3 - Do artifacts have politics? - Winner

Question 1

Which are the two extreme position on artifacts politics?

Answer 1

1. Social determination
2. Technological determinism

Question 1

What is social determination of technology?

Answer 1

Idea that only values of technology are reflected by embedding context (value is given by use => technology has no value itself)

Question 2

What is technological determinism?

Answer 2

NAIVE idea that technologies are unmediated by context

Question 3

What is the main problem with social determination of technology?

Answer 3

Implies technological objects have no role, they are just means

Question 4

What is the main problem with technological determinism?

Answer 4

Does not consider the context in which a technology is used

Question 5

What is technological politics and why is it called this way?

Answer 5

Framework to consider momentum of large systems & response and adaptation of society to them
Technological = related to modern artifice
Politics = distribution of power/authority + related activities

Question 6

Which are the two positions about artifacts which have politics?

Answer 6

1. Political-enforcing: enforce a specific political vision
2. Inherently political: highly compatible with/require a specific society structure

Question 7

Make some examples of political-enforcing artifacts

Answer 7

Moses’ racist overpasses (New York, ’20s)
Pneumatic molding machines used against strikes (Chicago, ’80s)
Tomato automatic harvesters (California, ’40s)

Question 8

In which ways a political vision can be enforced by an artifact and how is it possible to happen?

Answer 8

1. By design & implementation (Moses): values embedded prior to any use
2. At use (pneumatic molders): values are pursued through a certain use of the artifact
3. By having bias towards a certain direction (tomato harvesters): values REPRESENTED by technology itself (independently by any design/implementation/use choice)

Usually auto-fueled circle between technological development and society components (eg: automatization & industry)

Question 9

Which are possible choices to be made during the technology development process and how they are characterized?

Answer 9

1. Development & adoption: yes/no question, starting point
2. Implementation details: even smallest can have huge impact + embed developers’ vision + become framework for future developments (due to compatibility/habits => reduce variety over time + influence people’s lives)

Question 10

Make an example of inherently political artifacts

Answer 10

Plato’s ship cannot be run democratically
Engels’ large factories cannot run without centralized system
Power plants (nuclear, but not only) cannot run without a techno-scientific industrial-military elite to manage them

Question 11

In which ways an artifact can be inherently political?

Answer 11

1. Requiring specific social conditions
2. Being highly compatible with specific social conditions

Question 12

How conditions required by/compatible with an inherently political artifact can be classified?

Answer 12

1. Internal to the use of that artifact (eg: factory does not require hierarchical government outside of it, just to run it)
2. External to the use of the artifact (eg: atomic weapons need elite which control them to be related with government, in addition to internal conditions)

Question 13

What are the main shadow points in defining if a specific social condition is required by an artifact and what are the consequences?

Answer 13

1. Difficult to distinguish between unavoidable links and established patterns
2. Requirement definitions not cut-clean => moral requirements overlooked for practical ones

As consequence: technology defined political when widely accepted (ie exists at least a pattern) that practical requirements eclipse ethical ones (because difficult to settle which one is “more required”)