Adam Gerber, PhD

Technology and Human Values

COURSE DESCRIPTION The purpose of technology is to control the chaos of nature, buffer us from nature’s unpleasantness, and harness nature to the service of humankind. Still withstanding technology’s practically unlimited potential, technological progress has not been realized without attendant costs. The consequences of technology affect the health and well-being of everyone. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, genetically modified food, privacy, pollution and sprawl are just some of the technological issues with which we are all confronted on a daily basis. Throughout the course, students will be challenged to prioritize means and ends, where technology may be considered the means and human values, the ends. Decisions of trade-off between environmental preservation, economic well-being, health, community and so on, inevitably involve value choices. The source of human values vis-à-vis technology will be the focus of lessons, readings, videos, papers, group discussions and an individualized research project in this course.

Because this is a seminar, all students will be expected not only to read the assignments, but also to come to class prepared to discuss the readings and issues at hand. The instructor will be responsible for facilitating and guiding deliberations, however, students will be required to participate, and a major portion of the grade will reflect class participation. You are expected to produce 2500 word term paper on a topic relevant to the course that will count 30% of the final grade.

MATERIALS 1 Robert C. Scharff and

Val Dusek Philosophy ofTechnology: The TechnologicalCondition

Cource textbook This anthology brings together a collection of both influential historical and contemporary essays on the nature of technology and its relation to humanity. It situates technology in the familiar context of ethical, political,aesthetic, and engineering concerns, but also thoroughly examine historical, metaphysical, and epistemological issues. The volume begins with historical readings on knowledge and its applications that have laid the foundation for contemporary writings on the philosophy of technology. Contemporary essays then critically assess previous assumptions about science and discuss the relation between science and technology and philosophy’s treatment of both. The second half of the volume focuses on Heidegger’s writings on technology, on the relationship between technology and the natural world, and on the issues that arise as technology becomes an integral part of our society. Excerpt above from author.

2 Gerber, Adam Course packet

Compilation of text materials (also available online)

I will supplement the text readings with excerpts from various sources relevant to the course which will be available as a printed course packet, and as pdf’s posted to password-protected online site.

Study of foetus in utero (part of a series of annotated illustrations) -- Leonardo da Vinci

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MATERIALS (continued)3 Quinn, Daniel Ishmael

1995Paperback fiction Ishmael is an allegorical fiction narrated by a captive gorilla. Quinn’s provokes

the protagonist [and the reader] to re-examine the ideologies which have led humankind to what he believes is ecological crisis.

4 Reggio, Godfrey, Koyanisqaatsi

Video Godfrey Reggio’s Koyanisqaatsi is a feature length film with no actors or dialogue. Rather it’s a collection of sequences juxtaposing nature and the built environment accompanied by a brilliant Phillip Glass score. The film begins with a saturn-class rocket luanch and ends with a fiery airborne explosion--a suble reference to Icarus’ perilous flight.

5 Else, Jon The Day after Trinity

Video The Day after Trinity documents the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan project. The film exposes the ethical dilemnas attending the construction of an atomic bomb.

COURSE OBJECTIVES Students will learn to think critically about a broad range of issues and positions. Each student will have reached not only a general understanding of the issues at stake, but also will have clarified his or her own personal position regarding technology and technological development.

This course is not a soapbox for radical environmentalism or cyber-libertarianism, nor does it have any particular political agenda. The central course objectives are; (1) to challenge students to re-evaluate humankind’s relationship with nature, (2) explore how that relationship is manifest in the built environment and (3) mediated through technology. Students will be presented with various, often conflicting viewpoints, and use a dialectical process to arrive at their own conclusions.

Throughout the course, we will explore the special, though not always healthy relationship between humankind and his tools. We will read various authors who have attempted to deconstruct this special relationship in order to demonstrate how we have been led to the brink of ecological collapse, according to some, and to the apex of enlightenment, according to others.

UNIT 1: ENLIGTENMENT OPTIMISM The ideological conditions for technological optimism were centuries in the making. However, for the purposes of this course, it suffices to return to the Scientific Revolution to trace back this ideological thread. The quest for pure rationality began in earnest with Frances Bacon’s scientific method. Bacon published a utopian novel in 1626 called New Atlantis which describes a civilization located somewhere off the western coast of America called Bensalem. The fictitious Bensalem was a wealthy state and the elite there attend a University called Salomon’s House. Salomon’s House is essentially a description of a modern

In this course, we will use a dialecti-cal approach, a method of discovery that systematically weighs contradic-tory facts or ideas with a view to the resolution of their real or apparent contradictions. William Blake put it nicely, “Without contraries there is no progression. Attraction and repulsion, reason and energy, love and hate, are necessary to human existence.”

Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution can be said to being at around 1543 with the pub-lication of both Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of Heaveanly Spheres and Vesalius’ On the Fabric of the Human Body and extends into the early 19th century, though the 16th and 17th centuries were the most im-portant.

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research University—a place at which scientific research is carried out methodically and systematically for the benefit of society, according to the logical positivism of Bacon’s Scientific Method. The physics of Isaac Newton also had a formative impact on the Western scientific worldview. The methodology, values and technology to which Newtonian physics gave rise vastly influenced Western civilization – Locke’s natural law, Smith’s invisible hand, Marx’s economic determinism, all, to some extent, owed their inspiration to Newtonian physical theory.

