Technologic
L i n d s e y Pa r ke r
http://prophotostock.deviantart.com/art/Light-Bulb-Technology-and-Business-424995729
The First
Computers,
1935-1945
Ceruzzi
In chapter two of Ceruzzi’s Computing: A Concise History,
Ceruzzi describes a young. A twenty-seven year old mechanical engineer working Konrad Zuse at an aircraft company in Berlin shortly before the Nazi regime took over in
1937. While in the middle of his designs, Zuse discovered
that the control function of these processes could be reduced down to binary, or arithmetic.
This lead Zuse to the realization that he could design a mechanical device that could be rearranged in order to solve
any number of problems, or what is now referred to as the
universal machine. Like an app on a cellphone. We have
games, movies, audio, cameras, and most forms of communication. But Zuse was not the first to propose this theory.
Alan M. Turing took it in the opposite direction. Instead of
putting paper into a machine, he put a machine onto paper.
Though Charles Babbage published a manifesto as many as
fifty years before Zuse and Turing, many considered his idea
flawed, as he never completed a programmable machine.
He may have simply been too far ahead of his time— it is
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impossible to guess the social influences
that affected his work, or if things would
have turned out differently if they had.
However, it is important to note, and to
disagree with Ceruzzi on this point, that
a contemporary of Babbage’s was Ada
Lovelace. Also known as Ada Augusta,
she was most widely known for her work
on Babbage’s earliest general-purpose
computer, or the Analytical Engine. She
wrote what is described and recognized
as the first algorithm written specifically
to be carried out by a machine, almost a
hundred years before that machine came
into being. Ceruzzi describes it as ‘giving
Augusta too much credit’, but in a field
that is so heavily influenced by male history, it is important to remember the
roots. (Ceruzzi, 28)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
Documentary about Ada Lovelace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBbVbqRvqTM
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A History of
Writing
Steven Fischer
Fischer begins by defining which traits classifies writing in a language as ‘complete writing’. Most early examples meet some, but not all criteria: communication, leaving identifiable marks, or an arrangement
of significant sounds. These systems can be called
‘writing’ in the broadest sense. The first example of
a ‘complete’ writing system emerges in Sumer
around 3000 BCE.
The question then becomes, how did a complete
writing structure evolve? It certainly did not happen
all at once, and there is evidence to suggest that in
one way or another, human beings have been making marks as a system of communication for approximately 100,000 years. (Fischer 13) But, again, these
were not complete systems of writing, but still had
their functionality.
Moving from simple things like dots, to knot
recording-keeping, moving forward to notches—
representing ‘idea transition’ and some of the earliest non-audible signs, finally moving on to pictography and the earliest idea of what our society now describes as ‘ancient text’. At some point during this
period, there must have been an agreement in society, as that is how any knowledge passes between
one another, and also passed on. Something that described ‘this symbol means this number, this different symbol means this number’. Was it social necessity? Marking possession?
Though language had existed in one form of another
for thousands of years, Sumer was the one that accomplished all three criteria. It may have come
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about from a need to record and catalog
and sort, but there is evidence to suggest
that it came about suddenly. It perhaps
wasn’t the most perfect version of a ‘complete writing’ system, but it spread far
enough to take root in other cultures, and
spread out from there.
https://rhollick.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/bookrolls/
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Code of Hammurabi, one of the first examples of a ‘complete’ language.
https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/HAMMURABI-S-LAWS-Hammurabi-andHis-Code-of-Laws
5
http://www.gps4us.com/news/post/New-generation-of-robotic-assembly-lines-to-help-re-train-and-re-focus-the-workers-of-electronics-indu
stry-20110816.aspx
What is
Technology?
Kline
Kline begins by questioning the true definition of Technology. What is it? Is it the tool we used? Is it the process of
making these tools, what Kline refers to as a ‘sociotechnical
system of manufacture’? Does technology include the
screws and bolts of an object and all it’s particular parts? Is
it the information, the skills, the assembly line of making
this object? Is it all of these things combined to create
something that extend human capabilities, a ‘sociotechnical
system of use’?
This theory could be applied to almost anything. The history of the bike, a camera, a vaccine, each can be defined as
a ‘technology’. If a tool is defined as something that doesn’t
occur naturally, then any of these items would be classified
as a tool.
