TECH 1940 Science & Tech? Science vs. Tech?

Editor's Notes

• #3: From page 61 of Volti’s Society and Technological Change: “Science is directed at the discovery of knowledge for its own sake”
• #5: From Volti: “Much of the prestige accorded to science is the result of its supposed purity; science is thought to be an intellectual venture free from political, organizational, and economic constraints. The insulation of scientists from the demands of their patrons confers a sense of higher ethical standards; scientists are beholden to noth-ing but the internal demands of science. A great deal of recent scholarship has sharply questioned this assumption. As has been the case with recent studies of the history of technology, science has been described and analyzed as a social construc-tion. From this standpoint, scientific inquiry is not a disinterested, fact- driven search for truth, but a human creation that has been shaped by cultural patterns, economic and political interests, and gender- based ways of seeing the world. 13 For uncompromising social constructionists, successful scientific outcomes may have more to do with negotiation, the support of designated authorities, and resonance with prevailing attitudes than theoretical elegance or experimental evidence.”
• #6: How does the liver function? How many different species of this animal are there? Are we alone in the universe? What kinds of creatures live in the deepest depths of the sea? From Volti (65): “Technology’s role in stimulating scientific advance does not end with the provision of data, problems, and research opportunities. Technological development also plays a vital role in scientific advance by supplying devices and instruments that are essential for scientific inquiry. From early telescopes and galvanometers to today’s electron microscopes and computers, the products of technology have steadily increased our ability to observe and analyze the phenomena that science takes as objects of inquiry.”
• #7: From page 61 of Volti’s Society and Technological Change: “ Technology develops and employs knowledge in order to get something done” “ Some technologies draw directly on scientific research, while others make little use of it.”
• #8: From Volti, page 62: “In contrast, most engineers work under tighter constraints. Their employers expect results that have immediate applications and fall within a narrowly defined range of possibilities. A scientist may abandon a theory or an experiment in order to pursue a line of inquiry that unexpectedly arises during the course of his or her research. An engineer, however, rarely has this opportunity; there may be some room for serendipity, but the bridge has to be built within a given time frame and under definite budget constraints. For this reason, what separates scientific and technological inquiries may not be the motivations of individual practitioners, but the motivations of their employers and patrons.”
• #10: From Volti: “Technological problems can be often solved with no understanding of what is going on. As we have seen, throughout history many technologies were effectively applied even though the basic principles underlying their operation were poorly understood, if they were understood at all.” “ Although scientifically derived principles may emerge after the fact, many technologies have been guided almost exclusively by trial and error, with the successful ones informed by an intuitive sense of the right solution, and not by scientific truths. As Eugene Ferguson has observed, at the end of the nineteenth century there were no scien-tific principles that could be invoked during the design of the first motorcycles; the placement of the engine, fuel tank, and other major components could be deter-mined only through the actual construction and operation of motorcycles, without the benefit of scientific principles or other forms of existing knowledge.”
• #15: Show Geodesic dome video clip
• #18: Science will tell us how photosynthesis works and how plant absorb carbon dioxide, technology will use that information to develop green roofs.
• #20: Volti: “Technology’s role in stimulating scientific advance does not end with the provision of data, problems, and research opportunities. Technological development also plays a vital role in scientific advance by supplying devices and instruments that are essential for scientific inquiry. From early telescopes and galvanometers to today’s electron microscopes and computers, the products of technology have steadily increased our ability to observe and analyze the phenomena that science takes as objects of inquiry.”
• #21: According to Volti, both share traits such as optimism and progress, and both tend to use similar methodology (the “rationality” of testing a hypothesis, pulling-in data, etc.)