If Rationalism began with Bacon and Newton during the Scientific Revolution, it wasn’t until the 18th century Enlightenment that it was fully articulated, and contemporary optimistic attitudes towards technology can trace their roots to the Enlightenment. The period of the Enlightenment (18th century) precipitated the American, French and Industrial revolutions and can be considered the beginning of the late modern period, of which we are a part. Enlightenment thinkers were rationalists, who championed individual rights, scientific reason, and religious tolerance. Many of America’s founding fathers were active in the Enlightenment project and indeed, Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is considered one of the finest examples of Enlightenment doctrine ever produced. Western civilization, and in particular, the United States, is still enacting an Enlightenment agenda, which is characterized by, among other things, an unwavering faith in scientific and technological progress.

Early Optimism -------------------------------------In Ancient times, attitudes towards technology tended to be skeptical and technology’s role in economic development was not fully appreciated. Throughout the middle ages, technological development was slow, and it wasn’t until the Renaissance and particularly the age of European martime explo ration, that the West began to make significant strides in tech nological development. With these developments, attitudes towards technology also changed. By the time the Enlightenment was in full swing [late 18th cen-tury,] technology was beyond the pale of criticism, and from then on out, the burden of proof would shift from those who favor techno logical develop-ment to those who oppose it.

............................................... assigned textsda Vinci, Leonardo The Notebooks on Leonardo da Vinci circa 1500: This richly illustrated secondary source reveals the full range of Leonardo’s versatile genius. Notebooks includes da Vinci’s writings on painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, mining, inventions, and music.

Bacon, Francis Novum Organum and New Atlantis, Selected Readings 1620: Francis Bacon was an English gentleman (alive in the 17th century) whose legacy is the scientific method. Though Bacon predated the Enlightenment (18th century,) his ideas became central to the Enlightenment project. Some critics blame Bacon for heralding the subjugation of nature, and some feminists criticize Bacon for being chauvinistic and suggest that Bacon’s articulation of the scientific method advocates the metaphorical rape of nature. Nevertheless, Bacon is considered the father of modern science, and one of the most influential natural philosophers.

Rationalism Rationalism refers to any view or pro-cess which relies upon deductive and quantifiable inputs. The Enlightenment quest for Natural Law was to some ex-tent, the search for pure Rationalism. Human emotion and intuition, consid-ered a corrupting force, were system-atically discarded.

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Diderot, Denis L’Encyclopédie Selected Readings 1751-1772 Denis Diderot was a French philosophe of the Enlightenment and the editor of the ambitious Encyclopédie: ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. [Encyclopedia: or rational dictionary of science and technology.] “Le but d’une encyclopédie est de rassembler les connaissances éparses sur la surface de la terre; d’en exposer le système général aux hommes avec qui nous vivons, et de le transmettre aux hommes qui viendront après nous; afin que les travaux des siècles passés n’aient pas été inutiles pour les siècles qui succèderont.... [.The goal of the Encyclopedia project is to encapsulate all the knowledge of the world, and expose its general pattern to current and future generations, so that the work of past generations will not be lost....]

Contemporary Optimism ----------------------Contemporary optimism concerning technology takes many forms - from those who believe in a technological fix to humanity’s problems to the uto-pian visions of futurists. A common thread among technology optimists is that they often subscribe to the anthropological definition of technology which suggests that toolmaking is the defining characteristic of our species. This anthropological definition of technology is also known as homo faber, and those who subscribe to it are know as fabers. In this view, technology is rarely dehumanizing, and furthermore, since man is a part of nature and technology is the nature of man, technology is natural. As we shall see, the crux of the faber debate is whether humans exist with, or apart from the wilderness of nature.

............................................... assigned textsGilder, George Microcosm Selected readings 1991: George Gilder is a prominent champion of technology and former speech writer for president Reagan. Gilder says this; “The central event of the twentieth century is the overthrow of matter. In technology, economics and the politics of nations, wealth in the form of physical resources is steadily declining in value and significance. The powers of mind are everywhere ascendant over the brute force of things...Computer software, a pure product of mind, is the chief source of added value in world commerce. The global network of telecommunications carries more valuable goods than all the world’s supertankers. Today, wealth comes not to the rules of slave labour, but to the liberators of human creativity, not to the conquerors of land, but to the emancipators of mind.” Like Daniel Bell before him, Gilder heralds the post-industrial age and suggests that wealth can be created with few or no physical inputs - a compelling argument indeed for those concerned with physical resource depletion.

Simon, Julian Ultimate Resource 1998: Economics professor Julian Simon argues that technology will be our salvation, as it will allow humankind to transcend any current or future resource issue or population problem. The late professor Simon makes the case for generous productivity gains resulting from technology. According to Simon, productivity gains will always keep humankind ahead of the resource curve, and out of trouble. As with Gilder, the critical assumption upon which Simon’s argument rests is the oft-ignored productivity gains resulting from technological progress.

Homo Faber Homo Faber means man the toolmaker in latin and was originally coined by Hannah Arendt and subsequently the title of a book by Max Frisch. Ben-jamin Franklin wrote, “man is a tool-making animal” which Karl Marx later cited in Das Kapital.

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UNIT 2: ROMANTIC UNEASINESS Romanticism and its complement, Rationalism share many fundamental values. Both are inspired by the Renaissance and classical Greco-Roman culture; both are “humanist” in their high estimation of human agency; and both recognize the importance of natural forces as opposed to super-natural ones. Nevertheless, the divergence between these two temperaments is rather profound and ultimately boils down to how one views the proper relationship between nature and humankind. While the Romantic considers himself an integral part of the natural order, the Rationalist sees himself as its master. While the Romantic seeks a physical and spiritual union with the natural world, the Rationalist seeks to master and transcend the constraints of nature through science and technology. The Rationalist believes that human reason and technology can solve any problem. The Romantic, on the other hand, puts his faith in the interconnected, ageless wisdom of nature, and believes that there will always be natural mysteries which shall forever remain veiled to the probes of human empiricism. For the Romantic, attempting to assume the role of Nature is the ultimate transgression.