The ‘sociotechnical system of manufacture’ has a more specific connotation. It refers to every single element con-
6
tained in within the manufacture of a vaccine. Even, theoretically, the manufacture
of the machines themselves and spirals outward. The resources needed to make the
machines. All of these are included not
only within the ‘tools’ themselves, but in
the sociotechnical system of manufacture
of a vaccine.
But even still, the knowledge itself, or
know-how, of how to use every individual
part of this process is considered technology. Even the parts that, by themselves,
would be labeled as a tool, or an artifact.
In the case of the bike, the breaking
mechanism would be considered a tool itself, and the methodology of how to make
the breaking mechanism would also be
know-how. For every piece that connects
with another piece, those pieces connect
with even more.
Even more still, the sociotechnical system
of use, Kline defines it as ‘what we do with
something after we have created it’. How
is it combined with other parts to do something else that the human cannot?
How It’s Made Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvkHbGo-OKc
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4
http://engineeringsport.co.uk/2012/07/16/the-history-of-the-bicycle/
Social
Construction
of Facts and
Artefacts
Pinch and Bijker
8
Pinch and Bijker’s, on the other hand, takes an opposite
stance. That humans have an influence on technology on
the other side of the spectrum in their Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts.. Within this, they also claim
that the social group has an influence on the solution to
problems. They maintain that both of these fields, technology and the study of science can benefit from one another.
They use the development of the bicycle as an example, as
to how the scientific community and the technologic community influence each other — the artifact, the bicycle,
may not have developed as it did, had women started to recognize the bicycle as a ‘respectable’ means of leisurely
travel. Pinch and Bijker stress the relevance between a social group and the problem and solutions. Different groups
have different problems, leading to different designs. Some
versions are successful and
However, as for the relationship between
artefacts and social groups, each group will
have a differing response to an artefact,
aside from the users and the producers.
This is sometimes also known as Interpretive Flexibility. http://www.snipview.com/q/History%20of%20th
e%20bicycle
9
Sometimes there are relevant groups who
are neither users, nor producers of the
technology, for example, journalists, politicians, and civil organizations. Another instance of this happening, might be an artefact working, but not being used for it’s intended purpose.
10
http://www.wittybadger.com/top-movies-featuring-artificial-intelligence/
ManComputer
Symbiosis
Licklider
Licklider’s description of symbiotic relationships between
people and machines paints a picture of some far-off future
wherein a person and a computer are part of the same processes, almost on the same assembly line of an action. But,
regardless, Licklider’s thoughts were published in the early
1960s. Computers, at the time, still took up the space of a
moderately sized room.
However, Licklider describes the difference between what
he refers to as the “difference between mechanically extended man and artificial intelligence”. (Licklider 2) A true
symbiotic relationship would be both man and machine giving and receiving equal parts from the partnership, instead
of a man imputing codes and commands and the criterion.
While we haven’t yet achieved what Licklider defined as
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symbiosis, mostly due to the different
rates in which we process information,
there isn’t much that we have accomplished in the last fifty or so years that was
not made possible entirely because of technology.
While we have reached the stage of ‘mechanically extended man’, there is evidence
to suggest that now we have reached the
stage of ‘self augmentation’. We have technology that replaces the delicate workings
of the inner ear, allowing those that have
lost or were never born with hearing to
hear in a somewhat limited, mechanical
sense. We have pacemakers, regulating
heart rates. We have the first prototypes of
mechanical prosthesis coming out in regular intervals. In simpler terms, we are now
extending our own capabilities through
our relationship with the tools we have developed.
The other hand of this, as Licklider describes, is coming up with a single language
that both man and machine can utilize at
roughly the same speed. We have come a
bit closer to this goal, but it still facilitates
this image that English is the main language of computing in a very westernized
view of the world.
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Print
Culture:
Other than a
Codex
Gitelman
Gitelman credits the term ‘print culture’ to being coined by
Marshall McLuhan, but states that the term needs to be narrowed down. As it stands now, print culture refers to anything that now manifests in the physical space instead of
the digital one, but Gitelman suggests that ‘print culture—
whatever else it may or may not be— should embrace the
customs and practices that evolved within Western printing
establishments (…)’ (Gitelman 186)
The Gutenberg letterpress changed language and the history of language as we knew it— not only did it allow for
uniformity, it decreased the manufacturing cost of books
and increased the speed in which they could be made. This
had a profound effect on literacy, as before, reading was for
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either the clergy, or the very, very rich. After the letterpress, most middle-class, and
some lower class, families had access.
