INSTITUTE FOR THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HPS308 TECHNOLOGY AND PROSPERITY FALL 2011

1 A widespread view of technology espoused both by laypeople and many technologists is that technology is neither good nor bad. It can be one or the other depending on the people who use it. This view needs to be examined because the systemic nature of modern technology and its intimate penetration of all aspects of modern life suggests that this view could be simplistic. There are others who raise the spectre of technology as an autonomous and impersonal force over which we have little control. We shall attempt to examine a number of issues related to these views in some detail, not to give answers but to promote reflection. I hope that this will lead into a broader and equally complex topic the relation of technology with its socioeconomic and cultural context which the modern engineer must understand in order to work responsibly in today's world. Instructor: Janis Langins, Rm VC310, Victoria College Tel: 416-978-4950. Email: j.langins@utoronto.ca. Lecture: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12 in BA1170. Office Hours: Thursdays 2-3 or by appointment. Tutorials: Fridays at 12 and 1 UC 256. Tutor: Sarah Kriger. Email:sarah.kriger@utoronto.ca Website: https://portal.utoronto.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp and navigate to the HPS308 site. Dates to Remember: September 13 Tuesday Lectures begin September 16 Friday First tutorial (No preparation required) October 7 Essay Plan Due October 14 Friday Tutorial Cancelled November 3 Thursday Last day for students to drop courses November 8 Lecture Cancelled November 24 Essay due (in class) December 2 Friday Tutorial Cancelled December 6 Tuesday Last lecture December 9 to December 20 Examination period Please note that besides the syllabus the above website contains additional information such as lecture outlines and announcements. You should consult it regularly, especially if you have missed a class. It is expected that every student visit this website regularly for lecture outlines and announcements. Students should also sign up for UTORmail (its free for all students registered at the University of Toronto) as the most appropriate provider for your email communications with the course website. Only messages sent via UTORmail can be guaranteed to get through. Please put HPS308 in your subject heading when communicating with me by email. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence (as well as being a low down thieving and stupid offence) that can ruin your university career. In this course the academic penalties against plagiarism apply to the most insignificant written work you submit. It is your responsibility to understand what plagiarism is. If you have doubts in this regard, do not hesitate to contact the lecturer or your tutor. Information about plagiarism is also available on the Blackboard website for this course.

2 There are no textbooks for the course but you are strongly encouraged to purchase the recommended books below, which are available at the University of Toronto Bookstore in the Koffler Centre (NW corner of St. George and College). They are also available at the reserve desk at the Engineering Library for two hour in library use only: Florman, Samuel C. (1994). The existential pleasures of engineering, New York: St. Martin's Press. Galbraith, John Kenneth. (1985). The new industrial state, 4th ed., Boston, Houghton Mifflin. Mokyr, Joel. (1990). The Lever of Riches. New York, Oxford University Press. Please note that this books is also available electronically at the U of T library (URL http://main.library.utoronto.ca/eir/EIRdetail.cfm?Resources__ID=741310). David E. Nye, Technology matters: questions to live with. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2006. Please note that this book is also available electronically at U of T library (URL http://link.library.utoronto.ca/eir/EIRdetail.cfm?Resources__ID=382696&T=F). Tenner, Edward. (1996). Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. New York, Vintage.

Accessibility Needs: The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations for a disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom, or course materials (see http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/accessibility), please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible at disability.services@utoronto.ca. Course Organization and Requirements: The course will be a standard course consisting of two hours of lecture and one hour of tutorial each week. Students will be required to read, think, and write about ideas on technology and society that have a general relevance to engineering and engineers discussed in the lecture part of the course. Lectures are not compulsory but students are strongly advised to attend because questions based on them will make up the bulk of the tests. However, tutorials are compulsory and have a correspondingly heavy weight in evaluation. Tutorial Reports 30% Over the course of the semester students will be required to read EIGHT short papers assigned for discussion in the tutorials. Students will write a short report on the assigned papers. The report will be typed and double spaced and be 500 words (2 double spaced typewritten pages) in length and will be submitted in hard copy at the beginning of the tutorial. Students should avoid going 100 words above the 500 word limit (please indicate the word count on every paper). Reports will be marked out of 5 points and the total of their SIX best papers will be included in their final mark. Students should try to write all eight paper reports. By dropping their worst marks they can improve their final grade. The flexibility in dropping your lowest marks for these reports is intended to permit students to skip a writing assignment because of illness or prepare for a major assignment in some other course. It is not intended to permit students to take holidays. Moreover, decisions to promote students to the next grade category in borderline cases will take into account the number of assignments students have attempted. There will be an attendance and participation mark worth a possible 20 points added at the end of the semester).