The early Romantics such as Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstien, and the British poet William Blake, rebelled against the dehumanizing forces of industrial development and waxed prophetic about the unintended consequences of technology. In the Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas describes the struggle between Rationalism and Romanticism quite well, “In contrast with the spirit of the Enlightenment, the Romantic vision perceived the world as a unitary organism rather than an atomistic machine, exalted the ineffability of inspiration rather than the enlightenment of reason, and affirmed the inexhaustible drama of human life rather than the calm predictability of static abstractions. Whereas the Enlightenment temperament’s high valuation of man rested on his unequalled rational intellect and its power to comprehend and exploit the laws of nature, the Romantic valued man rather for his imaginative and spiritual aspirations, his emotional depths, his artistic creativity and powers of individual self-expression and self-creation.” (Tarnas 1991) Unlike the Enlightenment optimists who are often passionate fabers, Romantic pessimists frequently subscribe to the instrumental definition of technology which suggests that technology is simply a means to an end.

Noble Savage ----------------------------------------A central figure in the Romantic movement was Jean- Jacques Rousseau [1712-1778.] Rousseau articulated the idea that primitive humans, to whom he referred as Noble Savages, are more virtuous than civilized humans, since they are supposedly innocent of the corrupting forces which ani-mate much of ‘civilized’ life such as; greed, gluttony, strife, etc. Of course, Rousseau had never travelled outside of Europe, and his assertions about

William Blake. The Book of Urizen Lambeth: Printed by W. Blake, 1794

Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, are not as impor-tant as a wild and healthy planet. I know social scientists who remind me that people are part of nature, but it isn’t true. Somewhere along the line -- at about a million years ago, maybe half that - - we quit the contract and became a cancer. We have become a plague upon ourselves and upon the Earth. It is cosmically unlikely that the de-veloped world will choose to end its orgy of fossil-energy consump-tion, and the Third World its sui-cidal consumption of landscape. Until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature, some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along.” David M. Graber

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the supposed peaceful and abundant lives of primitive peoples were based upon second-hand accounts, many of which were colored in hues of pastel paradise. Rousseau was also the first to explicitly identify the agricultural revolution as a seminal technological event in the history of humankind -- the time at which social cohesion and equality among people subsequently disintegrated, and the point-of-no-return for those civilizations who adopted this mode of subsistence. Contemporary critics of technology who romanti-cize the lives of native Americans or other preindustrial peoples are borrow-ing a page from Rousseau. Proponents of the Noble Savage critique make a big distinction between the natural and artificial worlds and can therefore be considered instrumentalists with regards to technology.

............................................... assigned textsRousseau, Jean-Jacques Discourse on the Inequalities of Men 1754 & Social Contract 1762 In these essays, Rousseau puts forth his now famous theory that human beings are essentially good and equal in the state of nature, but have become corrupted by the introduction of property, agriculture, science, and commerce.

White, Lynn Jr. On The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis 1967: The publication of Lynn White’s essay, ’On the Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis’ caused a great stir in academic circles and among the Christian theological community. White challenged the role of Christianity in the context of ecology and was one of the first to locate the source of ecological crisis in religious ideology. White also points out the strong subject/object dichotomy between ruler and ruled, inherent in the monotheistic traditions which he suggests leads to anthropocentrism and ultimately to neglect of the physical environment. White said this, “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one. . . . We shall continue to have a worsening ecologic crisis until we reject the Christian axiom that nature has no reason for existence save to serve man. . . . Since the roots of our trouble are so largely religious, the remedy must also be essentially religious, whether we call it that or not. We must rethink and refeel our destiny.” White and others make a compelling, albeit sometimes misanthropic case.

Quinn, Daniel Ishmael: 1995: Ishmael is an allegorical fiction narrated by a captive gorilla. Quinn’s fiction provokes the protagonist [and the reader] to re-examine the ideologies which have led humankind to ecological crisis, according to Quinn. For a more detailed description, see appendix below.

Anonymous, Genesis circa 4500bc: To better understand the points made by Rousseau, Quinn and others concerning the agricultural revolution, we’ll explore Western Civilization’s creation myth as expressed in the Old Testament paying particular attention to Cain and Abel, as well as the symbolism cited by Quinn and others in the narrative of Genesis.

Kaczynski, Theodore 1995 Industrial Society and Its Future aka The Unabomber Manifesto. Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber, is an American anarchist best known for his campaign of mail bombings. Kaczynski became infamous for having sent bombs to several universities and airlines from the late 1970s through early 1990s, killing three and wounding 23. In Industrial Society and Its Future (commonly called the “Unabomber Manifesto”) he argued that his actions were a necessary (although extreme) ruse by which to attract attention to what he believed were the dangers of modern technology. (quoted from wiki)

Feminism ----------------------------------------------Feminists have long argued that technology, as it is currently envisioned and implemented, is an instrument of both male aggression and female subjugation.

Agricultural Revolution The Agricultural Revolution is consid-ered by many to be the seminal techno-logical event in the history of human-kind. In this course we will explore the impact of the agricultural revolution, as well as other technological revolu-tions on civilization.

Albrecht Durur, Eve takes the fruit from the serpent as Adam luches towards his lover.

“You ask me to plow the ground.Shall I take a knife and tear away mother’s bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bo-som to rest. You ask me to dig for stone. Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I can not enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men, but how dare I cut off my mother’s hair.” Chief Smo-halla – American Indian Wanapum Tribe

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Many Feminists argue that the we live in a world where male aggression has run amok, unchecked by the nurturing values of females, and that our techno-logical problems can be traced to the this imbalance.

