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
If needed, 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. 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:
- “Marriage: It’s Only Going to Get Worse”
- “A Heart-Shaped History”
- “Be My Valentine: Legends and Greeting Cards”
- Via the Wayback Machine–Thanks!
- “A History of Love”
- Via the Wayback Machine
Questions for “Marriage:…” article
- Does the title reflect the article’s content?
- True or False: According to the article, older couples have fewer issues between each other, and younger couples have more problems with each other?
- 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 Tuesday (2/20), we’re discussing Rachel Weber’s “Manufacturing Gender in Military Cockpit Design” and Ruth Scwartz Cowan’s “The Industrial Revolution in the Home”: both are on Canvas. Your revisions for Technology and Yourself, a reflective essay are due on Thursday (2/22) unless I need more time with your drafts. Don’t let me leave today until I’ve made a decision.