Nye Readings
In Edwin Nye’s article titled “Can We Define “Technology”?” he discussed many interesting ideas about the evolution of technology. Nye opened with the idea that technology and human nature are inseparable. He talked about how certain tools were created for survival: building shelters, killing large animals, and controlling fire. Where as, others were created to conquer: knifes, guns, and other items that commit warfare and murder. Right after that he stated, “The tool often exists before the problem to be solved.” I find that statement very true. I often find myself trying to figure out what an item is meant to do and what it can be used for before realizing that it can fix a certain problem that has been puzzling me. Sometimes I even have the tool fix something that it is not meant too, but works perfectly fine for. It just reinforces the idea that every tool has multiple uses even if those uses were not thought of during the designing process. The next idea that Nye brought up was that tools are known through the body as much as they are known through the mind. He gave the example of kitchen utensils and how we know how to use them from observing others use them and remember the movement needed for them. I had not realized that before and now I am remembering all of the times that happened to me. A few that came to mind were riding a bike: I watched my sister ride, I tried it out, and I rode the bike. Now, I remember without realizing it how to keep myself center, how sharp I can take a turn, and all the other things that deal with bikes. It is weird knowing that my body remembers all of it as soon as I sit on a bike. Later on in the article, Nye brought up the definition of technology. He brought up the idea that technology is more related to art than it is to science. I took that idea as art is created from a blank page, as is new technology: you have to come up with it from scratch and see what works along the way. Where as, science has half of the work already done because it has to follow certain ideas and methods and facts are already known about how things will work in specific conditions. Lastly, when Nye said that people are now starting to see that technology was shaped by gender it finally clicked and I understood why the woman robot was called the “Machine Man” in Metropolis. Around the time Metropolis came out the word technology was being used as a masculine word. So, even though it was a woman, it represented state of the art technology and thus was deemed manly.
In Edwin Nye’s second article, titled “Does Technology Control Us?” he talked about technological determinism. He starts out with talking about two cultures that have turned their backs on certain technologies: the Japanese and the Amish. The Japanese gave up guns for cultural reason. Where as the Amish always weigh the technology’s impact on the community before accepting it or denying it. The one thing that came to mind when reading about this was that both of these cultures are deeply rooted in tradition and was it possible for an average person to close out technology without such a strong drive behind their decision. Later on he brings in North Africa giving up the wheel for use of transportation. With this one, their denying of the wheel was based off of it was not needed; it would be more effort trying to use it than it would be to just use camels. My thought process was based off of American giving up something because we were told to or asked to, could we do it or would we not be able to because we would not deem it important enough to give said item up. Another thing that Nye brought up was people see technology as natural. This confused me because nature, in my definition, deal with things that come from the earth and technology is not. Technology is an idea that can be used or not. Natural is part of nature, not man made, which is what technology is. After this he talks about Edward Tenner who talks about “the revenge of unintended consequences.” His main example is the computer. I had never thought of this before and it was interesting to see all of it come to light. I knew that people had medical issues from computer, but I never looked at people having to do more mundane tasks because secretaries were replaced with computers. Later Nye gets on the topic of due to technology work is split between multiple people. Everyone has a little piece of a bigger picture. That made me think that this might be why people don’t have pride in their work, they don’t work on the whole thing and thus they don’t see what their part did for it. As a result, they don’t feel proud of what they put into the project. The last main point he brought up was the idea that technologies developed more rapidly than society. His example for this was Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan had a large following when he talked about how communication had reshaped the way people saw the world. McLuhan also thought that electronic media was the central nervous system and thus it linked humanity together in a global network. Those statements made me think that as a result of easier communication it makes communication less personal. If you always talk to someone, then you take the conversation for granted and if we are all connected then we take talking to people in general for granted.
Questions:
What did Cicero mean by the “second nature” that humans had the ability to create by transforming the environment?
Can culture reasons overturn any/all forms of technology?
Without culture to influence technology does it cease to be important?