Democratic Technologies and Materials

Other democracy issues:

"So the Footsie has tumbled again. Forgive me for asking, but where are the economists? As the nation approaches recession, an entire profession seems to have vanished over the horizon.....

Human actions are too mysterious and unpredictable to be liable to quantification and modelling. They are responsive to what the academic Paul Ormerod called "butterfly economics". Nudge steers, but does not order or plan.

This requires knowledge of the working of markets, incentives, expectations and panics. But converting micro-economics into macro has always been a dangerous game. Much has been made of the success of Spain's dirigiste banking regulators in putting security before runaway profit. But this was a triumph of politics over economics. Greenspan may laconically remark that "we can never have a perfect model of risk", but we can have alertness to risk and we can have caution.

Economics has long traded on being a science when it is not. In this it is like war. For a third of a century since the 1976 IMF crisis it has enjoyed great influence over British policy. Now it has met its Waterloo and a little humility would be in order. Once again economics must be rescued by that true master of all things, politics."


Simon Jenkins, When the going gets tough, economists go very quiet; Guardian, 9 July









Beyond Instrument


Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke 1917- : Profiles of the Future (1962)


Technology to some extent is the essence of life of social human beings, the essence of human nature in reflection of dynamic thoughts and movements. It is the basic theory against which we measure or compare thoughts, ideas and moves. 'Teche' in ancient Greece was synonymous with poeisis, which implies to significant role of technology in inspiring and in moving societies. It implies that poetry and technology were likewise in meaning making, in creating culture and materials, and in expanding communication and economies. In this sense technology finds powerful expression through its creative and novel products which are formulated by socio-economic features. Products made of materials do not have intrinsic meaning for human societies but to satisfy human needs and wants, hence their meanings are forged and interpreted by people and societies. 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 there are men and women in societies that have not yet acquired the capacity to advance their mental and physical engagements at the same pace. As a result, shortfalls to adjust to novel conditions have defined new boundaries. Hence, new divisions in perceiving socio-cultural applications emerge, which differentiate our use of technologies and materials.

Initially men sailing through the world of technology forged instruments that were perceived as traditionally ordinary but eventually they 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.

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 targeted 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. 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 move democratically beyond boundaries.

Our cognitive processes are measured by technology and shaped by technology which mediates our relationships with objects of the material and physical world. Technologies in progress have created new cultural contexts for understanding social interactions, for players in their relations with one another and in their relations with materials. These are projected in literacy materials as well. 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 and declare novel meanings, divisions and groups.

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.

Development and application of advanced technologies are references with which we redefine divisions and categories in modern societies. There is powerful divisional dimension to the process of analysing data and information which needs to be included in democratic decision making. 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. In this sense, technology is the means by which democracy is distributed. 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 technology such as nanotechnology in 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 June 2002 report of the National Science Foundation entitled Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance announces that the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science will bring about a “transformation of civilization” (Roco & Bainbridge, 2002, p. 21).

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. Application of nanotech, wireless technologies and computer chips are just a few of the current technologies influencing advanced societies while they are expected to extend the connection to all corners. How development will take shape and where growth will occur will be defined by technologies of the future along with our intellectual capacity for creative usage. It is with the new technology that lies potential advancement and empowerment with which societies thrive.



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