Blog Discussion on Digital Divide

#22:

Have you even encountered the ‘digital divide’ in your own lives? Give an example from your own experience (or one you have heard about).

I had erroneously believed that digital divide refers to the gap between those who have access to digital technology and those who do not, but I have come to realized that it goes beyond accessibility to technology, but benefits derived from it. That being said, I wish to give an example from my own life experience, how I encountered the ‘digital divide’ without even knowing about it then, until later date.

While I was in the high school in my village in Nigeria, we had a class on “computer appreciation”. In this class, we were taught the general functionality of the computer and other communication devices like the telephone, telex, and microfiche machines etc. We were taught how the computer receives information from the user, process the information, store the information and get back the result, how various businesses uses the computer to communicate each others, who are miles apart. We loved the computer, memorize its functions, and we can describe it without having access to the computer. One faithful day, old students of the school donated an old computer to the school. The computer was stationed in a table in what was called the ‘modern office’, because there you could find electric typewriter and other lab equipment, which were never used because there was no electricity in the school to use them. The teacher will take us to the modern office, showed us round the computer and explained how it function. We were very happy then, though we had no hand-on practice on the computer, but then we were not worried because the computer really did not have any meaningful benefit to us apart from knowing theoretically how it works. There was no electricity in the village, now good health facility, apart from occasional visit from the health officials from the headquarters of the local council to the village, no government amenities in the village, no telephone services, no presence of even private business apart from the local farmers selling their goods.

Until I came to Lagos after completing my high school when I discovered that we were really in darkness as to what ‘magic’ the computer, telephone and electricity were being used for in the city. All what we were taught in the village school was being practically used by almost everyone in the city – in the schools, at home, in various offices, people have unrestricted access to various digital technology for business transaction, for communication, especially the internet. Students come home to do their homework assignments in the computer, save it and reuse again. So in the city, they have access to these technology, and those that could not afford it borrow money to buy a computer because of the benefits they get from it, while those in the village do not think of getting it because it will be useless having it a home or in school without using them, it is of no benefit to them. They have no electricity to operate them, and when electricity was eventually given to the village, it was very erratic, not stable and there was hardly any day without interruption. The people in the village were only struggling to feed their families and pay for the tuition of their children. There was no government assistance to the education of their children, the infrastructure and school equipment were not being provided by the government to the schools in the village. This is why I strongly agree with the fact that digital divide is not so much about access to digital technology, but about the benefits derived from it. If the people know that there is little or nothing to benefit from owing or using these technology, they will not go for it and if the manufacturers of these technology knows there is no market for them in the village, they will not make any attempt to supply them and the gap will never be reduced or closed.

#23:

What role should government play in helping to overcome the digital divide? What role should school play? Can you thin of any other institutions that are important in helping to overcome the digital divide?

It is absolutely necessary now to close the digital divide that is prevalent everywhere in the world, and to do this, there must be a collaboration between the stake holders – the government, the schools, the private investors, and even the family. The government has more important role to play in order to reduce this gap. The government should first of all know that access to digital technology greatly enhances the effectiveness and affordability of efforts to improve the basic life necessity to the poor – electricity, water supply, improve rural health and education, and generate jobs. The government should therefore work very closely with the private sector to encourage them to develop these technologies and make them affordable to the rural people. The private sector should be given encouragement and incentive like tax cut to do this. While the government is doing this, it should be seen that every efforts is also being made to provide these basic life amenities. Government should make the people in the rural area know that they have some stake in the stability of the international economy. They should even encourage the farmers in the rural area, by providing them with fertilizers to cultivate their farms. The government should formulate policies that will entice the private and corporate organizations to want to close this digital divide and serve the poor.

The schools also have an important role to play. Their primary responsibility is awareness and education. The individual technology user, the information technology corporations and other investor institutions are all product of schools. Therefore the schools should take steps to close the digital divide for its students. One way they could do this is the provision of laptop computers with free Internet service so that they will bring computer technology into the homes of many of their students. The schools should train their students on how to use the computers and make them know the importance of computers. The school should contact corporate organizations and solicit for donation of computers and other technologies. The schools should arrange for their students to visit presentations of technology by computer companies. The school should encourage their students to do their homework on the computer. By doing this, the school will bring new technology into the lives of low to moderate income families and also introduce the youths and their families to technology. This will ensure that digital businesses opportunities are created and there is likelihood that educated students might want to stay in the community and work there.

