Science as a Dialogue
How is technology described?
What it is and does, not by machines
What is the Actor Network Theory?
When humans and technology act on the other linking together in a kind of network of mutual consequence.
Who coined the term Black Box?
Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar.
What is something that disasters allow for within a community?
It can bring the community together which can allow for members to recover both individually and collectively.
What is technological somnambulism?
"When you willingly sleepwalk through the process of reconstituting the conditions of human existence"
What is something supporters of technology say?
They often claim that there is little we can do once the Pandora's box of technology has been opened and that we had better make way for the changes that are bound to result.
Who invented the Actor Network Theory?
Bruno Latour
What is the Black Box?
It means that the end results of science may seem logically defined from the outset but actually compile over time as a result of many debates where one idea won the day over another.
What realm does a disaster stay in when it is considered natural/super natural?
The realm of natural conscience.
Who came up with the idea of technological somnambulism?
Langdon Winter
This argument belongs with which sociologist? "Humans make technology and technology makes humans."
Bruno Latour
What does the Actor Network do?
It helps us think about the inconvenience of the world while at the same time recognizing our own constructions of our experiences of that inconvenience.
What happens if you lose sight of a black box's inner components?
It can have some serious environmental, human, and economic consequences.
What happens when we ignore our social ecological ties?
A corrosive community forms. This is a place where community itself becomes soiled, ruined, and fractured and people flounder in a deep, unshakable malaise.
What is are the three important aspects of technological somnambulism?
Phenomenology, Culture, and Politics
What does pragmatist philosophy teach?
A thing is what it does.
What does Andrew Pickering call networks?
Mangles - constantly shifting mixtures of material and human agency that are always to a degree of unpredictability.
How can a black box become a substantial error?
The layers of the black boxes can continue to layer assumption upon assumption.
What are the three features of human-induced disasters?
The crumbling of trust and the shredding of community ties. A chronic social trauma that victims only slowly recover from if at all. A pervasive sense of dread about what the future will bring.
What is Y2K an example of?
A cultural phenomenon where technology is impacted by culture and becoming a fear tactic.
What was Weber's point of view on science?
To measure the world and to refine our methods of thinking, those who pick the fruits of science are to decide what is best and not the scientists themselves, these actions are best left to philosophers and seers.
What did the Fukushima Daichii power plant do in accordance with the Actor Network?
It set off agency in every direction which resulted in a mangle of money, policy, scientific boundary work, and black boxing produced the tragic outcome.
Besides the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, what other institutions can black boxes formed by boundary making appear?
Individual ideology and self-interest.
What are the two dimensions we must look at to understand the potential for technological systems catastrophic failure?
If a systems interactions are linear or complex and if a system is loosely coupled or tightly coupled.
They become the social structure that shape our needs and interests.