To support these claims, Feminists often cite gross over-allocation of resources to such things as the technology of warfare or men.s sporting events. Those in the Noble Savage camp believe that our technological problems stem from anthropocentrism, while those in the feminist camp believe that our techno-logical problems stem from androcentrism.

............................................... assigned textsMarcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization 1960: In this selection, Marcuse analyzes civilization with a particularly Freudian perspective. The Freudian dialectic is composed of two opposing yet balanced instinctual human forces, constructive and destructive. Labour and the making of labor saving machines (technology) are not instinctual, and therefore they must borrow their energy from the libido (constructive force.) The weakened constructive force then is unable to effectively .bind. the destructive force and so civilization is consumed by destruction.

Firestone, Shulamith The Dialectic of Sex 1970: Firestone approaches the development of human civilization with a dialectic that cleaves along gender lines. According to Firestone, culture has evolved historically via two distinct modes: (1) The Aesthetic Mode and (2) the Technological Mode. The Aesthetic mode relies upon imagination and intuition. It is an active search for an alternate or ideal reality. Art and poetry are associated with this feminine mode. The Technological Mode is based on experimentation and the scientific method. Mastery of nature is the goal of this masculine mode. According to Firestone, the masculine, Technological Mode is currently ascendant and threatening the very survival of civilization.

Merchant, Carolyn The Death of Nature .Mining the Earth’s Womb. 1990: Merchant is concerned with how humankind perceives nature. She laments the transition in Western culture from the Pagan view of .Mother Earth. to the modern (post-Enlightenment) view of nature as inanimate and barren. Merchant is especially concerned to show how these two perceptions encourage and justify radically different sorts of human behaviour towards nature.

Ecology Movement -------------------------------The ecology or environmental movement had emerged as a popular grass-roots political movement in the 1960s with the publication of Rachel Car-son’s book, Silent Spring and to a lesser extent with the publication of The Limits to Growth which summarized The Club of Rome’s Malthusian hy-pothesis regarding economic development. Those in the ecology movement, also called environmentalists, are concerned with the detrimental effects of modern industrial technology and processes on the environment.Environmentalists are quick to point out the diminishing returns of technol-ogy and the destruction wrought by industrial processes on the environment and human habitats. Those who seek to reform the industrial model within the restraints of the dominant social paradigm, are considered reform ecolo-gists. Those who seek wholesale change of the dominant social paradigm are considered deep ecologists.

............................................... assigned textsCarson, Rachel Silent Spring Selected passages 1962. No other book has contributed more to environmental consciousness in America than Silent Spring. Considered by

Anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism means human-cen-teredness and is often used in the pjo-rative to critique an ideology or culture which disregards the natural environ-ment.

Androcentricsm Androcentrism means man-centered-ness and is often used in the pjorative to critique an ideology or culture which is dominated by male values, and thus subjugates female values.

Malthusian Thomas Malthus [1766-1834] was an English economist known for his fore-casts concerning population growth vis-à-vis the food supply. Malthus predicted that food supply (which was growing linearly) would be insufficient to meet the demands of an expoentially expanding population, and would lthus ead to an overshoot and collapse

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many to be among the most influential book ever, Silent Spring inspired a generation of environmental activists. In Silent Spring, Carson points to the environmental dangers of indiscriminate pesticide use.

Devall, Bill The Deep Ecology Movement 1980: Deep ecology attempts to deconstruct the dominant social paradigm in order to understand the ideological source of the environmental crisis. By providing an alternate vision of human success, deep ecologists hope to win the hearts and minds of the ecologically misguided.

Jackson, Tim Material Concerns 1996 In Material Concerns, Jackson shows how the current industrial economy, which requires massive material inputs most often from virgin sources, is unsustainable. Jackson then goes on to describe an economic model that he calls the service economy, which is fundamentally different in both how it creates wealth and how it measures it.

UNIT 3: PHENOMENOLOGY Technological ubiquity means that much of our everyday experience is mediated by technology. Whether talking on a cell phone or driving a car, technology has decoupled us from each other, and from our natural environment. The technophilia that is characteristic of Western hegemony stands in stark contrast to the attitudes of certain folk cultures like the Amish or the Shakers. The Amish, for example, believe that excessive technology demotes social harmony and therefore take a more discretionary view towards it. Many of the social issues related to technology, and indeed the discipline of philosophy of technology itself, are rooted in phenomenology. The paradoxical nature of technology is such that the benefits derived from the use of technology come at a social cost. This unit will explore the social costs of technology insofar as technology modifies (and often attenuates) individual and social experience.

Technological Scale------------------This section will explore the affect of technological scale on human experience, and the ideas which promote large vs. small scale technological solutions to human problems. Though the debate is timeless and dates back to at least Plato, the contem-porary debate will be framed by the work of E. F. Schumacher and particu-larly his book, “Small is beautiful.” Schumacher believed that the scale of technology was too large and that this inappropriate scale was the source of various social and environmental problems. Schumacher calls for a tech-nology that reflects not only the organic world with which it is designed to interact, but the human dimension as well. He argues that technology and economics have too long been in the hands of “experts” who serve only their own narrow interests, especially the desire for growth and a wider domain of influence.

Critics of technology frequently lament the disappearance of the crafts tradition.

Phenomenology Phenomenology is the study of human experience. With respect to the philos-ophy of technology, the most important contributors were; Husserl and Heide-gger. Technology is the focus on many phenomenologists because technology often obviates the need for social con-tact, and modifies, (often attenuating) human experience.