Another institution that will be very helpfu; in ensuring that the gap in digital divide is narrowed or closed is the corporate organizations or the private sectors. These bodies should also make some efforts to close the digital divide as a core business issues They can actually serve the poor indirectly by helping schools and health care agencies do a better job of serving the poor. They could be involved, by funding technology in schools. They should cooperate with the government and the schools as well as other stake holders, to ensure that all efforts being made to close the gap is being supported by the corporate organization and the private sectors. They should see this digital divide as a great concern to them and therefore expressed their concern about the digital divide and instruct their corporate foundations to devise programs that will put this concern into action. These organizations should conduct its educational research in the community, to enable them understand the end users better. Multinationals should engage the poorest consumers directly to help build positive ties with the businesses and government agencies.

Effect on Media Technology on our experience

Question #20:

Pick one media technology, and say how you think it has had an effect on our experience.

I would like to pick the printing press as one media technology, which I think has had a tremendous effect on our experience. Mcluhan said that the printing press was the first mechanization of a complex handicraft; and by creating an analytic sequence of step-by-step processes; it became the blueprint of all mechanization to follow. I will agree with Mcluhan here that prating press has repeatability as one of the important quality. Printing press has actually transformed the world since Gutenberg. Printing press ensure the modernization of industrialism, it shape the production and marketing procedures of all sectors from education to city planning. Printing press removed man from his traditional cultural tribal believe and showed him how be industrialized, modernized, and agglomerated. Through the printing press, man now knows how to read and write, what is happening in other nations. Through printing press, the spread of renaissance of culture after 1450 was accelerated; growing economic prosperity, which was as a result of peace and the decline of famine, which led to the founding of schools and colleges, was made possible by the printing press. The printing press made information readily available to a much larger segment of the population who were eager for information of any variety. Libraries could not store greater quantities of information at much lower cost. The printing press facilitated the dissemination and preservation of knowledge in standardized form. This is one of the significant effects on our experience, as it certainly initiated an information revolution. It did spread new ideas quickly and with greater impact. Printing press stimulated the literacy of lay people and eventually came to have a deep and lasting impact on our private lives. It provided a superior basis for scholarship and prevented further corruption of texts through hand copying. By giving all scholars the same text to work form, it made progress in critical scholarship and science faster and more reliable. In the view of the above, it is absolutely correct to say that the printing press, as one of the medical technology has had an effect on our experience.

Question #21:

Pick one sentence or phrase in the Mcluhan interview that you find interesting or important. Say why you picked it.

In the past, the effects of media were experienced more gradually, allowing the individual and society to absorb and cushion their impact to some degree. I found this sentence interesting and important because the electric media of today constitute a total and near-instantaneous transformation of culture, values and attitudes which actually generates a great pain and identity loss, which can really be ameliorated through a conscious awareness of its dynamics. Mcluhan is saying here that if we understand the revolutionary transformations caused by new media, we can anticipate and control them, but we continue in self-induced subliminal trance, we will be their slaves. Mcluhan is trying to trace and reveal the impact of media on man, from the beginning of recorded time to the present. The new technology was supposed to aid man in doing things more easily, with less time and labor and with more efficiency, but man has totally depended on the new technology to an extent that we are now slaves to the new technology. People now want technology to think for us. Technology is now controlling us instead of us controlling technology. Mcluhan is saying that societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media with which men communicate than by the content of the communication, and whenever a society develops an extension of itself, all other functions of that society tend to be transmuted to accommodate that new form; once any new technology penetrates a society, it saturates every institution of that society, hence new technology becomes a revolutionizing agent. This is very evident in today’s electric media and it was evidence several thousand years ago with the invention of the phonetic alphabet.

Conceptual Muddle

Question #18

Think of your own example of a ‘conceptual muddle’. Explain your example.

An example of a ‘conceptual muddle’ is the use of ‘atomic bomb’ against Japan by the US during the 2^nd world war. Conceptual muddle principles implies practical dilemma, problems; which implied that if we do not know what we are dealing with, we do not know which rules or principles we should be apply. In the example of the atomic bomb, it is true that the Japanese attacked the US’s Pear Harbor, destroyed their fleet and struck other US bases. It is also a fact that the US was very interested in stopping the Soviet by all means, and it was a fact that the US wanted to test their atomic bomb to put fear into the mind of their enemies and proof that they are the strongest, technologically, militarily and more superior in the whole world, without knowing the overall consequences. The US also gave the reason of wanting to save lives; hence they used the atomic bomb against a nation, who was already finding ways of making peace. The President of the United States then also gave reason of the casualty estimate of death given to him that made him use the atomic despite some disagreement with his cabinet to find alternative option instead of using the bomb. So in the above scenario, one can find a conceptual muddle of using atomic bomb prevent the US from using the conventional means to win the war, instead they used the atomic bomb to destroyed millions of civilians. Conceptual muddle here explains why the atomic bomb was used without even informing the Japanese of their intention to use it.

