Impacts of Technology

For College Students and Adults of All Ages

Technology Challenged: Understanding Our Creations & Choosing Our Future  by Miguel F. Aznar. 

The audience for this book has been described as  adults "interested in better understanding our world" - which covers a broad array of readers!  According to the publisher, the book connects to a middle school curriculum on critical thinking and "helps parents and teachers support the learning process". 

About the topic:

"Technology has transformed our world from the first stone tools through development of agriculture, writing, printing, global transportation, global communication, computing, genetic engineering, and much more.  When we used the same technology as our parents and their parents, we needed no more than to know how to operate a few objects.  Today, technology's generations pass more quickly than human generations.  Further, our choices in education, career, politics, and health are predicated on rapidly changing technology.  How do we understand enough about our creations that we can make informed choices?  How can we choose our individual and collective future?"

The book has been described in the following way: "Stories from the Hawaiian Bobtail squid's use of bacteria to simulate moonlight to an Australian aboriginal tribe's mythology-based evaluation of axes and canoes illustrate a nine-step strategy for understanding and evaluating any technology.  By painting a big picture view of technology, this book offers context, an antidote to information overload.  From that perspective, it reveals the simple patterns underlying all technology, allowing us to see what does not change in a technological world of rapid change."

Availability: KnowledgeContext, 800 Brommer Street, Suite 28

Santa Cruz, CA 95062 ----  aznar@knowledgecontext.org

Also see: knowledgecontext.org/Reading/Technology_Challenged.htm

In his article [available at -- humanismtoday.org/vol8/schafer.pdf] David Schafer of the HUUManists begins by discussing what humanists believe and several affirmations of the naturalistic world view, e.g., that we need both reason and observation and that many important things can be known with very great confidence. He also stresses that science and technology are absolutely essential elements of our humanism. Other aspects of his article included these topics: "Many people seem to be afraid of what we might learn about nature", "Understanding of the human brain must be central to humanist thought", "We Humanists must take the lead in advancing objective science and humane technology", and "Humanity needs a Humanism allied with science and technology; without these Humanism is utterly feckless."

In an Appendix called "Some Notes for a Science Plank in a Future Humanist Platform", Dr. Schafer wrote:
A group of twelve to fifteen persons discussed ways Humanists might help to promote science and humane technology and to prevent abuses and excesses in the name of science and technology. We pondered linguistic nuances at length; nevertheless we agreed on half a dozen specific suggestions before time ran out:

As Humanists:
1. We affirm the validity of a body of knowledge, scientifically derived, and always subject to future modification.
2. We affirm the freedom of science to investigate, but its applications must be subject to society's informed guidance.
3. We seek to promote a better understanding of Humanism among scientists and of science among Humanists.
4. [To this end] we encourage the formation of a society of scientists who are Humanists.
5. Humanists should seek to be included in medical ethics committees.
6. Humanists must aggressively confront the ethical issues that arise out of a rational consideration of new scientific knowledge and capabilities.