Social involvement in technological advances

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There are three points at which there must be some social involvement in technological innovation: social need, social resources, and a sympathetic social ethos. In default of any of these factors it is unlikely that a technological innovation will be widely adopted or be successful.

The sense of social need must be strongly felt, or people will not be prepared to devote resources to a technological innovation. The thing needed may be a more efficient cutting tool, a more powerful lifting device, a laboursaving machine, or a means of utilizing new fuels or a new source of energy. Or, because military needs have always provided a stimulus to technological innovation, it may take the form of a requirement for better weapons. In modern societies, needs have been generated by advertising. Whatever the source of social need, it is essential that enough people be conscious of it to provide a market for a product that can meet the need.

Social resources are similarly an indispensable prerequisite to a successful innovation. Many inventions have foundered because the social resources vital for their realization--the capital, materials, and skilled personnel--were not available. The notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci are full of ideas for helicopters, submarines, and airplanes, but few of these reached even the model stage because resources of one sort or another were lacking. The resource of capital involves the existence of surplus productivity and an organization capable of directing the available wealth into channels in which the inventor can use it. The resource of materials involves the availability of appropriate metallurgical, ceramic, plastic, or textile substances that can perform whatever functions a new invention requires of them. The resource of skilled personnel implies the presence of technicians capable of constructing new things and devising novel processes. A society, in short, has to be well primed with suitable resources in order to sustain technological innovations.

A sympathetic social ethos implies an environment receptive to new ideas, one in which the dominant social groups are prepared to consider innovation seriously. Such receptivity may be limited to specific fields of innovation, for example, improvements in weapons or in navigational techniques. However, there can be no doubt that the existence of socially important groups willing to encourage inventors and to use their ideas has been a crucial factor in the history of technology.

Social conditions are thus of the utmost importance in the development of new techniques. It is worthwhile mentioning another characteristic of technology – its rationality. Technology involves the application of reason to techniques, and in the 20th century technology was regarded as a rational activity stemming from the traditions of science. Nevertheless, it should be observed that technology is much older than science, and also that techniques have tended to ossify over centuries of practice or to become diverted into such para-rational exercises as alchemy. Some techniques became so complex, often depending upon processes of chemical change that were not understood even when they were widely practiced, that technology sometimes became itself a “mystery”, and it was more important to copy an ancient formula than to innovate. Thus, for most of its long existence technology has been virtually stagnant, mysterious, and even irrational.

On the other hand it is impossible to deny that there is a progressive element in technology, as the acquisition of techniques has a cumulative character, each generation inherits a stock of techniques on which it can build if it chooses and if social conditions permit. For a long period of time the history of technology has shown this cumulative quality as some societies have advanced, stage by stage, from comparatively primitive to more sophisticated techniques. But although this development has occurred and is still going on, it is not intrinsic to the nature of technology that such a process of accumulation should occur, and it has certainly not been an inevitable development. The fact that many societies have remained stagnant for long periods of time, even at quite developed stages of technological evolution, and that some have actually regressed and lost the accumulated techniques passed on to them, demonstrates the ambiguous nature of technology.

Comprehension check

1. Choose the best endings to the sentences given below taking into account the contents of the texts.

Technology

a) includes a number of activities by which man changes his environment.

b) embraces tools and machines used for making things.

c) may be defined as a study of different methods for producing things.

Techniques

a) are methods for making new tools and machines.

b) include mechanical or technical skills in music, painting, etc.

c) are methods of artistic expression in music, painting, etc.

Man

a) as any other species possesses highly developed instinctive reactions.

b) has the ability to innovate and modify his environment.

c) and other species can make things using different techniques.

If there

a) is any social need a technological innovation is likely to be adopted.

b) are several socially important groups who are ready to consider an innovation seriously, it will be widely accepted.

c) are social resources, needs and some dominant social groups willing to encourage inventors, a new technology will be successful.

Social resources

a) include materials and skilled personnel.

b) are the necessary condition of a successful innovation.

c) involve the existence of surplus productivity.

Technology

a) has always been stagnant, mysterious and irrational.

b) is a rational activity originating from the traditions of science.

c) is based on techniques that have a tendency to ossify.

The history of technology

a) shows how societies have advanced.

b) highlights the most important innovations and inventions.

c) demonstrates its ambiguous nature.