Question #19:

After reading the Machado case, what are your thoughts on our responsibilities as ‘online citizens?

After reading the Machado case, I have a strong thought and believe that online citizens do not understand their online responsibilities. It is our responsibilities to recognize that any unlawful content on the Internet lies with the person who put it there. Our responsibilities call for vigilance, we must be vigilant to identify any unlawful and illegal online contents and reports immediately to the appropriate authorities concerned. Many of us do nothing when we found something on the Internet that we thought was illegal and this will not help in combating this hate crime. What we do is delete the content without doing anything about it.

Jessica Hendrie-Liano, Chair of the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) said “The law recognizes those that post words, image, audio and video files – whether on websites, discussion forums or even using email – as having the same responsibility as publishers. Internet users must understand that they bear responsibility for the content they place online.” This is what Machado did not realize.

Above all, it is our responsibility not to harm other people with the use of Internet, we should not interfere with the life of other people with the use of Internet, we should not steal the joy and happiness of others, we should always think about the social consequences of the use of Internet, and the ethical implications, and we should always use the Internet in a way that insure consideration and respect for our fellow human beings.

Discussion on Human Cloning

Blog Question #15:

Whom did you find to be most persuasive on the subject of cloning? Wachbroit or Kass? Explain your answer.

The subject of cloning has generated a lot of concerns and debates among Scientists, Theologians, Physicians, Legal experts, commentators, and even governments. Among these are Leon Kass and Wachbroit. Though both of them are against human cloning, but the one I found to be most persuasive on the subject of cloning is Leon Kass.

In his article on preventing a Brave New World, Kass argued that modern medical science is poised to cross an ethical boundary that will have momentous consequences for the future of humanity. He went further to say that “the technological imperative, liberal democratic society, compassionate humanitarianism, moral pluralism, and free markets” are leading us down a path that places us at risk of losing our humanity. Kass went a step further to recommend a worldwide ban on human cloning as a means of deterring “renegade scientists” from engaging in the practice.

I found him to be the most persuasive than Wachbroit because of the reasons he adduced for speaking against human cloning and the way he gave a vivid and thorough discussion on the subject. Amongst the reasons he gave was that cloning constitute unethical experimentation; it threatens identity and individuality; cloning turns procreation into manufacturing, and that cloning is despotism over children and perversion of parenthood.

Kass argued further that there is greatly increased likelihood of error in translating the genetic instructions leading to developmental defects, some of which will show themselves only much later. He also said that scientist new agree that attempts to clone human beings carry massive risk of producing unhealthy, abnormal and malformed children. He concluded by saying that attempt to clone human being is irresponsible and unethical.

In discussing unethical experimentation, Kass said that in all the animal experiments, there are many fetal deaths and still born infants; there is a very high incident of major disabilities and deformities in cloned animals than attain live births, that cloned cows often have heart and lung problems, cloned mice later develop pathological obesity, and that other live-born cloned animals fail to reach normal developmental milestones.

On the problems of identify and individuality, Kass cited an example of inability of parent to treat a clone of himself or herself as one treats a child generated by the lottery of sex. He went further to ask what will happen when the adolescent clone of mommy becomes the spitting image of the woman with whom Daddy once fell in love? Kass said that any child whose being, character and capacities exist owing to human design does not stand on the same plane as its makers, and that human cloning is dehumanizing no matter good the product is because the scientists and the prospective parents adopts a technocratic attitude toward human children, therefore become their artifacts. He said that clone human being would further be degraded by commodification of allowing baby making to proceed under the banner of commerce. He also stressed the fact that a cloned child is given a genotype that has already lived, a wanted child who exists precisely to fulfill parental wants. Therefore cloning is inherently despotic, for it seeks to make one’s children after one’s own image or an image of one’s choosing and their future according to one’s will.