And like the letterpress, the digital age has
had just as much, if not more influence on
our social functions as the printing age.
The rules and regulations of the printing
age, such as copyright, are struggling to
keep up with how fast the digital age is affecting change. For anything produced digitally, the copyright laws of the mid 1970s
are outdated and no longer apply for how
much everything is simply a rehash or a
new take on something older. There’s
hardly anything that is created today that
is completely original.
Pacific Rim Remix
https://soundcloud.com/ajurika/pacific-rim-m
ain-theme-remix
Header Image
14
http://www.carto.net/neumann/photographs/2006/fribourg_2006_04/26_historic_l
etterpress_printing_machine.html
https://elenakarakizis.wordpress.com/
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Technological
Determinism
Chandler
Chandler describes a technological determinist as someone
that believes ‘technology drives social change’. Hard technological determinism is the belief that it must be one way or
the other, technology driving social change, or social change
driving technology, or that we organize ourselves to respond
to the demands of technology, while soft technological determinism is a more passive view on the subject. But both
remain reductionist theories.
Reductionism, Chandler says, ‘aims to reduce a complex
whole to the effects of one part upon another part’. (Chandler) Reductionism contrasts with holism, but on the whole
reductionism isn’t a good way to describe complicated social phenomena. All of these theories must reduce complex
facts to suit their evidence, and not finding theories for
their facts.
Even further, Technological Autonomy is the belief that
technology exists ‘outside’ of society, in an external way, and
functions independently, self-propelling and expanding
force outside of human control. (Chandler)
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Regardless, technological determinism is a
gray area and impossible to prove true or
false. Can we claim that a social push can’t
influence technological developments? No,
and likewise it is impossible to deny or confirm that a technological advancement
can’t push for social change. If anything
were true, it would be that each is a response of the other. Technological developments could no more independently create
social change than the moon could yank
the sun up every morning.
10 technologies that will change the world:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMymFYJWW5M
16
http://www.wikiart.org/en/sir-lawrence-alma-tadema/a-reading-from-homer-1885
8
Bookrolls as
Media
Johnson
17
William A. Johnson describes the beginning of bookrolls,
made of papyrus, were what we would consider today as the
equivalent of a book. What was commonly thought of as a
‘book’, they referred to as a ‘codex’. However, the Greek
standard of writing was significantly different from ours.
There were no paragraphs, though there was an idea of a period, or an end of a thought, and very little punctuation.
There is evidence to suggest that the Greeks and Romans
themselves did make punctuation marks, or notes, for lack
of a better word, but when scribes replicated the works,
these marks were left out. This could be for several different reasons. It could have had a connotation of passing
along a test cheat-sheet to a new group of students behind
the teacher’s back. It could have been simply a matter of
pride, of working out the difficult system alone. It could
have been because language at the time still had a very auditory element to it— even if the language was a uniform one,
education would have been limited to the very rich and
privileged. Or, language was something that was meant to
be done on a social level.
Of course, hard evidence of any such theory has been lost. While we do have bits
and tidbits of information on non-formal
Greek and Roman writing, the artifacts
that have survived were more formal.
There is some evidence to suggest that
reading would have been a social activity,
even the way in which language was
learned at the time. It is the same now, you
begin by having someone read to you, and
then you attempt to read and are either reaffirmed or corrected, and then you start
reading privately.
It is worth noting that, when Pompeii was
fully excavated, they discovered hundreds
of graffiti items on the walls of the buildings. It puts a certain perspective on the
formality of the Greek’s language. Much
like the Egyptians, writing was first and
foremost created for easier communications, not just simply for the privileged minority.
But perhaps this social aspect was also a
part of this learning process. A debate, or a
fortiori, over the correct pronunciation or
correct meaning of a passage would have
allowed all members of the group to add
more understanding to the content. And
each man would go back to his social circles, his friends, his family, his household,
and passed on this knowledge even further.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompeii-graffiti.jpg
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A fortiori
An a fortiori argument draws upon existing confidence in a propositio
in favor of a second proposition that is held to be implicit in the first.
ond proposition may be considered "weaker," and therefore the arguer
"stronger" proposition to support it.
