Science and Technology
Items related to technology and science
On the origins of technology
Thu 15 Dec 2005 by Peter Edman
In researching our forthcoming curriculum on technology, I am pleased to be running across more and more articles like this one, from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In “How Christianity (and Capitalism) Led to Science” (2 Dec 2005), Dr. Rodney Stark sets out the thesis of his new book, The Victory of Reason : How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House).
When Europeans first began to explore the globe, their greatest surprise was not the existence of the Western Hemisphere, but the extent of their own technological superiority over the rest of the world. Not only were the proud Maya, Aztec, and Inca nations helpless in the face of European intruders, so were the fabled civilizations of the East: China, India, and Islamic nations were “backward” by comparison with 15th-century Europe. How had that happened? Why was it that, although many civilizations had pursued alchemy, the study led to chemistry only in Europe? Why was it that, for centuries, Europeans were the only ones possessed of eyeglasses, chimneys, reliable clocks, heavy cavalry, or a system of music notation? How had the nations that had arisen from the rubble of Rome so greatly surpassed the rest of the world?
The article is well worth the time. It also corrects some misperceptions about Southern Europe and Catholicism and takes issue with the whole concept that the Reformation was the sole source of capitalism. Several of our Fellows are talking about this topic, so expect to see more on this from us in the future.
The Future Does Not Compute
Tue 15 Nov 2005 by Peter Edman
We’re getting ready for the revision of the forthcoming curriculum on technology after some very helpful feedback from our first pilot forum in September.
Coincidentally, Volume 75 of the Mars Hill Audio Journal arrived in my mailbox a few weeks back and its topics are salient to our revision work. In particular I found helpful a conversation that Ken Myers had with Steve Talbott, author of The Future Does Not Compute: Transcending the Machines in Our Midst. They talk about the way the technology we use affects the way we talk, and then the way we think. This is a very difficult subject to talk about.
In particular, computers are (necessarily?) incapable of dealing with abstracts and metaphors, but the deepest things about us are in what we cannot directly express, what comes through in the spaces between the words, the realm of scientific discovery and the spiritual life. Talbott uses the example of the phrase “love your enemies,” which says a lot to a human but its metaphor is such that any attempt to subject it to a computer translation into another language would fail miserably. Do we, then, stop using such phrases? Technology can be wonderful, but we need to make sure we do not allow it to trample the full expression of our humanity.
Overall, the conversation was very helpful in shaping my own thinking on how to express what we’re trying to accomplish with our new curriculum. If we do not have a real vision for what makes us human, for what a human being is and should be, then the technologies we use will supply one for us by their very limitations, and it will by definition be less than fully human.
The Confidence Man
Wed 27 Jul 2005 by Peter Edman
Books & Culture for August 2005 features a review essay from Dr. Eugene McCarraher (hat tip: ALD).
McCarraher, in “The Confidence Man,” a pleasantly acerbic article, discusses Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World without Redemption, a new book by Mark C. Taylor, who is essentially an evangelical Nietzschean.
One often wonders why some atheists feel the need to evangelize their lack of faith. At any rate, Dr. McCarraher raises some good questions about an assortment of subjects, most notably the danger that academics and others face who are too isolated (in this case by tenure) from the joys and sorrows of the material world.
What does it take to write with such insouciance about failure, suffering, and death? I don’t think it’s flippant to respond: tenure, medical insurance, and a pension, the oblivious possession of which provides the Bobo set with security to neglect some intractable material and social realities.
McCarraher also makes trenchant comments (while appreciating Taylor’s spirited defense of capitalism) on the now common techno-gnostic utopianism that Taylor falls into, which is certainly born out by my recent readings on technology.
Technology Bites Back
Wed 20 Jul 2005 by Peter Edman
Graeme Philipson has an interesting article on technology in the Sydney Morning Herald.
He references Why Things Bite Back by Edward Tenner.
“Technology bites back,” Sydney Morning Herald, April 9, 2005:
We surround ourselves with so much digital paraphernalia and technological impedimenta that half the time we forget why we’re here. Perhaps the machines are doing us a favour when they bite us back. They remind us that technology is not infallible and very often not even necessary. It can be fun, but so can walking on the beach or playing with the dog.
Daedalus and Icarus
Wed 06 Jul 2005 by Peter Edman
Our forthcoming technology curriculum includes a section from Bertrand Russell’s Icarus, Or, the Future of Science.
