political reasoning.
Langdon Winner • Do Artifacts Have Politics?
Anyone trying to apply science via technology must reason through contingencies, constraints, and behavior in specific circumstances. Questions like What is most appropriate and desired in this context? arise. Science focuses on necessity and universality; technology focuses on contingencies and specificities. Thus, technology does not just follow ... See more