Final Essay 30% There is no midterm test in this course but there is an essay. The basis for your essay will be one of the topics or tutorial readings that we will be covering. You should choose this topic well in advance and begin work on your essay immediately. I expect a minimum of two books to provide the material for your essay. Write an essay of about 2500 to 3000 words (typewritten, double-spaced) that has some relation with the topic you have chosen to discuss and develop. Students are strongly urged to avail themselves of the writing clinics that are put on by your colleges. You will find links to the writing services at the University of Toronto on the Blackboard site for this course or you can access it directly at http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/. Writing is a key part of your education and is as important or even more so as attending lectures and reading. It is a difficult and often frustrating art that takes a lifetime of practice. Almost everyone needs help in this area and you should take full advantage of such help. The essay is due on Thursday November 24, , immediately after the class. Late essays will not be accepted except for serious medical reasons that have been brought to my attention at least three weeks before the deadline since I expect you to be almost finished your essays by the beginning of November. (Any other special consideration for incomplete work or tests that is requested, and may be denied, will also require documentation from your college or faculty Registrar.) Because of the stringency of the requirement (no late essays accepted) you should start working on your essay early. An essay written the night before submission will be a bad essay and may occasionally be no essay at all if you are ill or an emergency comes up. Avoid this by choosing your books, submitting your choices for approval, and submitting an essay plan to your tutor by October 7. You are encouraged to submit this before the deadline but October 7 is the last possible date. The essay plan should consist of about 200 words the books you have chosen to use for your essay, a very brief description of those books, and a rough outline of what you will be writing about. You should also indicate on it whether you have used the essay writing service of your college. Two copies should be submitted, one being kept by your tutor, and if you make any substantial changes, e.g. picking another book, you must inform the tutor. An essay plan does not lock you rigidly into following it but should serve as your platform from which to work on your essay. Please note the weeks when tutorials are cancelled and use them to work on your essay. Essays submitted without previously having submitted an essay plan by the deadline will be penalized 5%. Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site. Please read these terms and if you do not wish to participate in Turnitin, please inform me at the beginning of the course. Students will need to enrol in Turnitin and to do this they will need the Enrolment Password (hps308) and the Class ID (4449583). The final examination will be 2 hours in length. It will have essay type questions and with no aids permitted and will be based on lectures and tutorials. Percentage of total mark in course evaluation: Best of 6 tutorial reports Essay Final Examination Tutorial Participation 30% 30% 20% 20%

TUTORIAL MEETINGS AND READINGS *All readings are available online on library website except those asterisked 1. Sept. 16 INTRODUCTORY TUTORIAL 2. Sept. 23 Nye, David E. (2006). Technology matters : questions to live with. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, ch. 1. 3. Sept. 30 Mokyr, Joel. (1990). The Lever of Riches. New York, Oxford University Press, Ch. 1 and 3. 4. Oct. 7 *Florman, Samuel C. (1994). The existential pleasures of engineering, New York: St. Martin's Press, Part 2. 5. Oct. 14 TUTORIAL CANCELLED 6. Oct. 21 Chandler, Alfred D. (1977). The Visible hand: The Managerial revolution in American business, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, ch. 4. 7. Oct. 28 Servos, John W. (1996). "Engineers, businessmen, and the academy: The beginnings of sponsored research at the University of Michigan." Technology and Culture, 37:4(Oct): 721762. 8. Nov. 4 Carr, Nicholas. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid?: What the Internet is doing to our Brains. The Atlantic (July-August). 9. Nov. 11 TUTORIAL CANCELLED 10. Nov. 18 Tenner, Edward. (1995). "The Technological Imperative." The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 19:1(Winter): 26-34. 11. Nov. 25 Gusterson, Hugh. (2000). "How Not to Construct a Radioactive Waste Incinerator." Science, Technology, & Human Values 25:3(July): 332-351. 12. Dec. 2 TUTORIAL CANCELLED TOPICS 1. What is Technology? A difficult and controversial question 2. The Historical Development of Technology 3. Critics and Boosters of Technology 4. Technological Pessimism and Optimism 5. Technological Systems and Normal Accidents 6. The Birth of Modern Management 7. Technology and Innovation 8. The Technostructure and Corporate Capitalism 9. Path Dependence and Things Biting Back 10. Technology Assessment 11. Technological Fixes 12. Democracy and Technology 13. Globalizing What?