2. Give answers to the following questions.

1. How can one define technology?

2. Where does the term technology come from?

3. What did it mean in Greek?

4. What are techniques?

5. What is the difference between manlike species and other species?

6. When won’t a technological innovation be adopted? Why?

7. Why are social needs a kind of stimulus to technological innovations?

8. Why are social resources an indispensable prerequisite to a successful innovation?

9. When can inventions be foundered?

10. Can you give examples to illustrate such a situation?

11. What does each of social resources involve?

12. What do you understand by a sympathetic social ethos?

13. What is meant by the rationality of technology?

14. Why did sometimes technology become irrational?

15. Why does technology have the ambiguous nature?

3. Mark the following sentences T (true) or F (false). Comment on your point of view.

1. Technology means a discourse on the arts, both applied and fine.

2. Technology can be defined as a number of means and activities by which man changes his environment.

3. Techniques are used to create new tools and machines.

4. Man unlike other species can consciously change his environment.

5. Man’s activity is aimed at creating technological innovations.

6. The absence of social needs doesn’t necessarily prevent people from creating new tools and machines.

7. Social needs have always served as a stimulus to technological innovation.

8. Social resources are vital for realization of innovations.

9. A sympathetic social ethos implies that the whole society should be receptive to new ideas.

10. Technology has always been a rational activity.

11. The process of accumulating techniques has always been intrinsic to the nature of technology.

4. The sentences given below report on the main problems discussed in the texts above but they are jumbled. Put them in the correct order.

1. The existence of socially important groups that are receptive to new ideas has always been a crucial factor in the history of technology.

2. The ability to construct new tools and machines is characteristic of manlike species.

3. There are three points at which societies are involved in technological innovation: social need, social resources and a sympathetic social ethos.

4. There is some progressive element in technology as each generation inherits a stock of techniques on which it can develop or build.

5. Technology is defined as the systematic study of techniques for making things.

6. If there is no social need, people will not be ready to give some resources to a technological innovation.

7. Man can innovate and modify his world.

8. Social resources are the necessary condition of a successful innovation.

9. Technology is a rational activity originating from the traditions of science.

10. The word technology comes from Greek and means a discourse on the arts.

Vocabulary work

1. (A). Match the opposites.

(B). Choose from the box appropriate words and use them in suitable forms in the sentences to follow.

1. She always speaks at ….

2. All children suffer from … from their parents.

3. We can … the possibility that the money won’t arrive.

4. He had a … for friendship.

5. He … his life to fundamental science.

6. Man is a … being.

7. It was not a … house and the furnishing and pictures were ugly.

8. She did not absolutely …the possibility of a miracle.

9. This effect is undeniably ….

2. (A). Find synonyms.

(B). Fill in the blanks using the proper words from the box above in suitable forms.

1. She … their offer.

2. The hall had a seating … of 1000.

3. Your coat … you too tight.

4. We could not accept their ….

5. What … him to act so?

6. You make too many … on my patience.

7. Time is … for a full explanation.

8. He was … to bed.

3. (A). Form collocations choosing adjectives from the left column and suitable nouns from the right column. Make use of the texts given above.

(B). Use some of the collocations to complete the following sentences.

1. The ability to create new devices is typical of … ….

2. … … must be strongly felt, otherwise people will not devote resources to technological innovations.

3. There were a lot of … … at his plant.

4. He reinforced his firm with … ….

5. Diligence and luck are … … to any deep success.

6. For a long period of time … has remained … and irrational.

7. Life of animals is based on … ….

8. The … … of this phenomenon has attracted scientists’ attention for a long time.

4. (A). Form adjectives using the following verbs. Some of the adjectives are used in the texts above.

To create, to produce, to possess, to innovate, to involve, to stimulate, to suit, to improve, to invent, to cumulate.

(B). Complete the sentences using some of the adjectives derived from the verbs mentioned above.

1. Everybody was amazed by his … abilities.

2. Money is not always … of happiness.

3. His … ideas contributed to the development of this branch of industry.

4. He became … in scientific activity.

5. Would it be … to discuss this problem now?

6. She was … by envy.

7. He underwent a course of treatment by … hormonotherapy.

8. She has an … mind.

9. The … effect of this medicine can have fatal consequences.

5. Fill in the blanks choosing appropriate words from the box.

1. Technology may be defined as the systematic … of techniques for making things.

2. The word technology … Greek.

3. … are methods of creating new machines and tools.