In view of the above and so many other reasons Kass advanced, I am very sure and I agreed with all his reasons that he has persuaded us enough to believe his opinions on the subject of cloning than Wachbroit, who though is against human cloning, but was always looking for something to disagree with Kass, while postulating his own reasons. I think at the end, the fears, anxiety and concerns of critiques against human cloning, as well as their arguments are enough to actually enact a worldwide ban on human cloning.

Computers and Privacy

Question #13:

What do you think is the most worrisome threat to privacy in our technological age? (Focus on a specific example).

It is very difficult to pin point the most worrisome threat to privacy in our technological age because there are various threats that are worrisome indeed. In order to focus on a specific example, and for the purpose of this assignment, I would think that the most worrisome threat is the use of modern and sophisticated monitoring devices and computerized record keeping and record processing procedures. In other words, clandestine surveillance of individuals by government and its various agencies could be regarded as the most worrisome threats to privacy in our technological age.

On their own, these various technologies should not have been any threat to anybody, but they rather make it easier for government and its agencies as well as some private individuals and organizations to invade the privacy of other individuals, by placing them on secret surveillance without their consent and even at times without their knowledge. These surveillance activities are all embracing: monitoring individual movements, phone calls conversations, finances, social life, academic life, medical records, driving records, assets, liabilities, religious activities etc. When one is under surveillance, his entire family is affected. No wonder Kant stressed that the value of a person is an end in itself, and that persons should never be used as means, and that constant surveillance diminishes one’s personhood. He said the world is no longer as one think it is, but rather a mini-world under the microscope of some larger world. Kant said that one become a means to some other end – that of governmental power or corporate profit. Even if one do not even know he is being observed, the value of what one hold in high regard is diminished and if one realized that he is being observed, this affects one actions and one is no long autonomous.

A major international privacy report published recently has concluded that governments across the word have substantially increased surveillance in the past years, specially since after 911 incidents in the US. The report wards that threats to personal privacy have reached a level that is dangerous to fundamental human rights. Besides, there is the potential of inaccurate information being spread around about a person or even accurate information that is not somebody else’s concern.

There is an increasing demand of information that could be found in government records, and information gathered through surveillance could be sold to another country or any third party to get extra revenue, no one can tell. It is true that privacy is becoming harder to maintain, and surveillance is being more pervasive, and unless some drastic and urgent action is taken, especially by privacy international, a human rights group formed as a watchdog on surveillance by governments and corporations, the worrisome threats will persist.




Question #14:

What should b done to protect privacy? Make one concrete suggestion that would help protect privacy today (you may focus on something specific like privacy on the Internet, or perhaps make a more general suggestion.

It is a well-known fact that that the Internet is very important and useful as a network, but at the same time very easy for one to give away a lot of information about oneself, no matter how careful we might think we are. It is also important to know that the Internet is internationally and largely unregulated. This means that laws of any country do not usually apply to another country on the activities of Internet network. The office of the Privacy Commissioner said that if one suffers a privacy invasion via the Internet, it would only be able to help if the matter involved an organization subjects to the privacy Act. Information could be collected in the Internet through cookies, HTTP, browsers, downloading of free software, search engines, electronic commerce, emails, Spam, chatting etc.

In view of the above, one concrete suggestion that would help protect privacy today is for the individual users of Internet to limit the amount of private information they share on the Internet. To be more specific, efforts should be made on the following areas to ensure adequate privacy protection:

SPAM: There are big anti-Spam movements nowadays and I think there should be a global Spam Act to prevent unsolicited commercial electric messages. The span Act has been enforced in so many countries and it will work if enforced globally. The government, schools, and families should embark upon awareness of the dangers involved so that the ignorant individuals will limit the amount of information they share online, especially through emails and mailing lists. Individuals could set the computer to delete the cookies file whenever one starts a browser. Cookies crusher or pal could be used to reject or manage cookies. The current use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is desirable, because it provides protection during transmission of credits cards numbers.

Majority of what to do to protect individual privacy on the Internet rest on individual because it will be difficult for government to implement any law regarding privacy protect on the Internet. We should not give too much private information out on the Internet.