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............................................... assigned textsSchumacher, E.F. Small is Beautiful 1973: Schumacher wrote, “Today we suffer from an almost universal idolatry of Giantism in technological development… Giantism is caused by our desire to control and coordinate reality…Its primary symbol is the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is the mass production and consumption of a large number of goods. It is centralized, capital-intensive production on a large scale. Such large-scale production encourages the exploitation of nature. Mass production is also energy intensive and labor displacing, and it tends to concentrate power and wealth in too few hands. It promotes meaningless labor, meaningless lives, and a loss of faith in ourselves and in others. This fact is sadly ironic since reality is created to manifest meaning and purpose. Thus, meaningless technology distorts human experience.” Schumacher’s appropriate technology movement has intellectual roots in philosophies which advocate a more harmonious human relationship with natural environment, like European Romanticism and American Transcendentalism. These philosophies, particularly Transcendentalism, in turn owe much of their inspiration to Buddhism - and indeed Schumacher is very sympathetic to buddhist values.

Florman, Samuel “Small is dubious” The Existential Pleasures of Engineering 1996: In “Small is Dubious” Florman attacks E. F. Schumacher as being shortsighted in his rejection of technological pluralism. Large technology and small technology can, and in Western industrial societies should, exist side by side. But Florman is even more concerned with the writer’s importation of moral and political values into the technological arena; he argues that decisions about the future of technological development should instead be made on the basis of cost-benefit analyses. Florman argues for a kind of technological Darwinism in which only the fittest technologies survive.

Volunary Simplicty -------------------------------Voluntary Simplicity is a social movement that calls for people to curtail consumption and live a more simple life. At the heart of the simple life is an emphasis on harmonious and ‘purposeful’ living. Richard Gregg, who was a student of Gandhi’s teaching wrote the following about a life of volun-tary simplicity in 1936: “Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose. Of course, as different people have different purposes in life, what is relevant to the purpose of one person might not be relevant to the purpose of another.. The degree of simplification is a matter for each individual to settle for himself “

............................................... assigned textsElgin, Duane Choosing a New Lifeway: Voluntary Simplicity Selected passages 2000: An overview of the shift toward more sustainable and compassionate ways of living. Elgin says, “Simplicity is not about a life of poverty and sacrifice but about a life of purpose and satisfaction. This is important because a sustainable future for the Earth will require much more than a surface change to a different style of life; it requires a deep change to a new way of life.”

Gregg, Richard The Value of Voluntary Simplicity 1936: Quaker, Richard Gregg, published this article that was the original inspiration for Duane Elgin to write his book by the same name in 1981. Gregg was a Harvard graduate and a student of Gandhi’s teachings. In this article, Gregg explores the spiritual, social, and economic reasons for choosing a life path of greater simplicity.

“[The Greeks] were suspicious of technical activity because it repre-sented an aspect of brute force and implied a want of moderation…The rejection of technique was a deliberate, positive activity in-volving self-mastery, recognition of destiny, and the application of a given conception of life. Only the most modest techniques were permitted-those which would re-spond directly to material needs in such a way that these needs did not get the upper hand…This feeling on the part of the Greeks was not a reflection of a primitive man’s fear in the face of something he does not understand… Rather, it was the result, perfectly mastered and measured, of a certain concep-tion of life. It represented an apex of civilization and intelligence.” - Jacques Ellul, quoted from ‘The Technological Society’

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De Graaf, John Affluenza Selected passages 2001: The definition of affluenza, according to de Graaf, Wann, and Naylor, is something akin to “a painful, contagious, socially-transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.” It’s a powerful virus running rampant in our society, infecting our souls, affecting our wallets and financial well-being, and threatening to destroy not only the environment but also our families and communities. Having begun life as two PBS programs coproduced by de Graaf, this book takes a hard look at the symptoms of affluenza, the history of its development into an epidemic, and the options for treatment. In examining this pervasive disease in an age when “the urge to splurge continues to surge,” the first section is the book’s most provocative. According to figures the authors quote and expound upon, Americans each spend more than $21,000 per year on consumer goods, our average rate of saving has fallen from about 10 percent of our income in 1980 to zero in 2000, our credit card indebtedness tripled in the 1990s, more people are filing for bankruptcy each year than graduate from college, and we spend more for trash bags than 90 of the world’s 210 countries spend for everything. “To live, we buy,” explain the authors--everything from food and good sex to religion and recreation--all the while squelching our intrinsic curiosity, self-motivation, and creativity. They offer historical, political, and socioeconomic reasons that affluenza has taken such strong root in our society, and in the final section, offer practical ideas for change. These use the intriguing stories of those who have already opted for simpler living and who are creatively combating the disease, from making simple habit alterations to taking more in-depth environmental considerations, and from living lightly to managing wealth responsibly.

Technology and Community ------------------Technology has the power to both alienate and integrate, though the designs of our technological systems usually lead to the former. Folk cultures like the Amish have long understood the value of community and to protect their communities, the Amish have restricted the use of certain technologies. By fa-cilitating remote communication, information technology paradoxically tends to encourage solitary and antisocial behavior. Nevertheless, online and ever-specialized communities are beginning to form, which often enable and encour-age face-to-face communication. Creating technological systems that are both economically efficient and humane may be our greatest challenge.

............................................... assigned textsHeidegger, Martin The Question Concerning Technology 1954: Heidegger provides one of the most compelling and detailed descriptions of social implications of modern technology. Heidegger is particularly concerned with how technology modifies human experience and he has contributed enormously to the field of phenomenology.

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance First two chapters 1984: Using the motorcycle as a metaphor for technology itself, Pirsig explores the world as it is mediated by technology. For those who wish to ignore technology.s affects on their lives, the mediated world can be profoundly alienating, while for those who understand the machine.s logic, life is decorously enhanced.

