ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology » February 12th: Is Love a Technology?

February 12th: Is Love a Technology?

Announcements

  • Angela Davis today (2/12)
    “Radical Resilience, Thriving in the Face of Oppression”
    Popp Martin Student Union 340
    5:30 pm (doors open 4:30)
  • Tues. 2/18, Dr. Mark Jordan
    “The Very Idea of Queer Religion”
    UNC Charlotte Center City
    6:00 pm reception, 7 pm talk
  • Wed. 2/19, Dr. Kelly Happe
    “Epigenetics, Race and Justice: Science in the Age of Redress”
    Cone 210 (please RSVP)
    11:30 am-12:30 pm
  • Friday, 3/13, Project Enough presents “Tales from Down There”
    McKnight Auditorium (Cone Center)
    7:00 pm-??? (usually it’s an hour and a half)
  • Wed. 3/25, Student-led summit on “Race, Gender, and Tech”
    Featuring Dr. Ruha Benjamin
    CHHS 159 (Please RSVP…but no link available)
    9:00 am-10:30 am
  • Wed. 4/1, Feminisms Day
    Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha
    “Care Work and Generative Justice”
    5:30 pm (full day schedule TBA)
  • Thurs. 4/16, 3:00 pm-4/17, 5:30 pm
    Imagining Futures: Women and Girlhood Symposium
    (co-coordinated with AFRS)

Plan for the Day

  • Finish up David Noble’s The Religion of Technology (pp. 172-228)
  • Readings on Love…Will you be anyone’s Valentine? Would you want to be?
  • Whig History and Technological Determinism
  • Preview your next essay: Social Construction of Technology Essays

David Noble’s The Religion of Technology

Assuming we’re in class (snow, ice, etc.), let’s go back to Noble’s special page and finish discussing the masculine issues related to technology and, specifically, the Religion of Technology.

The Faulty Logic of Technology Following an Uninterrupted Progress

I think it might be time to revisit technological determinism and introduce ‘whig’ history.

From Langdon Winner, we learned about technological determinism:

  • a. “the idea that technological innovation is the basic cause of changes in society and that human beings have little choice other than to sit back and watch this ineluctable process unfold” (pp. 9-10).
  • b. “the idea that technology develops as the sole result of an internal dynamic and then, unmediated by any other influence, molds society to fit its pattern” (p. 21).

Historians “claiming technology alone shaped an aspect of society…risk creating a ‘whig’ history if their work” (Toscano, 2012, p. 32):

  • ‘‘presents history as uninterrupted progress, implying that the present state of affairs follows necessarily from the previous’’ (Bijker 1995, p. 45).
  • “To claim ‘‘discovery’’ as opposed to ‘‘process’’ is to assume a whig history of technology, a narrative that claims the process of creating science and technology flowed seamlessly, thus, ignoring the starts and stops and reinterpretations of the technology or science by the actors.” (Toscano, 2012, p. 136n4)
  • Claiming a technology proves that society was marching towards the latest technology is bogus logic. It is similar to this problematic phrase:
    • “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
    • This is wishful thinking and might only be appropriate in an American context. Then again, that, too, is chauvinism.

“Is Love a Technology” Readings

Before coming to class, read the following articles and reflect on the questions that follow:

Questions for “Marriage:…” article

  1. Does the title reflect the article’s content?
  2. True or False: According to the article, older couples have fewer issues between each other, and younger couples have more problems with each other?
  3. How much emphasis should be placed on surveys that aggregate data?

Questions for Above Readings

1) Reflect on whether or not you think the greeting card industry is a product of love and romance or a “pusher” of love and romance. Explain your position.

2) The history of the heart (cardioid) discusses how science, specifically, knowledge of human anatomy was intertwined with myth about in what organ “love” resides. Why would humans assume that an organ is the place that drives one to love?

3) Just as technologies are products of the cultures from which they come, our behaviors are socially constructed. Thinking back to other readings on technologies, what technologies support the assumption that love is a technology? In order to reflect on this, it’s best to consider whether or not you see love as a technology or instinct–innately human.

Next Class

Keep up with the reading on the syllabus. For Monday (2/17), we’re discussing Rachel Weber’s “Manufacturing Gender in Military Cockpit Design.” Your revisions for Technology and Yourself, a reflective essay are now due on Wednesday (2/19). Yes, I’m pushing the deadline back. It’s important to come to class and turn things in on time, so you have the maximum amount of time to revise.