NATS 1760 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Technological Determinism, Stirrup, Written Language
17 Nov 2018
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Technological determinism: the claim that technology causes or determines the structure of the rest of society and culture, and that it is autonomous. Causes or determines- this suggests that technology is more important that any other factor, economics, politics, culture, etc. Autonomous: we don"t control its development, nor can we predict it. Correlations: no assumptions that one thing makes the other. Written language, hydrological technologies in the ancient civilizations, the automobiles, computers, the internet. Social construction is the argument that groups and individuals determine much of the reality of our world through shared meaning. So society determines technology, not the other way around. Problem: there are aspects of reality we cannot change. There are some things we cannot change no matter how much we negotiate it. Hughes is trying to chart a middle ground between the idea that technology determines society, and society determines technology. Networks or system of technology: include technologies, people and the social relations between them.
