Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa Sr.
Memorial
State College of Agriculture and Technology
MODULE
4
VII-WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS
VIII-WHY DOES THE FUTURE NEED US
IX-THE INFORMATION AGE
GE 7: Science, Technology, and Society
PREPARED BY: JOHN MICO LLANZA
COS Instructor
WHEN TECHNOLOGY AND HUMANITY CROSS
Overview
Human rights in the face of scientific and technological advancement are critical factors in one's
journey toward eudimonia the good life. Exercising the right to accept or reject, minimize or maximize, and
evaluate and decide on the scope and function of science and technology indicates human flourishing in
science and technology. Protecting the well-being and upholding the dignity of the human person must be
at the core of continued scientific and technological progress and development. Such is the focus of a
human rights-based approach to science, technology, and development.
Lesson Objectives
At the end of the lesson the students are expected to:
1. Evaluate contemporary human experience to strengthen the human person functioning
in society;
2. Discuss the importance of human rights in the face of changing social conditions and
technological development; and
3. Identify laws or policies in the country that protect the well-being of the person in
technological advancement and ethical dilemmas.
Lesson Proper
S. Romi Mukherjee, a senior lecturer in Political Theory and the History of Religions at the Paris
Institute of Political Studies, explained a human rights-based approach to science, technology, and
development as follows:
"[It] seeks to place a concern for human rights at the heart of how the international community
engages with urgent global challenges. The UN Development Programme characterizes this
approach as one that leads to better and more sustainable outcomes by analyzing and addressing
the inequalities, discriminatory practices and unjust power relations which are often at the heart of
development problems. It puts the international human rights entitlements and claims of the people
(the 'right-holders') and the corresponding obligations of the state (the 'duty-bearer) in the center of
the national development debate, and it clarifies the purpose of capacity development."
Mukherjee (2012) furthered that this approach identifies science as a “socially organized human
activity which is value-laden and shaped by organizational structures and procedures." Moreover, it
requires an answer to whether governments and other stakeholders can craft and implement science and
technology policies that "ensure safety, health and livelihoods; include people's needs and priorities in
development and environmental strategies; and ensure they participate in decision making that affects their
lives and resources.”
Multiple international statutes, declarations, and decrees have been produced to ensure well-being
and human dignity. Mukherjee listed some of the most important documents that center on a human rights-
based approach to science, development, and technology, and their key principles:
Table 2.4: Useful documents for a human-rights based approach to science, technology, and
development
Document Key Principles
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article This document affirms everyone's right to participate
27) in and benefit from scientific advances, and be
protected from scientific misuses. The right to the
benefits of science comes under the domain of
'culture,' so it is Usually examined from a cultural
rights perspective
UNESCO Recommendation on the Status of This document affirms that all advances in scientific
Scientific Researchers – 1974 (Article 4) and technological knowledge should solely be
geared towards the welfare of the on the status of
global citizens, and calls upon member states to
develop necessary protocol and policies to monitor
and secure this objective. Countries are asked to
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show that science and technology are integrated
into policies that aim to ensure a more humane and
just society.
UNESCO Declaration on the Use of Scientific This document states, "Today, more than ever,
Knowledge – 1999 (Article 33) science and its applications are indispensable for
development. All levels of government and the
private sector should provide enhanced support for
building up an adequate and evenly distributed
scientific and technological capacity through
appropriate education and research programs as
an indispensable foundation for economic, social,
cultural and environmentally sound development.
This is particularly urgent for developing countries."
This Declaration encompasses issues such as
pollution-free production, efficient resource use,
biodiversity protection, and brain drains.
A human rights-based approach to science, technology, and development sets the parameters for
the appraisal of how science, technology, and development promote human well-being. Thus, the
discussion of human rights in the face of changing scientific and technological contexts must not serve as
merely decorative moral dimension of scientific and technological policies. As Mukherjee (2012) posited,
this approach "can form the very heart of sustainable futures."
Human rights should be integral to the journey toward the ultimate good. They should guide
humans not only to flourish as individual members of society, but also to assist each other in flourishing
collectively as a society. Human rights are rights to sustainability, as Mukherjee put it. They may function as
the 'golden mean, particularly by protecting the weak, poor, and vulnerable from the deficiencies and
excesses of science and technology. By imposing upon science and technology the moral and ethical duty
to protect and uphold human rights, there can be a more effective and sustainable approach to bridging the
gap between poor and rich countries on both tangible (e.g, services and natural resources) and intangible
(e-g, well-being and human dignity) aspects. Ultimately, all these will lead humans to flourish together
through science and technology.