Heidegger's Questioning concerning technology

Question #11

One particular learning experience that stand out to me from what I learnt from the website on Heidegger is his views as the danger associated with technology. He begins by say that he was questioning concerning technology in order to bring to light our relationship to its essence.” He said it is not enough to identify Enframing as the essence of modern technology, but that we need to determine how we, as human beings, stand in relation to technology. He suggested how humanity might come into the “free relationship to technology”. which is, remember the aim of his essay. He said because enframing does not utterly change humanity’s connection to the world, there is room, even within enframing, for different—we might say “renewed” orientation to the world. Once we realize that our own orientation to the world is the essence of technology, once we open ourselves, we will find an opportunity to establish a free relationship to technology. He emphasize the fact that humanity can come to realize that it, too, is ”on its way” to an arrival, and that only by reorienting itself to the way in which nature reveals itself can humanity establish a relationship with the world that is not ultimately self-destructive. Heidegger views as the danger associated with technology is not so much the direct effects of mechanization, but that humanity will eventually reach a point at which the human will become only so much “standing-reserve” if he continues on the path of enframing. He also said humanity over inflated sense of its power over the natural world might led to his believe that he has control over all existence, and that excessive pride leads to “delusion”. He concluded by say that such an orientation to thee world will blind humanity to the ways in which the word revels itself. This discussion by Heidegger is a food for thought for me after reading it. I now have a different view of what technology is all about, and in short his essay has re-enforce my re-orientation and thinking about technology since the beginning of this course.

Question #12

Enframing:

Enframing is one of the concepts in Heidegger’s essay, the question concerning technology. Enframing is the essence of technology, which “means the gathering together of that setting-upon which sets upon man, i.e., challenges him forth, to reveal the real, the mode of ordering, as standing-reserve”. Enframing tends to rule out other ways of revealing and meanings that do not fit the egocentric use of resources. Human beings begin to see themselves in the same way as they view other resources. Heidegger uses the term enframing as a challenging claim on man. Once things have been revealed to us we place them inside of a “frame” of understanding. Example is what a picture frame does to an image. Not only does the image now have a place inside the frame, but also we can call it a picture because of the frame, which it has around it. Heidegger wants us to know that we cannot neglect the surroundings, no matter how small they may appear to us at the time. He believes that modern technology, as Enframing is dangerous, that if we enframe we are losing sight of our revealing and our essence. He said our essence is concealed from us because we become users of the world as standing-reserve. “Enframing, Heidegger said is a danger that sets man on a destructive and self-destructive course, because it blocks every view into the coming-to-pass of revealing and so endangers the relation to the essence of truth”. On a second taught, enframing could makes clear the responsibility of human beings to the world if we reflect upon the it as the essence of technology, and then we find not only that we are a part of the world, but that the world needs us to care for it”.

Discussion on Jonas's Technology and Responsibility

Question #9:

Pick a passage in Hans Jonas’s paper that you find interesting. Write down the first sentence and the page number, and then say why you picked it.

I found passage I through II most interesting in Jonas’s paper. Passage 1 says, “The novel powers I have in mind are, of course those of modern technology. My first point, accordingly, is to ask how this technology affects the nature of our acting, in what ways it makes acting under its dominion different from what it has been through the ages”. (Page 120).

I picked this passage because of the meticulous way in which Jonas highlighted and discusses the characteristics of human actions, which he said are relevant for a comparison with the state of things today. He discusses all dealings of man with non-human world as ethical neutral without ethical significant, as ethical significant he said, belongs to the direct dealing of man with man. In other words, all the traditional ethic is human centered. Ethic then was of the present as occasions warrants. He talks of ethic as being base on “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, “Do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you”, “Instruct your child in the way of truth’, etc. Jonas is categorically saying that all these has changed as modern technology has brought actions of novel scale, object and consequences that the framework of former ethics can no longer contain them. The wondrous power of man has changed, the neighbor ethics of justice, love and honesty has been beclouded by modern technology’s responsibility.

Questions # 10:

Jonas argues that we need a ‘new ethics of long-range responsibility’. Do you think we would need to change the way we think to live up to this idea?

I think Jonas is absolutely right in this direction. This is a worthwhile idea and I think that for us to live up to this idea, we need to change the way we think. Jonas said that technological power has turned what used and out to be tentative, perhaps enlightening, plays of speculative reason into competing blueprints for projects, and in choosing between them we have to choose between extremes of remote effects. He had earlier said that the nature of human action has changed, and since ethics is concerned with action, it should follow that the changed nature of human action calls for a change in ethics as well. Therefore we should not be concerned only with the present; rather the future should be represented. Politics should go beyond self-interest. Government should have sufficient representation to meet the new demands on its normal principles and by its normal mechanics. For this to be achieved calls for change in the way we think. We should be thinking about the future and the effects of the ever-increasing nature of human action.