Icarus was written in 1924 in response to a 1923 published lecture by JBS Haldane, Daedalus, Or Science and the Future. The debate between these two great men of science is reconsidered in the Spring 2005 issue of The New Atlantis by Charles T. Rubin.
The real argument is about the meaning of and prospects for moral progress, a debate as relevant today as it was then. Haldane believed that morality must (and will) adapt to novel material conditions of life by developing novel ideals. Russell feared for the future because he doubted the ability of human beings to generate sufficient “kindliness” to employ the great powers unleashed by modern science to socially good ends.
Both authors explore the problem of relating moral and technological progress with sufficient depth that we would benefit by reexamining this debate with a view to our own time. But the manner in which they frame the problem stands in the way of articulating a clear moral goal that might serve as progress’s purpose and judge. With serious ethical discussion thus sidelined, technological change itself becomes the fundamental imperative, despite the reasonable doubts both Haldane and Russell have concerning its ultimate consequences. And while Haldane is more loath to acknowledge it than Russell, the net result of their debate is a tragic view of mankind’s future, marked by an irreconcilable and destructive mismatch between our aspiration to understand nature and the power we gain from that knowledge.
After Postmodernism in the Arts
Mon 13 Jun 2005 by Peter Edman
Daniel Henninger’s February 18, 2005 “Wonderland” column from OpinionJournal.com was recently brought to my attention. It definitely is worth a read.
“21st Century Art Makes Its Escape From the Toilet: We don’t need Modernism and Post-Modernism anymore.” Artists and art patrons of the world: please lend this man your ears for a few minutes.
What we need is an art, a culture, an aesthetic appropriate to the age in which we live--the 21st century, the Age of the Digital and the Age of September 11. Modern art isn’t it.
Modernism was a reaction to the industrial age or the machine age. It produced Cubism, Stravinsky’s music and James Joyce’s Ulysses (also voted the 20th century’s most important novel by a panel of the Modern Library). Its most important cultural values included discordance, challenge, collision, violation, confusion. This is wholly out of sync with what people want or need in the current age.
He has a suggestion for a positive way forward, and a recognition of and appreciation for the iPod.
Wolf’s Misconceptions
Fri 03 Jun 2005 by Peter Edman
The dehumanizing effects of current technology—technopoly—are rarely so hidden in plain view as in the current medicalized process of birth.
Naomi Wolf’s book Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood (Doubleday 2001) is well worth reading, despite some overwrought prose. Her experience and research completely reinforces the discussion that Postman makes in chapter 6 of Technopoly on the ideology of machines in medicine. The result is a focus on the diagnostic machines and artificial timelines rather than on the physical and mental health of the mother. The technical birthing process is essentially counterproductive.
My wife and I had personal confirmation of her thesis with the delivery of our son in January. Wolf’s concept of the “inescapable standard of care” was certainly present in our case despite our strenuous efforts. Time pressure and repeated medical intervention from our obstetrician led directly to what was likely an unnecessary cesarean section. Granted, we survived and everyone has recovered well enough. But we are switching obstetricians. I never want to endure anything like that again.
The quote below discusses the over-routine use of epidurals to stop pain during labor and delivery and its unintended consequences.
Social Research: Science or Story?
Fri 27 May 2005 by Peter Edman
In preparing for our new curriculum on technology, I’ve been reading Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by the late Neil Postman. Am particularly struck by his (hopefully famous by now) discussion of “scientism” in chapter 9, which talks about the way current Western societies tend toward the presumption that the only legitimate knowledge is scientific knowledge.
The effect of this presumption is to deny the possibility of meaningful knowledge resulting from such human activities as literature, religion, and myth— “scientific hubris” is the term he uses. Postman particularly notes this effect in the rise of the “social sciences”, which he suggests are less science than storytelling. They never produce falsifiable findings. At best their studies rediscover “facts” that were obvious to traditional human wisdom (James Taranto, please call your office). Worse, their stories are packaged in a manner that is frequently boring and generally self-deceptive.
Tradition, Technology, and Wine
Thu 31 Mar 2005 by Peter Edman
An article from Wired News introduces a contentious theme in an approachable way. New technologies often interfere with traditional cultures and belief systems. The case study here is the vineyards of France.
In this case, new biotechnology and vintnery techniques are threatening the market dominance of traditional French vineyards. Interestingly, the development of the technology is driven as much by a new way of looking at wines—a change in worldview even—as it is by new advances in science.
