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Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives on
Society, Science, and Technology]

Timothy Moy

Science and technology shape the modern world. Some people even argue that science and technology are the modern world. In this seminar, we examined some of the complex interactions between science, technology, and modern society. By analyzing the historical development and consequences of several crucial areas of science and engineering (like biology, physics, and computers), we hoped to better understand how these forces affect one another and converge to shape the modern world.

In the first quarter of the seminar, we examined how our definitions of fact, meaning, and truth have been completely bound up with the idea of science since the 18^th century. With our discussions centering on Pinch and Collins’s survey of the sociology of science (The Golem: What You Should Know about Science), we considered how the very idea of science has played a crucial role in shaping the modern worldview.

In the second quarter, we focused our discussions on the history and impact of technology. Our reading included Pinch and Collins’s The Golem at Large: What You Should Know about Technology and Rudi Volti’s Society and Technological Change.

In our third quarter, we studied how computers are re-casting life in the modern world. We focused on the history of computing and how this emerging technology represents the most significant revolution in communication and media, for better or worse, since the advent of television.

Finally, we turned out attention to genomics. Based on readings from Matt Ridley’s Genome, Nussbaum and Sunstein’s Clones and Clones, and an educational kit from the American Association for the Advancement of Science entitled "Your Genes, Your Choices," we discussed some of the technical details, and many of the moral and social implications, of genetic engineering (in medicine, agriculture, reproductive choices, and so on).

Curriculum units drew on this broad spectrum of content and issues, and included examinations of cloning, genetically-modified food, computers and literacy, astronomy and society, and DNA fingerprinting.