Borgmann, Albert .Focal Things and Practices. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life 1987: Borgmann introduces what he calls the device paradigm, in which technological progress increases the availability of a commodity or service, and at the same time pushes the actual device or mechanism into the background. Borgmann is a master of contrasting the disparate experiences that technology, or lack thereof create when accommodating our needs, often preferring the latter. Here he compares the experience of fast food with the experience of hosting a home-cooked meal, .The great meal of the day, be it at noon or in the evening, is a focal event par excellence. It gathers the scattered family around the table. And on the table it gathers the most delectable things nature has brought forth.”

Technology for all its being a practically unlimited capacity will irretrievably empty the lives of those who are resolved to stake everything on their faith in it and it alone.” Jose Ortega y Gasset

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Rheingold, Howard, Look Who’s Talking: 2001: Rheingold investigates the use of information technology in the Amish community. The Amish take a rather discretionary view of technology because they believe that certain technologies undermine their social harmony. Though still controversial, certain information technologies are beginning to make some inroads.

UNIT 4: HUMAN AGENCY Human agency is the ability of humans to influence social change. The prevailing view is that human agency is absent with respect to social change, particularly in the long-term. Indeed, social theorists from Marx to Veblen have been predisposed to the idea that society evolves as it does, regardless of human effort (agency) to change the outcome.

This unit challenges students to answer the following questions regarding technology and human agency: Is social change outside the scope of human control? What role does technology play in social change? Does technology have its own agenda, and if so, what is it? Is social change is manipulated by the beneficent volition of an invisible hand, as Adam Smith’s theory would suggest, or does it issues forth from some mysterious life force that defies the second law of thermodynamics?

How does recent research in Chaos and Complexity inform the debate about agency? These and other questions regarding human agency will be explored in this unit.

Technological Determinism--------Technological Determinism suggests that the material condi-tions with which a civilization evolves are the ultimate drivers of social change. Technological determinism is a particularly seductive idea since the material evidence for this theory is ev-erywhere, and the model has accurately predicted the pattern of historical change. Long wave theory, a particularly compelling case for technological determinism, has recently come into vogue among technol-ogy enthusiasts like the cyber-libertarians who write for Wired magazine. Long wave theorists suggest that economic activity is organized around the exploitation of cheap resources, and punctuated by technological advances breaking through material limitations, only to chase the next exploitable re-source. Examples of previous waves include; the neolithic age, the iron age, the industrial age, the information age, and so on. Long Wave theorists are fond of describing economic anachronisms brought about by technological change and are often passionate fabers. Technological possibilism is offered as an intellectual counter-balance to technological determinism. Technological possibilism suggests that the ma-

Statue in Pyong-yang North Korea glo-rifying communist solidarity; hammer sickle, and paint brush.

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terial conditions in which a civilization finds itself, merely provide some of the parameters for social change, but that social change is not driven exclusively by these conditions. Proponents of technological possibilism factor ideological drivers, as well as material drivers, into the equation of social change.

............................................... assigned textsMarx, Karl and Engles, Frederick The Communist Manifesto 1848: This reading excerpted from the famous Manifesto, Marx and Engels attempt to explain the forces behind the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism. .Navigational achievements, which led to colonization and the development of new markets, gave commerce and industry a new impetus to expand rapidly. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionized industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant Modern Industry, the place of the industrial middle class, by industrial millionaires.... the modern bourgeois. The old feudal modes of agricultural and industrial organization became a handicap in the face of industrial progress and had to be removed. But because of competition the bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production. Thus with the progress of industrial technology, the worker is steadily robbed of his creativity and individuality. He becomes “an appendage of the machine. His conditions of existence in society worsen rather than improve (for with increased competition, the capitalist is led to increase his profits by paying the worker as little as possible). These conditions finally lead the worker to rise against this mode of social organization and introduce a new one (communism). What the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave-diggers.” The communist manifesto describes a world in which labour relations are dictated by material conditions and economic activity is organized around technological stages, specifically; agrarian, industrial and post-industrial stages. Social change is essentially swept along by technological development.

Heilbroner, Robert Do Machines Make History from Technology and Culture 1967: Heilbroner puts forth a theory of social change that, while deterministic in its treatment of technological sequence and labor relations, makes allowances for human agency. So Heilbroner ultimately argues for “soft determinism,” which is the view that technology does indeed drive social change, but that humankind is free to choose among alternative ends.

Mesthene, Emmanuel Environment and Change 1968: According to Mesthene, technological change promotes social instability, but is not necessarily inimical to human values. Still withstanding Mesthene.s technological optimism, he cautions the optimists not to equate change with progress. Mesthene suggests that new technologies, rather than being autonomous, .provide us with new possibilities, but that it is man himself who makes decisions about applications, choosing among alternatives.

Ellul, Jacques The Technological Order 1963: Ellul suggests that technological progress is a blackhole from which we can no longer escape, “there is no possibility of turning back, annulling, or even of arresting technical progress. and he extends the scope of technology to include organizational as well as psycho-sociological techniques. According to Ellul, we live in a technological society whose processes “..result in the modification of men in order to render them happily subordinate to their new environment.

Self-Organizing Systems ----------------------This section provocatively suggests that not only is social change outside the scope of human control (agency,) but that the life force that animates organic life, may one day animate synthetic life - and that these new life forms may not be particularly sympathetic to the interests of their creators. It.s a familiar scenario to fans of science fiction authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury and Philip K. Dick. Screenwriters also love to play on this theme with films like; Blade Runner, The Matrix, 2001 A Space Odyssey

A critical Henry David Thoreau, “We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us!”

