"The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology"

A detailed Summary of "The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology"

"The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology"

Technology can be regarded as a phenomenon with vast uncertainties. Technological change is rapid and we are struggling to keep up to date with the latest advances, while learning new ones and trying to prepare for the next changes proposed for the future. In order to do so, however, we need to be clear about what we mean, and what we consider to be a technology and evaluate some of the assumptions of our understanding of our technologically advanced society.

In 'The Golem at Large, What we should know about technology' The authors' main purpose is to show their audience that we trust technology too much and don't take into consideration that human error occurs. Much of the world of technology, as suggested by the authors, is built on trust: "Trust that the engineers have done their job responsibly, trust that they have the right expertise to do the job properly. " The idea that even the best intentions go wrong, and that even well designed technology can go wrong at times. They also emphasize that we tend to blame technical failure rather than the human consumption failing itself. By contrast, they chose to link technology to the golem. The golem was a creature fro

To back up some of this evidence, the author's try and capture some of the publics viewpoints of each case study. As quoted in the book from the Chernobyl and the Cumbrian Sheepfarmers, "Rather than admitting to the uncertainties, they made false claims which in the long run being unsustainable. This encouraged the farmers to change their views of scientists and watch them beck and call to their government masters." This is exactly the point that Pinch and Collins are trying to prove. Should we or should we not have trust in the system of technology or should we go on believing what the so called experts tell us. In cases of technological failure, such as the space shuttle, they say, "Invariably humans are accused of causing the failure rather than the failure being recognized as one of a complex technology." Their point also is that we tend always to go for the more human explanation when technologies go wrong. In the cases of the Chernobyl nuclear fallout, where British farmers quickly saw the effects on their animals, and of AIDS, where victims offered advice ,but often bad, the book makes the point that expertise is where knowledge is. "Lay people can have expertise, That doesn't mean that one voice is as good as another, but that people can contribute and gain expertise. Scientists shouldn't reject that." The message they are trying to give is that no one should deny expert advise. Particularly there should be trust in the work of scientists and technologists they are the experts. But this is something that must be decided by the public.

It would seem that the audience that they are trying to capture in this book, I think, are the type of people that pay close attention to media that occur with these type of events. The media seems to play a big role in what many people think are real or truthful events. Myself alone, had no idea that the Patriot missile was so deceiving, but through the deception of the media, I was brought to

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Pinch Collins, Fuel Flasks, War Patriot, Cumbrian Sheepfarmers, patriot missile, space shuttle, trust technology, challenger space shuttle, audience trust technology, trust system, technology golem, challenger space, golem technology, audience trust, human error,

Approximate Word count = 1313
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science