Blog assignment on Feenberg's Discussion

Blog Question #7:

Do you agree with Feenberg that technologies can be seen as incorporating or ‘embodying’ values and commands? Use examples to explain your thinking on this subject!

I quite agree with Feenberg that technologies can be seen as incorporating or ‘embodying’ values and commands. One should not forget that technology is a system that understands and execute commands that are entered interactively by human beings, and, that values are beliefs of a person or social groups in which they have an emotional investment either for or against something – in this case technology! That being said, Feenberg said that when we look on successful technological designs, the ‘fit’ that is finally achieved is the product of process of social negotiation in which technological designs come to embody social values. For examples, social values involves efficient energy supply, good educational programs, environmental friendly design buildings and vehicles will be seen as representing technological progress. Looking back, one will actually agree that the success so far achieved in technology is as a result of incorporating social process – a process that involves the formation of groups of persons, a profess that absorbs cultural groups into harmony with another; a process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization; a process whereby human involvement in technology make people to engage in an activity for pay or as a means of livelihood. Technologies enable cities to grow and become urban. This is social process. Through technologies, government disseminates information to its citizens to make them believe that they are trying to avoid hostilities (social process). Through technologies, governments try to neutralize other weak nations’ power politically, economically, and by social influence.

In view of the above, there is no doubt in my mind that technology can be seen as incorporating or embodying values and commands with its subtle involvement of social groups or social public interests in technologies, even when it appears to be doing it covertly by the technical ‘experts’.

Questions #8:

Feenberg argues that democracy can transform technology. How would you like to see technology transformed in the future? (or if you think technology is best left alone, explain why?

It is absolutely right to say that democracy can transform technology. Therefore technology should not be left alone in the hands of the determinists. The public or interest groups should be involved in the planning and development of technology to ensure a better transformation. Democracy by the way means individual participation in the decisions that affect one’s life. Democracy is an opportunity for individual self-development and involvement, which will develops character, self-reliance, intelligence,
moral judgment, and integrity. This will be achieved by encouraging each individual to contribute to the creation of public policy and by resolving conflicts over public policy. The interest or social groups should know what is going on in their society; how does it affect them, what are the benefits, what are the envisioned problems and possible solutions. Let there be unity of purpose. If the public, the interest groups, social groups are involved in technological development, technology will be transformed.

'Polypotency' of technology and Technology as a 'form of life'

Question #5:

Think of your own example to illustrate what Sclove calls the 'polypotency' of technology. How, if at all, does your example help us to understand technology as a form of 'social structure'?

Sclove regarded technologies as 'polypotency' because of the fact that all technologies are associated with manifold latent social effects and meanings, and that it is in virtue of these that technologies come to function as social structure; that is technologies are potent or useful in many ways.

My own example to illustrative what Sclove calls the 'polypotency' of technology is"cutlass". Cutlass is a technological instrument which is primarily intended to cut grasses in the farm, but beyond this, cutlass is used for other various purposes - cut down trees, dig holes and carve wood etc. Like hammer, which Sclove used as an example of 'polypotency', technological cutlass equally possess the same qualities and attributes.

When a man uses cutlass for anything, he learns about the texture and structural properties of materials, he also exercises and develops his muscle, improve his hand eye coordination, generates noise. As he uses the cutlass and sharpens it from time to time, he stresses and wears the cutlass out. He equally acquire competence, confidence and approval as he uses it constantly. A he looks at the filed or the items he uses the cutlass for, he thinks cutlass as a symbol of self reliance. He is reminded of a goldmine that extracted the iron which was eventually refashioned by a Goldsmith. He thinks about somebody who chopped down a tree to make the handle of the cutlass.

The cutlass's immediate social and context of use varies, the man can work alone or works with others as a project. He may not earn a wage as well for using it in his farm, he may not choose his task. This man also see cutlass in different ways, it help reveal the world to him differently. His style of using his cutlass to weed or cut grasses reveal to others about his character, competence, and mood. Social conditions of the use of cutlass has some limitations. Cutlass also have only one handle, not designed to allow the type of class collaboration as it use in computer network.

The material result of man activity include food items from the farm, scrap wood, pieces of wood for fire making, strengthen muscles, and some inhalation of dust from the earth, perspiration and food stuff which become inevitable to hum existence in the world. Therefore cutlass, like a hammer and all technologies are polypotent in their social functions, effects and meaning.