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and AI. Whether or not the machines shall rise up against us, is a topic open to debate. We will inform this debate by exploring the dystopian visions of some famous Luddites and science fiction writers. To understand self-orga-nizing (autopoetic) systems, we will delve briefly into recent developments in Chaos and Complexity theory.

............................................... assigned textsJoy, Bill Why the Future Doesn.t Need Us Wired Magazine 1998: Bill Joy is chief scientist at Sun Microsystems. Joy shocked many technology optimists with the publication of this article in Wired magazine, in which he issues an alarming advisory with respect to synthetic life and the fate of the human race. .Biological species almost never survive encounters with superior competitors. Ten million years ago, South and North America were separated by a sunken Panama isthmus. South America, like Australia today, was populated by marsupial mammals, including pouched equivalents of rats, deers, and tigers. When the isthmus connecting North and South America rose, it took only a few thousand years for the northern placental species, with slightly more effective metabolisms and reproductive and nervous systems, to displace and eliminate almost all the southern marsupials. In a completely free marketplace, superior robots would surely affect humans as North American placentals affected South American marsupials (and as humans have affected countless species). Robotic industries would compete vigorously among themselves for matter, energy, and space, incidentally driving their price beyond human reach. Unable to afford the necessities of life, biological humans would be squeezed out of existence.

Vinge, Vernor Technological Singularity 1993: A technological singularity is a predicted point in the development of a civilization at which technological progress accelerates beyond the ability of present-day humans to fully comprehend or predict. The Singularity can more specifically refer to the advent of smarter-than-human intelligence, and the cascading technological progress assumed to follow.

Kurzweil, Ray The Age of Spiritual Machines 2000: Kurzweil makes the case for a singularity in the not too distant future. In this context, a singularity is the point at which rapidly improving technology will exceed the capacity of humans to understand or predict it. Evoking Moore’s law and recent developments in AI, Kurzweil suggests that benevolent computers will be sentient by 2030.

OPTIONAL UNIT: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Information technology has had a particularly profound effect in the economies of the developed world. The course of information technology, particularly in the last 10 years, illustrates Schumpeter’s creative destruction principle quite well—as entire industries have been created and destroyed in its wake.

Our lives have been intractably changed by those technologies on which we depend, and it is hard to imagine doing business in a world without e-mail or cellular phones. The process and productivity gains which were the direct result of investments in technology and training are beginning to pay large dividends, and very few industries have been unaffected by its march. Information technology is the principal source of added-value in the global economy today.

Yet, even with all of its promise, information technology poses several important problems and portends to threaten some of our most sacred values. Resolving these issues will require wide participation. The following unit will introduce you to some of these issues.

Intellectual Property ----------------------------There are few issues in information and media technology that are more controversial than intellectual property rights. Most people recognize the need for intellectual property protection in order to encourage innovation and investment. Nevertheless, there are those who argue that the current in-tellectual property regime is moribund, anachronistic and in desperate need of reform in order to keep pace with corresponding radical changes in the way in which media is produced, distributed and consumed. The Internet is both an opportunity and a threat to media companies wanting to distribute their wares online. In particular, peer-to-peer filesharing and ever-more dense media has forced the industry to evolve rapidly as consum-ers continue to defect. The trend seems likely to favour the ultimate produc-ers and consumers of media at the expense of those in the distribution chain. If we are successful, the Internet holds the promise of widely-distributed, democratic participation in a global economy driven by ideas.

............................................... assigned textsBarlow, John Perry Selling Wine Without Bottles: The Economy of Mind on the Global Net: In this famous essay, Barlow contends that the Internet is such an important paradigm shift that it requires a moratorium on intellectual property until such time that the rules can be sorted out.

Lessig, Lawrence The Laws of Cyberspace: In this article, Lessig contends that the architecture of an information system dictates the privacy therein. He goes on to make interesting comparisons between various political systems and their attitudes towards privacy.

Winner, Langdon Cyber-libertarian Myths and the Prospects for Community 1997: Winner tends to agree with the basic assertions of cyber-libertarianism, however he suggests that such a word would be far too isolating. He suggests that a degree of cyber-

“An invasion of armies can be re-sisted, but not an idea whose time has come. - Victor Hugo

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communitarianism, or common ownership of ideas, may be a step towards a more humane future.

Access, Security and Privacy---------------In order for the Internet to fulfill its promise, it must be ubiquitously and cheaply available. The Internet, unfortunately, is still a tool used largely by the world’s richest. One encouraging trend is the precipitous drop in hardware and telecommunication costs driven by highly competitive and deregulated global markets. Philanthropic groups such as the Gates founda-tion and One-laptop-per-child are currently working to provide inexpensive and reliable Internet access to the world’s poorest people. WiFi is a particu-larly promising and attractive solution because it requires so little hardware investment in the last mile. Furthermore, governments around the world are subsidizing Internet access because they recognize its liberating power, particularly among their poorest citizens.

............................................... assigned textsBarlow, John Perry Next Economy 2000: Cyber-libertarian Barlow asks “Will copyright survive the Napster bomb? Nope, but creativity will.” Barlow makes the case that fame is fortune and giving content away is an excellent way to promote ones intellectual wares.

Electronic Privacy Information Center Privacy Policies without Privacy Protection: 1999: This advisory from the EPIC details the ways in which unsuspected browsers can be duped and scammed by criminals. The Internet can be a hostile place for the naïve and uninitiated.

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INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH PROJECT

■ InstructionsChose a topic in which you are interested and related to the topics we’ve coverd in the course. The paper must be no less than 2500 words. Grammar and spelling are less important than content.