WHY THE FUTURE DOES NOT NEED US
Overview
This section tackles the danger posed by science and technology unchecked by moral and ethical
standards. It primarily draws insights from William Nelson Joy's (2000) article, Why the future doesn't need
US, 1n evaluating contemporary human experience in the midst of rapid developments in science and
technology. Such experience will be discussed to see whether it strengthens and enlightens the human
person functioning in society or not.
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Identify William Nelson Joy's arguments as to why the future does not need us
2. Evaluate contemporary human experiences with science and technology; and
3. Write an essay that emphasizes the importance of humankind in visualizing the future.
Lesson Proper
Can you imagine a future without the human race? Do you think at robots and machines can
replace humans? Do you believe that there will come a time when human existence will be at the mercy of
robots and machines? Is it also possible that medical breakthroughs in the future may go terribly wrong that
a strain of drug-resistant viruses could wipe out the entire human race?
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For some, imagining a future without humans is nearly synonymous to the end of world. Many
choose not to speculate about a future where humans cease to exist while the world remains However, a
dystopian society void of human presence is the subject of many works in literature and film. The possibility
of such society is also a constant topic of debates.
In April 2000, William Nelson Joy, an American computer scientist and chief scientist of Sun
Microsystems, wrote an article for Wired magazine entitled Why the future doesn’t need us? In his article,
Joy warned against the rapid rise of new technologies. He explained that 21st-century technologies-
genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) -are becoming very powerful that they can potentially bring
about new classes of accidents, threats, and abuses. He further warned that these dangers are even more
pressing because they do not require large facilities or even rare raw materials-knowledge alone will make
them potentially harmful to humans.
Joy argued that robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology pose much greater threats than
technological developments that have come before. He particularly cited the ability of nanobots to self
replicate, which could quickly get out of control. In the article, he cautioned humans against
overdependence on machines. He also stated that if machines are given the capacity to decide on their
own, it will be impossible to predict how they might behave in the future. In this case, the fate of the human
race would be at the mercy of machines.
Joy also voiced out his apprehension about the rapid increase of computer power. He was also
concerned that computers will eventually become more intelligent than humans, thus ushering societies
into dystopian visions, such as robot rebellions. To illuminate his concern Joy drew from Theodore
Kaczynski's book, Unabomber Manifesto, where Kaczynski described that the unintended consequences
of the design and use of technology are clearly related to Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will
go wrong" Kaczynski argued further that overreliance on antibiotics led to the great paradox of emerging
antibiotic resistant strains of dangerous bacteria. The introduction of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)
to combat malarial mosquitoes, for instance, only gave rise to malarial parasites with multi drug resistant
genes.
Since the publication of the article, Joy's arguments against 21st- century technologies have
received both criticisms and expression of shared concern. Critics dismissed Joy's article for deliberately
presenting information in an imprecise manner that obscures the larger picture or state of things. For one,
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid (2001), in their article A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-
Gloom Technofuturists, criticized Joy's failure to consider social factors and only deliberately focused on
one part of the larger picture. Others go as far as accusing Joy of being a neo-Luddite, someone who
rejects
new technologies and shows technophobic leanings.
As a material, Joy's article tackles the unpleasant and uncomfortable possibilities that a senseless
approach to scientific and technological advancements may bring. Whether Joy's propositions are a real
possibility or an absolute moonshot, it is unavoidable to think of a future that will no longer need the human
race. It makes thinking about the roles and obligations of every stakeholder a necessary component of
scientific and technological advancement. In this case, it is preeminently necessary that the scientific
community, governments, and businesses engage in a discussion to determine the safeguards of humans
against the potential dangers of science and technology.
INFORMATION AGE
This lesson traces the development of the information age and discusses its impact on society. It
tackles the various ways the Information age and social media have influenced society and human lives.
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Trace the development of the information age from the introduction of Gutenberg's press up to the
era of social media,
2. Determine the impacts of the information age to society; and
3. Analyze the ways in which the information age and social media influence human lives.
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Lesson Proper
German goldsmith, Johannes Gutenberg, invented the printing press around 1440. This invention
was a result of finding a way to improve the manual, tedious, and slow printing methods. A printing press is
a device that applies pressure to an inked surface lying on a print medium, such as cloth or paper, to
transfer ink. Gutenberg's hand mold printing press led to the creation of metal movable type. Later, the two
inventions were combined to make printing methods faster and they drastically reduced the costs of printing
[Link] Gutenberg Press
The beginnings of mass communication can be traced
back to the invention of the
printing press. The development
of a fast and easy way of
disseminating information in print
permanently reformed the
structure of society. Political and
religious authorities who took
pride in being learned were
threatened by the sudden rise of
literacy among people. With the
rise of the printing press, the
printing revolution occurred
which illustrated the tremendous social change brought by the wide
circulation of information. The printing press made the mass production of
books possible which made books accessible not only to the upper class.
