A Look at Sources (Assign 5)

In Technology Matters, David Nye discusses tool use and humans. He says that tool use is not unique to humans, but intelligent apes use tools too. Nye says, “Technologies are not foreign to “human nature” but inseparable from it” (Technology Matters, p. 2). We have evolved to use tools. We have opposable thumbs which give us a precision grasp, which helps us grasp tools. Nye believes that technology is not for basic needs but for social reasons. In chapter one Nye uses Beniger’s The Control Revolution as a source. In Beniger’s book he shows that he believes technology is any extension of a natural process. He uses the example of human breathing underwater as a technology. He argues the human brain is a technology because it probably developed because of the interaction with tools (The Control Revolution, p. 9). In the Notes section of Nye’s book he writes, “2. I will not try to make this argument, but some scholars contend that the brain developed in interaction with tool use and therefore should be considered a human technology. See e.g. Beniger 1986, p. 9”. Nye clearly states that he will not make this same argument that Beniger does. I think Nye decided to leave this part out because he doesn’t completely agree with it. I think Nye uses this passage because of Beniger’s definition of technology and agrees with parts of it. Beniger talking about human abilities as technology probably made Nye think of evolution and our opposable thumbs. I don’t think that Nye completely agrees with Beniger but used his work because it gave him ideas that he probably didn’t have before reading Benigers work. However, Nye does touch base on the brain developing and having an enlarged human cortex. I think Nye’s discussion could have included Beniger’s idea of human technologies even if he doesn’t agree with it. I think here that some of the stakeholders would be the scientific community but not all of them because some do not agree with what Nye is saying. They are left out because he doesn’t include the brain as a technology.
In chapter nine of Technology Matters, David Nye talks about how we use technology to protect us. We have made many improvements and have kept people and cities safer. Our whole world, for the most part, relies on these technologies to keep us safe. For example, at night we sleep comfortably in our beds knowing that the alarm system will go off if there is an intruder. What happens if something came unplugged and the alarm system was off without you realizing, you are then vulnerable without you even knowing it. Sometimes technology fails us. Nye says that nowadays when something goes wrong it is no longer thought of as an act of God but because of technology and the people running it. The more advanced it is the more catastrophic it can be, a chain reaction can happen (Technology Matters, p. 161-162). In this chapter Nye uses an example form Chiles book entitled Inviting Disasters. Chiles believes that we are too focused on technology, he says, “We have been hard at work for more than two centuries now, building a world out of cold iron that is very far from our ancient instincts and traditions, and becoming more so” (Inviting Disasters, p. 2). We are so focuses on technology that sometimes we don’t see the bigger picture. All of these technologies have high consequences. We rely on technology too much when it can be faulty, Chiles writes, “A lot of us are offering our lives these days to machines and their operators, about which we know very little except that occasionally things go shockingly wrong” (Inviting Disasters, p. 6). We don’t have the knowledge but we go along with it anyways and put our lives in technologies hands, thus giving technology the control. I think that Chiles wants people to realize that normal little mistakes can do major damage when it comes to technology. He shows how one little thing can escalade to a big disaster with the example of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams. There was heavy rainfall in China and problems with dams which lead to dams failing which lead to more water flowing to lower dams that also failed, totaling 62 dams and deaths at 26,000+ (Inviting Disasters, p. 303). Which leads me to Nye; he also used this example from Chiles’ book. I think Nye used Chiles as a source because he agrees with him. They are both arguing the same thing. I don’t think that Nye left anything out because he is just using the same example and does not go into much detail of what Chiles thoughts are. I think in Inviting Disasters, he brings us some interesting points in his introduction that Nye could have also used to further his discussion on technology’s security or danger. I think that some of the steakholders here are the human population in general that are exposed to these disasters and the government too. Engineers are stakeholders that are not really addressed.
I think that Chiles brought us so many things that I would like to include in my final research paper. I want to continue my topic of control, does technology have the control? In Chiles’ introduction to Inviting Disasters he brings up many solid points that I have not considered before. For example he says, “While the human race remains the same genetically as it was many millennia ago, our technological world careens ahead daily” (Inviting Disasters, p. 4). I thought this was very interesting, in my previous papers I have touched base on the role knowledge plays in the control factor. But I never thought about how humans are genetically the same as they have been for many years, which also got me to thinking how advanced technology is compared to us. Yes, humans have created the technology but few of them have the knowledge. The average human is not equipped with this knowledge which gives the technology that is so far advanced the control. Also he talks about how we offer our lives up to machines, we rely on these machines, and we trust these machines even when they cause huge disasters. We continue to trust them even when they have wronged us. Why is this? We keep running back them after they have hurt us. I can’t help but think of all the women in the world who have been battered by their husbands or all the children who have been hit by their parents but every time (not always) they go back to them, they love them anyways. Why do we do this to ourselves? There have been women and children who have taken a stand and walked away, will we as a society ever do this? Will we walk away from technology? When will we have had enough?