■ ResourcesThe deliverable for this assignment must be in either Microsft Word (doc) or Rich Text Format (rtf) format. There are a number of free word processing applications such as OpenOffice which are available online or you may simply use Word. Feel free to discuss the project with me.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bacon, Francis, Lisa Jardine, and Michael Silverthorne. The New Organon. Cambridge texts in

the history of philosophy. Cambridge [U.K.]: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Bacon, Francis. The New Atlantis. Hoboken, N.J.: Bibliobytes, 1990s.

Barlow, John Perry [March 1994] Selling Wine Without Bottles - The Economy of Mind on the Global Net. http://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/idea_economy_article.html

Barlow, John Perry. 2000. “The Next Economy of Ideas - After the Copyright Revolution”. Wired. 8, no. 10: 238.

Blake, William, and Clark Mixon Emery. The Book of Urizen. [Coral Gables, Fla.]: University of Miami Press, 1966.

Blom, Philipp. Enlightening the World: Encyclopédie, the Book That Changed the Course of History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Borgmann, Albert. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philosophical Inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Carson, Rachel, Lois Darling, and Louis Darling. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962.

Copernicus, Nicolaus, and A. M. Duncan. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres. Newton Abbot [Eng.]: David & Charles, 1976.

Coppola, Francis Ford, Godfrey Reggio, Mel Lawrence, Lawrence Taub, and Philip Glass. Koyaanisqatsi Life out of balance. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment, 2002.

De Graaf, John, David Wann, and Thomas H. Naylor. Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001.

Devall, Bill, and George Sessions. Deep Ecology. Salt Lake City, Utah: G.M. Smith, 1985.

Elgin, Duane. Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. New York: Quill, 1993.

Ellul, Jacques. The Technological Society. New York: Knopf, 1964.

Else, Jon. The Day After Trinity. Santa Monica, CA: Pyramid Film & Video, 1980.

Firestone, Shulamith. The Dialectic of Sex; The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: Morrow, 1970.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY (continued) Florman, Samuel C. The Existential Pleasures of Engineering. New York: St. Martin’s Press,

1976.

Frisch, Max. Homo Faber, A Report. London: Abelard-Schuman, 1959.

Gilder, George F. Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.

Gregg, Richard Bartlett. The Value of Voluntary Simplicity. Pendle Hill essays, no. 3. Wallingford, Pa: Pendle Hill, 1936.

Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. Harper colophon books. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

Jackson, Tim, 1957-. Material Concerns Pollution, Profit and Quality of Life. London: Routledge, 1996.

Joy, Bill. 2000. “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us - Our Most Powerful 21 St-Century Technologies - Robotics, Genetic Engineering, and Nanotech - Are Threatening to Make Humans an Endangered Species”. Wired. 8, no. 4: 238.

Kaczynski, Theodore John. The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future. Berkeley, CA: Jolly Roger Press, 1995.

Kaplan, David M. Readings in the Philosophy of Technology. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Viking, 1999.

Leonardo, and Edward McCurdy. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1938.

Lessig, Lawrence. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Malthus, T. R. Population: The First Essay. Ann Arbor paperbacks. [Ann Arbor]: University of Michigan Press, 1959.

Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization; A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966.

Marx, Karl, and Benedikt Kautsky. Das Kapital; Kritik der politischen Okonomie. Leipzig: A. Kroner, 1929.

Marx, Karl, Vladimir Ilʹich Lenin, and Max Eastman. Capital, The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings. New York: Modern library, 1932.

Meadows, Donella H. The Limits to Growth; A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. New York: Universe Books, 1972.

Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980.

Mesthene, Emmanuel G. Technological Change: Its Impact on Man and Society. Harvard studies in technology and society. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1970.

Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. New York: Morrow, 1974.

Quinn, Daniel. Ishmael: A Novel. New York: Bantam/Turner Book, 1992.

Rheingold, Howard. Look Who’s Talking: The Amish Are Famous for Shunning Technology, but Their Secret Love Affair with the Cell Phone Is Causing an Uproar. San Francisco, Calif: Wired USA, 1999.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract, And Discourses. New York: Dutton, 1950.

Scharff, Robert C., and Val Dusek. Philosophy of Technology: The Technological Condition : an Anthology. Blackwell philosophy anthologies. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY (continued) Schumacher, E. F. Small Is Beautiful; Economics As If People Mattered. New York: Harper &

Row, 1973.

Silver, Philip W. Ortega As Phenomenologist: The Genesis of Meditations on Quixote. New York: Columbia University Press, 1978.

Simon, Julian Lincoln. The Ultimate Resource. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Veblen, Thorstein, and Stuart Chase. The Theory of the Leisure Class; An Economic Study of Institutions. New York: Modern library, 1934.

Vesalius, Andreas. On the Fabric of the Human Body. A Translation of De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem Book I, The Bones and Cartilages. Norman anatomy series, no. 1. San Francisco: Norman Pub, 1998.

Vinge, Vernor. The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge. New York: Tor, 2001.

White, Lynn. The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. [Washington?]: American Association of Science, 1967.

Winner, Langdon. 1997. “Cyberlibertarian Myths and the Prospects for Community”. Computers & Society. 27, no. 3: 14.

York, Michael, Alfre Woodard, Theodore Bikel, David Warner, and Christopher Cazenove. The Ultimate Bible The Old Testament : The King James Version. Beverly Hills, CA: Phoenix Audio, 2007.

EPILOGUE Readings and videos in this course will be supplemented by occasional slide presentations/lectures in order to inform certain subjects. This syllabus is subject to change depending on the needs of the institution. The digital images were collected from various online sources and are used in compliance with the European Union and United States (as described in sections 3.1.1, 3.1.2 and 3.2) copyright codes under fair use.