Question #6

I strongly agree with Langdon Winner that we can understand technology as a 'form of life' in which humans and inanimate objects are linked in various kinds of relationships. Winner stated that some people employ technologies as simple tools for specific instrumental purposes to gain some advantages over nature and gain various economic benefits, once these have been obtained other things may happen. This he referred to as secondary, tertiary or other distant consequences of our actions, that have impacts on our social, cultural, political and environments. These are after effects, which are often more significant than the primary intended result.

Without any doubts, the introduction of technologies has exceeded the instrumental advantages and economic benefits of their use. It has impacted or affected our social life, cultural life, political life and our environment.

In those days, only the Executive Directors in a company have an electric typewriters with a secretary attached to him, while typists are grouped together in the typing pool, using manual typewriters, serving other officers. This development changed from electric typewriter to computers, but today computer has become the order of the day. It has become part of our life. There is no household without a computer set. Same as color television, which has faced out the black and white televisions. The HDTV has taken over the scene. The introduction of cable TV has become part of our life, and without a cable box, one might not be able to view even the other basic TV stations. These have invariably affected our social, culture and political life, including our environment.

The introduction of navigator is another example of technological innovation that has come to become part of our life. Recently the Mayor of New York is compelling all the cab drivers in the state to install navigators in their cars! This will definitely have unintended consequences that will affect our social, cultural, political life as well as our environment. The fact is that a whole new kinds of society is being created by the introduction of these technologies, and the attendant multiplicity of relationship between people and between human and technology is being created, which will in the long run remain with us and become part of our life.

'Women and the Assessment of Technology'

Question 3:

Do you agree with Gorlan Lee Bush's criticism of the 'tech-fix'? Can there ever be technological solutions to social problems, or is it always wrong to think that technology will eventually give us the answer. make sure you use examples to support what you say!

I strongly agree with Gorlan Lee Bush’s criticism of the ‘tech-fix’. Gorlan criticized the general belief that technology can be used to solve all types of problems, even social ones. She said instead of looking for long-term stable social, political and cultural solutions, we are looking for an easy way out by depending on the use of technology to solve all problems. She regarded ‘tech-fix’ as a counter productive because there are so many problems, which might be caused by political, social, cultural, and the environment we live in. She said the use of tech only make our life easier, but does not solve the underlying problems.

Gorlan cited the Guerrilla Gears as an example where the New York Times reports that Defense Department spent $38.3 million for tethered blimps equipment with digital camera to spy on guerrillas movement; $30 million for electronic jammers to disrupt their remote-controlled bombs and $70 million to develop and buy what the article called rapid-reaction/new solution technologies etc. Gorlan said these technologies are very important and useful, make the people more efficient in some respect, and make life easier for them. But the problems still remain, and that unless the underlying causes of these problems, which might be social, economy, political etc are taken care of, technology alone cannot solve the problems

She also cited the use of V-Chip to block access to TV programs from kids so that they don’t watch explicit and violent programs. She commended the use of these chips, but said the underlying cause of this problem might be unsupervised children by their parents as a result of other family pressing demands.

Another good example for supporting the criticism of Gorlan, as regard to ‘tech-fix’ is the use of various CCTV camera in use almost everywhere. Even though it helps in identifying and arresting intruders and offenders from time to time, the problem of rapes, house breaking and bank robberies still persist on daily basis. The use of technology alone could not solve the problems. The underlying social, economy and cultural problem is left unattended while we are looking for short time solution. These social problems are just being managed on the surface by the use of technology. While the use of technology is commendable, time-saving, increase efficiency, the belief that technology can be used to solve all problems should be de-emphasized, instead, like Gorlan said, a long-term, stable social, economy, cultural and political solutions to our problems should be formulated.

Question #4:

Do you think that, on the whole, technology helps or hinders the goal of gender equality? Or does it perhaps not make any difference? Explain your answer.

It is true, according to Anita Borg that “technology increasingly affects all dimensions, no matter where or how we live. Technology pervades the culture of the developed world, and technology has extra ordinary potentials for improving the human condition.” She said the creator of most of our current technology represents a narrow stratum of the world population- North American males, and that most of the world’s women do not have a voice in the design of technology solution and therefore does not represent their needs or those of their families and communist.

On the whole I think technology does not really helps or hinder the goals of gender equality. I think technology does not really make such a significant difference in terms of gender equality. I think, and I believe that gender equality is a social problem which should be tackled as such; hence Bush said it is wrong to think that equality will follow from technological changes alone, and that addressing social problems from a purely technological perspective will fail us to get to the root cause of those problems.

