the real world of technology book review
In her book, The Real World of Technology (1999), Ursula M. Franklin argues that technology has a disruptive effect on humanity. If left-unchecked technology will eventually destroy society as we know it. Franklin illustrates her point by focusing on the effects technology has had on society and cultures in the past. She uses examples from China before the Common Era to the Roman Empire, with a majority of examples coming form the last one hundred and fifty years. Such as the Industrial Revolution and the invention of electronic mail. Franklin contends that for society's sake, people must question everything before accepting new technologies into their world. In the book, Franklin's argument urges people to come together and participate in public reviews and discuss or question technological practices that lead to a world that is designed for technology and not for society. The Real World Of Technology attempts to show how society is affected by every new invention that comes onto the market and supposedly makes life more easy going and hassle free while making work more productive and profitable. The lectures argue that "technology has built the house in which we live" (Franklin, p.1) and that this house is continually cha
nging and being renovated. There is very little human activity outside of the house, and all in habitants are affected by the "design of the house, by the division of its space, by the location of its doors and walls." (p.1). Franklin claims that; rarely does society step outside of the house to live, when compared with generations past. The goal for leaving the house is not to enter the natural environment, because in Franklin's terms "environment essentially means what is around us... that constructed, manufactured, built environment that is the day-in-day-out [sic] setting of much of the contemporary world of technology." (p.89). Nature today is seen as a construct instead of as a "force or entity with its own dynamics." (p.85). The book claims that society vies nature the same way as society views infrastructure as "something that is there to accommodate us, to facilitate or be part of our lives, subject to our planning." (p.85). Franklin writes in-depth about infrastructure and especially technological infrastructure. She claims that since the Industrial Revolution, corporations as well as governments using public funds have invested heavily into technological infrastructures and that: the growth and development of technology has required as a necessary prerequisite a support relationship from governments and public institutions that did not exist in earlier times. (p.61). Franklin feels that the current environmental crisis that is facing the world--polluted air and water, acid rain and global warming to name a few, are due to the infrastructures built to support "technology and its divisible benefits..." (p.67). Because of the newfound relationship between government and the private sector and the fact that these infrastructures can not be built without the governments of the world, the
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Approximate Word count = 1221
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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