About The Course
What the Course is Not
• Not designed to teach specific technological
skills
• Not a refuge from history
What is Technology?
• Objects people create to extend their
capabilities (tools)
• Methods people devise to solve problems
• Materials people discover or invent to
create objects
• Human modifications of the environment
Broad View of Technology
• Inventions (things, materials, methods)
• Scientific discoveries behind inventions
• Changes in world-view that make
inventions possible
• Social institutions spawned by technology
• Values changes induced by technology
• Unanticipated effects of technology
History Happened to Real People
• They didn’t know how it was going to turn
out
• They felt pain and fear just like us
Technology is a real
intellectual triumph
Why were key inventions often
discovered so late?
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Stethoscope
Measurement of blood pressure
Antiseptics
Printing press
If you came to Earth from another
planet in 1100 A.D., where would
you expect Technology to develop?
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China?
Japan?
India?
Islamic World?
Meso-America?
Peru?
The Goldilocks Factor
• Isolation: enough for independent evolution,
but not enough to prevent external stimuli
• Fragmentation: Neither total central
authority nor total anarchy
• Diversity: Distinct cultures but with means
of interchange
• Challenge and Stress: enough to stimulate,
not enough to traumatize
Western Culture is a Serial
Culture
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Ancient Near East
Greek
Etruscan
Roman
Irish
Arabic
• Western Europe
• Britain
• America
The “What If” Factor
Autonomy
• People invent things because they see
themselves as agents of change
• People invent things because they can
benefit from the results
• Technology loosens social bonds, creates
new social niches and roles
• Increases expectations