As years progressed, Calculations became involved in communication due to the rapid
developments in the trade sector. Back then, people who compiled actuarial tables and did engineering
calculations served as "computers”. During World War I, the Allies (U.S., Canada, Britain, France, USSR,
Australia, etc.), countries that opposed the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and
Bulgaria), were challenged with a serious shortage of human computers for military calculations. When
Source: . [Link] soldiers left for war, the shortage got worse, so the United States addressed the
problem by creating the Harvard Mark 7, a general purpose electromechanical
computer that was 50 feet long and capable of doing calculations in seconds that usually took people
hours. At the same time, Britain needed mathematicians to crack the German Navy's Enigma code. The
Enigma was an enciphering machine that the German armed forces used to securely send messages.
Alan Turing, an English mathematician, was hired in 1936 by the British Top-secret Government
Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park to break the Enigma code. His code-breaking methods
became an industrial process having
“Enigma M4” Cypher Machine 12,000 people working 24/7.
Source: .[Link]
To counteract this, the Nazis made
the Enigma more complicated having approximately 10114 possible
permutations of every encrypted message. Turing, working on the side of
the Allies, invented Bombe, an electromechanical machine that enabled
the British to decipher encrypted messages of the German Enigma
machine. This contribution of Turing along with other cryptologists
shortened the war by
two years (Munro, 2012).
In his paper On Computable Numbers, with an Application to
the Entscheidungsproblem, first published in 1937, Turing presented a theoretical machine called the
Turing machine that can solve any problem from simple instructions encoded on a paper tape. He also
demonstrated the simulation of the Turing machine to construct a single
Alan Turing Universal Machine. This became the foundation of computer science and
the invention of a machine later called a computer, that can solve any
Source:
.[Link]
9z7
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problem by performing any task from a written program (DeHaan, 2012).
In the 1970s, the generation who witnessed the dawn of the computer age was described as the
generation with "electronic brains.” The people of this generation were the first to be introduced to personal
computers (PCs). Back then, the Homebrew Computer Club, an early computer hobbyist group, gathered
regularly to trade parts of computer hardware and talked about how to make computers more accessible to
everyone. Many members of the club ended up being high profile entrepreneurs, including the founders of
Apple Inc. In 1976 Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Inc., developed the computer that made him
famous: The Apple 1., Wozniak designed the operating system, hardware, and circuit board of the
computer all by himself. Steve Jobs, Wozniak's friend, suggested to sell the Apple as a fully assembled
printed circuit board. This jumpstarted their career as founders of Apple Inc.
From 1973 onward, social media platforms were
introduced from variations of multi-user chat rooms; instant-
messaging applications (e.g., AOL, Yahoo messenger, MSN
messenger, Windows messenger); Bulletin-board forum
systems, game-based social networking sites (e.g.,
Facebook, Friendster, Myspace) and business-oriented social
networking websites (e.g., Xing); messaging, video and voice
calling services (e.g., Viber, Skype); blogging platform, image
and video hosting websites (e.g., Flicker); discovery and
dating oriented websites (e.g., Tagged, Tinder); video sharing Apple I, also called Apple-1 or Apple
Computer 1
services (e.g., YouTube); real-time social media feed
aggregator (e.g., Friend Feed); live-streaming (e.g., [Link], Source: . [Link]
[Link] ); photo-video sharing websites (e.g., Pinterest,
Instagram, Snapchat, Keek, Vine); and question-and-answer platforms (e.g, Quora). To date, these social
media platforms enable information exchange at its most efficient level.
The information age, which progressed from the invention of the printing press to the development
of numerous social media platforms, has immensely influenced the lives of the people. The impact of these
innovations can be advantageous or disadvantageous depending on the use of these technologies.
References
1. Quinto, E.J.M. & Nieva, A.D. (2018). Science, Technology and Society: Outcome-Based Module
(1st ed.) C & E Publishing, Inc. Quezon City Philippines.
2. Mcnamara, D.J., Valverde, V.M., & Beleno, III R. (2018). Science, Technology and Society (1 st ed).
C & E Publishing, Inc. Quezon City, Philippines.
3. Ballena, N.D.S., Bernal, R.D., Paquiz, L.G., Ramos, R.C., & Viet, L, C. (2004). Science Technology
and Society. Trinitas Publishing, Inc., Trinitas Complex, Pantoc Road, Pantoc, Meycauayan 3020
Bulacan.
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Compiled and Edited by: ALVIN M. MAHAWAN, LPT. MAED., COS Instructor, College of Engineering