4. In contrast with other species man doesn’t possess highly developed … reactions.

5. The history of technology … the whole evolution of man.

6. A … innovation is unlikely to be adopted if any of these factors is unavailable.

7. People should be …of social needs.

8. Social resources are an indispensable …. to successful innovations.

9. Dominant social groups should be … to new ideas.

10. Technology … the application of reason to techniques.

11. For a long period of time technology has been …, mysterious and even irrational.

12. This fact demonstrates the … nature of technology.

6. Replace the word(s) in italics by the word(s) from the box. Use each word once only.

1. Man is able to create new tools and machines.

2. No other species can modify its environment.

3. The term embraced an increasing number of processes and ideas.

4. Military needs have always stimulated technological innovations.

5. A lot of inventions have foundered because social resources were lacking.

6. In order to sustain technological innovations a society should possess suitable resources.

7. Socially important groups should encourage inventors to implement their ideas.

8. It is worthwhile commenting on such a characteristic of technology as rationality.

9. Technology is a rational activity stemming from the traditions of science.

10. For a long period of time societies have been advancing in techniques.

7. Fill in the crossword puzzle.

Down

1. Unchanging; inactive.

2. Quick or ready to receive suggestions, new ideas, etc.

3. Quality of being rational; reasonableness.

4. Increasing in amount by one addition after another.

5. Not to be available; to be in short supply.

6. (of value, quality) belonging naturally; existing within, not coming from outside.

7. Trained; experienced; having skills.

Across

8. Complex; with the latest improvements and refinements.

9. To make or become rigid, unprogressive, unable to change.

10. (adj.) strange; of a kind not previously known.

11. That cannot be avoided, that is sure to happen.

8. Translate the following sentences.

1. Термин технология представляет собой сочетание двух греческих слов techne и logos.

2. В середине прошлого века технологию определяли как совокупность методов и приемов, посредством которых человек пытается изменить окружающую среду.

3. Технические приемы – это методы создания новых инструментов.

4. Способность создавать новые предметы присуща только человеку, который обладает изобретательным умом.

5. Развитие технологии происходит одновременно с эволюцией человека.

6. Необходимыми предпосылками технологических инноваций являются социальные потребности, ресурсы и стремление социально доминирующих групп внедрить новые идеи.

7. Многие изобретения не были реализованы из-за отсутствия необходимых ресурсов.

8. Потребность в том или ином приборе или инструменте и т.д. должна ощущаться в обществе, иначе люди не направят материальные ресурсы на его разработку.

9. Социальные условия чрезвычайно важны для разработки новых технических приемов.

10. Нельзя отрицать наличие некоторого прогрессивного элемента в технологии.

11. Каждое последующее поколение стремится использовать методы и приемы, разработанные предшествующими поколениями, а также вносить собственный вклад в развитие технологии.

Follow-up activities

1. In pairs or small groups, discuss the most remarkable technological innovations of the 20^th century.

2. Prepare a report about an outstanding inventor or an ingenious invention.

UNIT 3

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Pre-reading tasks

1. What do you think the text headlined “Science and technology” runs about?

2. What changes or influences our life more: science or technology. Explain your viewpoint.

3. Name the main distinctive features of science and technology.

4. There are some words given in bold type in the text “Science and technology”. The definitions of these words are given below. Match the words and their definitions.

a. general notions;

b. skilled workmen who practise crafts;

c. people studying or teaching philosophy, or having a system of philosophy;

d. fabricating; constructing; putting together;

e. study, mastery and utilization of manufacturing and industrial methods; systematic application of knowledge to practical tasks in industry;

f. ability to read or write;

g. meditation; opinion reached by this means; guess;

h. technical or mechanical skills in music, painting, etc; methods of doing smth expertly;

i. ability to count.

Exercise 5. The verbs and nouns given in the box can be used to form collocations. Use each word (a verb or a noun) once only. Make use of the text “Science and technology” while fulfilling this task.