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Index
Find Term
Chapter 8 - Bookrolls as Media
Ada Lovelace
an English mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on C
bage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Eng
notes are recognized as the first algorithm intended to be carried out b
chine. Often described as the world’s first computer programmer.
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Algorithm
a procedure or formula for solving a problem. Related Glossary Terms
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Artefact
something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that is
rally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or investigative p
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Artifact
a tool, or invention
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Artificial intelligence
is the intelligence exhibited by machines or software. It is an academic
study which studies the goal of creating intelligence.
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Binary
In mathematics and digital electronics, a binary number is a number
in the binary numeral system, or base-2 numeral system, which repre
meric values using two different symbols: typically 0 (zero) and 1 (one)
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Bookrolls
what the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans preferred to use as a writing
They were read side to side, not bottom to top.
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Codex
a book made up of a number of sheets of paper, vellum, papyrus, or sim
hand-written content.
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Copyright
a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of a
work exclusive rights to its use and distribution, usually for a limited t
the intention of enabling the creator (e.g. the photographer of a photo
the author of a book) to receive compensation for their intellectual eff
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Digital Age
a period in human history defined by the shift from traditional medium
economy based on information computerization.
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Hard Technological Determinists
the view of technological determinism that suggests that this theory m
tion one way or another. Society shifts technology, or technology shift
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Interpretive Flexibility
means that each technological artifact has different meanings and inte
tions for various groups.
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Know-how
The information, skills, processes, and procedures for accomplishing t
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Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse — His greatest achievement was the world’s first program
computer. Thanks to this machine and its predecessors, Zuse has often
garded as the inventor of the modern computer.
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Letterpress
is a technique of relief printing using a printing press. A worker compo
locks movable type into the bed of a press, inks it, and presses paper a
transfer the ink from the type which creates an impression on the pap
veloped by Johannes Gutenberg.
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Marshall McLuhan
was a Canadian philosopher of communication theory and a public int
His work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media th
well as having practical applications in the advertising and television in
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Methodology
is the systematic, theoretical analysis of the methods applied to a field
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Papyrus
a thin paper-like material made from the pith of the papyrus plant
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Print Culture
embodies all forms of printed text and other printed forms of visual co
tion.
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Producer
Those that create an object and design it specifically for the user.
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Prosthesis
a (usually) mechanical replacement for a lost or injured body part. Mo
monly a limb.
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Punctuation
general rules used to mark sentence structure, a separation of ideas, di
people speaking, or a break in a line of thought
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Reductionism
the act of simplifying a complex action to a simpler level, particularly
then proves the theory true. An example: an argument can be made th
logical Determinism is a reductionist theory.
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Self-augmentation
to modify, to enhance, to make better.
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Social groups
A group connected by common status and goals.
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Sociotechnical system of manufacture
refers to every single part involved in the manufacture of a tool or tech
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Soft Technological Determinism
the philosophy that while society and technology do indeed change on
it is a mutual change that happens simultaneously.
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Strong Technological Determinism
the view of technological determinism that suggests that this theory m
tion one way or another. Society shifts technology, or technology shift
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Symbiosis
interaction between two different organisms living in close proximity.
fers to a relationship that is mutually beneficial to both parties.
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Technological Autonomy
technology exists outside of society. Rather than being the product, as
terminism, technology is self-propelling and self-generating.
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Technological Determinism
a reductionist theory that presumes that a society's technology drives
opment of its social structure and cultural values.
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Technology
in the broadest sense, describes things, actions, processes, methods an
It also represents progress in any field, or can also mean anything not
occurring in nature.
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Index
Find Term
Chapter 3 - What is Technology?
Chapter 3 - What is Technology?
Chapter 3 - What is Technology?
Chapter 3 - What is Technology?
Chapter 4 - Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts
Chapter 4 - Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts
Chapter 4 - Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts
Chapter 5 - Man-Computer Symbiosis
Chapter 5 - Man-Computer Symbiosis
Chapter 7 - Technological Determinism
Universal Machine
A specific layout of machinery that allows the individual parts to be re
whichever way is needed.
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User
A person that an object is designed for, but can often have little to kno
ence
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