Technology has decreased hardships and sufferings while raising the standards of health, living and literacy throughout the industrial world, but not without problems, according to (Mesthene 1970. p.26) ‘technology is neither wholly good nor wholly bad. It has both positive and negative effects, and usually has the two at the same time and in virtue of each other.” Every innovation has both positive and negative consequences that pulse through the social fabric.

Gender equality has been an issue from Adam. So technology is also an equity issue because it has everything to do with who benefits and who suffers, whose opportunities increase and whose decrease, who creates and who accommodates. So Bush is saying that to understand the impact of a technology on women and society, we must understand the effects it has in a number of different contexts, amongst which are the design or developmental context; the use context; the environmental context; and the cultural context. She discussed the decisions, materials, personnel, processes and systems necessary to create tools and techniques from raw maters. The motivations, intentions, advantages and adjustments by the use of particular techniques or tools; the effects of a technology on its surroundings; and the norms, values, aspirations, laws, morals, ideas and interactions of the society of which the tool or technique is a part.

Like Bush says, a feminist unthinking of technology should strive for holistic understanding of the contexts in which it operates, and assessment of technology must recognize it as an equity issue, therefore the challenge is to ‘transform society in order to make technology equitable and to transform technology in order to make society equitable’

'The Automatic Professor Machine'

Question #1:

What do you think was the main point Langdon Winner was trying to get across with his video satire, ‘The Automatic Professor Machine’?


I think the main point Langdon Winner was trying to get across with his video satire, ‘The Automatic Professor Machine’ was one to expose some of the forces underlying the over dependent on the use of digital technology in our educational system today, and also to make caricature of the those who over relied on the system. He was actually attacking and ridiculing human folly by the introduction of his APM. He said Edu-Sham has recognized some of the vital forces that are shaping education today, amongst which are commodification, globalization, privatization, and digital transformation. In exploiting these forces, he is soliciting for potential customers and investors in Edu-Sham’s new mechanism for delivering education products online. To achieve this, Winner said his company stands to drain the bloat from the $6000 billion education industry; level its expensive infrastructures; raze its antiquated guild approach to pedagogy, and get rid of its high cost, low production personnel, including librarians and professors with high wages and cushy lifestyles. He said his APM will be flexible, user-friendly, low-cost that will be cheaper than most colleges, just in time pacing and that the APM is the face of education tomorrow, without saying anything about its limitations and possible problems. From this, I think he was really concerned and condemning the over-reliance on the use of computer technology and the gradual elimination of teacher-students interactive. He was actually making caricature of the whole system, especially the problems and unemployment the introduction of banking ATM has caused the world. I believed he was equally very concerned about the cost, antiquated guide approach, the low production personnel and its inflexibility of relying on the computer technology alone.

Question #2:

Technology is playing an increasing role in education today (let's face it: we wouldn't be having this class otherwise!). State what you take to be advantage and one disadvantage to using more technology like computers in education.

The rapid development of technology has now become an influential component of learning pedagogy in today's educational system. There are many advantages and disadvantages in the use of computers in our schools today. One of the advantages of computer is that it provides the learners more independence from classrooms and allowed the option to work on their learning materials at any time of the day. It allows full time workers the opportunity to study at home at their convenient time in the evening while still working full time. This will invariably give the student learning motivation and sense of achievement. This will also reduce the learning stresses and anxieties well as provide room for repeated lessons as often as necessary.

Despite the advantages, there are however many disadvantages and limitations as well. Apart from the cost of the computers and its attendant problems, one of the most pronounced dis advantage of using a computer in today's educational system is the inability of the computer to handle unexpected situations being faced by the students. The computer is unable to deal with the student's unexpected study problems and responses to the student's questions immediately as the teachers would do. This is because the computer technology are not yet intelligent enough to fully interact effectively with the students.

My blog

This will be my philosophy blog.

My name is Akhigbe Omoigberai, a nursing major, a profession I love so much. I am currently an Administrative Assistant at the Brooklyn United Methodist Church Home, a non-for-profit nursing home, but I wish to become a full fledge nurse. I love reading, soccer and computer. At the end of this semester, I would have completed 65 credits, and by the grace of God, I will be transfering to Adelphi University in the spring of 2008, to pursue my B.Sc in Nursing.

Once again I wish you all success in this semester.