Reading

Read the first paragraph of the text and choose appropriate words (given after the text) to fill in the blanks.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

This review of the history of technology throws the 1) … on the 2) … between science and technology. The 3) … of technology is longer than and distinct from the history of science. Technology is the systematic 4) … of techniques for making things; science is the systematic 5) … to understand and interpret the world. While technology is 6) … with the fabrication and 7) … of different things, science is devoted to explaining natural phenomena and processes taking place in the environment, and it 8) … upon the comparatively sophisticated 9) … of literacy and numeracy. Such skills became 10) … only with the emergence of the great world civilizations, so that it is possible to say that science 11) … with those civilizations, some 3,000 years BC, whereas technology is as old as manlike 12) …. Science and technology 13) … as different and separate activities, the former being for several millennia a field of fairly abstruse speculation 14) … by a class of aristocratic philosophers, while the latter remained a matter of essentially practical 15) … to craftsmen of many types. There were points of intersection, such as the use of mathematical concepts in building and irrigation work, but for the most part the functions of scientists and technologists remained distinct in the ancient cultures.

The situation began to change during the medieval period of development in the West (AD 500-1500), when the development of both technology and science was connected with commercial expansion and a flourishing urban culture. The robust growth of technology in these centuries could not fail to attract the interest of educated men. In the 17th century, the natural philosopher Francis Bacon recognized three great technological innovations – the magnetic compass, the printing press, and gunpowder – as the distinguishing achievements of modern man, and he advocated experimental science as a means of enlarging man’s dominion over nature. Bacon insisted on deepening relationships between science and technology and urged scientists to study the methods of craftsmen and craftsmen to learn more science.

Yet the wedding of science and technology proposed by Bacon was not soon consummated. Over the next 200 years, carpenters and mechanics built iron bridges, steam engines, and textile machinery without much reference to scientific principles, while scientists – still amateurs – pursued their investigations in a haphazard manner. But the body of men, inspired by Baconian principles, represented a determined effort to direct scientific research toward useful ends, first by improving navigation and cartography, and ultimately by stimulating industrial innovation and the search for mineral resources. By the 19th century scientists were moving toward professionalism in which many of the goals were clearly the same as those of the technologists. Thus Justus von Liebig of Germany, one of the fathers of organic chemistry and the first proponent of mineral fertilizer, provided the scientific impulse that led to the development of synthetic dyes, high explosives, artificial fibres, and plastics; and Michael Faraday, the brilliant British experimental scientist in the field of electromagnetism, prepared the ground that was exploited by Thomas A. Edison and many others.

The role of Edison is particularly significant in deepening relationships between science and technology, because the prodigious trial-and-error process by which he selected the carbon filament for his electric light bulb in 1879 resulted in the creation at Menlo Park, N.J., of what may be regarded as the world’s first genuine industrial research laboratory. From this achievement the application of scientific principles to technology grew rapidly. It led easily to the engineering rationalism applied by Frederick W. Taylor to the organization of workers in mass production. It provided a model that was applied rigorously by Henry Ford in his automobile assembly plant and that was followed by every modern mass-production process. It pointed the way to the development of systems engineering, operations research, simulation studies, mathematical modelling, and technological assessment in industrial processes. This was not just a one-way influence of science on technology, because technology created new tools and machines with which the scientists were able to achieve an ever-increasing insight into the natural world. Taken together, these developments brought technology to its modern highly efficient level of performance.

1. a) illumination b) light c) shadow d) dawn

2. a) distinction b) characteristic c) prominence d) importance

3. a) story b) account c) history d) record

4. a) study b) examination c) investigation d) consideration

5. a) effort b) undertaking c) trial d) attempt

6. a) related b) interested c) concerned d) involved

7. a) use b) consumption c) profit d) benefit

8. a) counts b) reckons c) depends d) trusts

9. a) talents b)gifts c) aptitude d) skills

10. a) available b) at hand c) useful d) unobtainable

11. a) initiated b) began c) terminated d) arose

12. a) biography b) vitality c) life d) animation

13. a) developed b) expanded c) unfolded d) matured

14. a) done b) practiced c) trained d) applied

15. a) concern b) care c) business d) anxiety

Read the whole text carefully and fulfill the tasks given in Comprehension check.

Comprehension check

1. Choose the best ending a, b, or c to complete the sentences.

The history of science

a) is shorter than and differs from that of technology.

b) is similar to the history of technology.

c) doesn’t take as much time as that of technology.

Technology

a) leads to the improvement of the quality of life.

b) is related to the production and use of things.

c) is connected with scientific research.

Science

a) results in technological innovations.

b) has always interacted with technology.

c) is aimed at understanding and explaining the world.

Science

a) and technology appeared some 3000 years ago.

b) began with the emergence of the great world civilizations.

c) unlike technology is as old as manlike life.

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