Social Impacts of Technology LO15709

Vana Prewitt (vprewitt@mail.rdu.bellsouth.net)
Sun, 09 Nov 1997 20:28:20 -0800

Replying to LO15601 --

Walter Derzko wrote:
> What methods or questions are you using/asking yourself to anticipate the
> social impacts of a new invention, technology or any human artifact ? Is
> there a basic core list?

It is interesting that we have been asked to think about the SOCIAL
impacts of technology, and yet the questions posed by our colleague are,
to me, technology focused.

> 1)What does a technology enhance ?
> 2)What does a technology obsolesce?
> 3)What does a technology retrieve ?
> 4)What does a technology flip or reverse into at the extreme
> 5) Does the technology /artifact promote or inhibit experiential and
> reflective thinking ?---------------------

No doubt, it is my limited imagination that makes me want to work from the
human perspective to understand human impact, but the questions I ask are:

1) what will the impact be on any given individual?
2) what will it do to families?
3) will it change the way we communicate with one another?
4) will it change the way we think about ourselves?
5) will it change the way we think about others?

Those are the five core questions that always come to mind when I consider
the impact on human lives of new technologies.

sincere regards,
Vana Prewitt
vprewitt@bellsouth.net

-- 

Vana Prewitt <vprewitt@mail.rdu.bellsouth.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>