NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology is application of novel behaviour that occurs at the nano-scale to solve real-life problems. This discipline requires a breadth of understanding that is much wider than just the equations and scientific principles that underlie that behaviour. This introductory module will give an overview of the current state of the technology as well as sketching out the implications of these new technologies for safety, regulation, innovation and will give an overview of the societal and environmental implications.
www.cpd.conted.ox.ac.uk

Goods have no natural meaning, their meaning is the result of sociocultural construc-tion and interpretation. To determine what is a just distribution of the good we have to determine what it means to those for whom it is a good. In the medical, the politi-cal, and the commercial spheres there are different goods — medical treatment, po-litical office, and money — which are allocated by means of different allocation or distributive practices: medical treatment on the basis of need, political office on the basis of desert, and money on the basis of free exchange. What ought to be prevented, and often is prevented as a matter of fact, is the dominance of particular goods. A good is called dominant if the individuals that have it, because they have it, can com-mand a wide range of other goods.
Van Den Hoven et al, Nano-Technology and Privacy: On Continuous Surveillance Outside the Panopticon; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org




For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of a horse, the rider was lost;
For want of a rider, a message was lost;
For want of a message the battle was lost;
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost!

Small variations in initial conditions result in huge, dynamic transformations in concluding events.




Looking Beyond the Instruments

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. -John Locke, Essay on Human Understanding




Technology to some extent is the essence of life of social human beings, the essence of human nature combined with dynamic thoughts and movements. It is the basic theory against which we measure or compare thoughts, ideas and movements. 'Teche' in ancient Greece was synonymous with poeisis, implying to significant role of technology in inspiring and in moving societies. In this sense poetry and technology were equally playing part in meaning making, in creating culture and materials, but also in connecting societies that would contribute to economies. Historically, advances in our understanding of material process have exceeded advances in our understanding of social processes. As a result, vast social potential has been created, but men and women in societies have not yet acquired the capacity to advance their mental engagements at the same pace.

Wireless technologies and computer chips are just a few of the current technologies influencing the urban environment while they are expected to extend the connection to all corners. How cities will be developed and where growth will occur will be defined by the technologies of the future as well as our intellectual capacity for creative usage. It is with the new technology that lies potential advancement and empowerment with which societies thrive.

Goods have no natural meaning, their meaning is the result of sociocultural construction and interpretation. Technologies have created new cultural contexts for understanding social interactions, for players as well as for objects. The technological texts are symbols for group connectedness, and other ways of writing and reading. Decoding categorical paradigms such as body, mind and machine allows us to refashion social categories and hierarchies. There is powerful divisional dimension to the process of analysing data and information which needs to be included in decision making process. Our cognitive processes are measured by technology and shaped by technology which mediates our relationships with objects of the material and physical world.

Initially men sailing through the world of technology forged instruments that were perceived as traditionally ordinary and managed to have freshen them up, producing contemporary function and image. An object made of a component draws the fact as to how groups see materials differently: either for their functionality or aesthetic stimulation, or simply unfamiliarity. Whether material is used and viewed for beautiful reflection of the light or to improve resistance to rusting, is the matter of choice.

The question is how different we see materials in the way we perceive aesthetics, arts, language, communication, culture and relationships? how differently critiques take position in our relations with materials? The way we react to materials influence manufacturers and intrigue the rethinking force behind social categories and hierarchies. As we move further, technology imitates material. When plastics first came on the market people were uneasy with the new material but when it was shaped like something familiar to use and were affordable, men and women made use of them in different ways. Environment and space affect us in a similar way. Just as caring for the environment has to maintain a balancing act between many things since some has bigger impact than others.

Designers of the Jaguar car since 1940 have used different techniques in improving the image that is associated in popular culture with fame and fortune. And to this end are targeting light metals that are often used to reduce the weight of components and structures. Strength to weight ratios together with stillness and resistance to buckling are the focus in this enterprise, where sheet has to meet demanding requirements such as formability and the minimum gauge to provide the maximum weight.

Elsewhere, in '1995' the Carbon Fibre reinforced composite of the high strength Kayak that weight only 6 kg was used by Lynn Simpson when she won the Gold Medal for Britain in the world Slalom Championship.

Jaguar has gone under further improvement. The super efficient Hi-tech and highly sensitive injectors made of material called peizoelectric polymers have managed to over come many problems of the previous engine. This urge for improvement and growth is an endowment of human beings, living organisms compelled to develop by a pressure within themselves, which in turn gives life and energy to the growth of the instruments and systems they create. The theory has to outline enabling space and describe rules and regulations to allow growth and development to be placed at the centre.

Social behaviours, skills, attitudes, customs, traditions, systems, formal organizations, non-formal institutions, cultural values; and technical language, data, facts, information, beliefs, opinions, systems of thought, ideas, theories, and spiritual values-all of which interact and influence each other to impact the course of human development. The advancement of diverse groups as a condition to the new social order is expected to be engineered by people from all divisions and should not be seen in isolation for any group issue. Technology Regime and Mind-set is based on democratic use of instruments, being the only way to build a sustainable, just and developed society.

A theory of development should aim at a knowledge that will enable society from multi dimensional aspects to more consciously and effectively put in practice its development potentials utilizing new instruments productively. The first challenge is to select the right materials for the job. The priority is to match the properties of the materials to the task to be performed.

Strategic implications of a wide range of global trends such as the new economy, the digital society, financial services, biotechnology, health care, lifestyle changes, consumer behaviour, public policy, corporate ethics, and social responsibility needs the engineering of a new social development paradigm. The purpose is to develop and share a common framework composed of easily understood, scientifically based principles that can serve as a basis to move society toward sustainability.



References:


- The British Museum of Science and Society, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

- Royal Academy of Arts, London, Luxury in Living, Italian Design Exhibition, www.luxuryinliving.com

- The Urban Land Institute: http://www.uli.org/AM/Template.cfm

- Champion A, Flight From the Cities, Home Alone; School of Geography, Politics, and Sociology University of Newcastle

- Dixon P, Futurewise: Six Faces of Global Change; Global Change Ltd. London

- Jennifer James, Thinking in the Future Tense; Urban/Cultural Anthropologist, Jennifer James Inc

- Textuality — an open, infinite process that is meaning-generating and subverting.
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/v3/servlet/ebr?essay_id=seamanr2&command=view_essay

- www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk- Ageing Society, Vol 16, No 2, 2

- The Oxford Times, May 25, www.theoxfordtimes.net/display.var.1424224.0.0.php

- Bandura, Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1986

- Colcombe. S.J. et al. Medical. Science 61,1166 - 1170, 2006

- Gosden, C., Social Being and Time, Blackwell Publishers, 1994

- Van Den Hoven et al, Nano-Technology and Privacy: On Continuous
Surveillance Outside the Panopticon; http://jmp.oxfordjournals.org

- Snow D, White C, Morril C; Together Alone, Personal Relationships in Public Places, Univ of California Press, 2005

- World Bank; Health Systems Development, June 2005; www.worldbank.org