The Fischer "America Calling" is very poignant and very important for the understanding of the many stances taken towards societal understanding of technology and how it influences the culture of a developing nation- in this case, technological determinism is something that should be prevalent enough to debate over or think about. It's admittedly tough to believe that a society, especially American society, could possibly be driven and propelled by society. That school of thought is something that has been danced around rather than considered as viable- as time progresses and more and more technological options and advancements become paramount in our soceity, questions often arise (in my experience) as far as "What is driving society- the technology? Or the society itself?"
I personally believe that, based off of the Fischer reading, there's outstanding reason to believe that technology is created by certain parts of society that assess a need for new technologies (namely businesses). I don't believe that within the creation of the technology itself it is autonomous. However, I do believe that once a major advancement in tech is created, it takes on sort of its own life, especially as demand for a certain tech grows. Such examples of this like the iPod/iPhone, and other applications of technology that seemingly everyone has can have a connotation of self-rule. Once a product is out, it is among the masses,and dependent on trends to be able to thrive. So when we see seemingly natural phenomena occur in different forums from social media to technological product (Facebook, Twittter, iPhone), does that back the standpoint that technology determines the direction of societal growth? These new applications that become part of our everyday speech and have influence on our everyday lives, are they powerful enough to change the tides?
Some of the points of transition that were notable in societal reaction that Fischer noted about the Automobile and Telephone industry have translated to today. A lot of people, even nowadays, are not as accepting of newer technologies as we move forward- which is very similar to the worry experienced of automobiles (joy riding, increased promiscuity, etc.) and the telephone as well. However, a lot of selling points have been in and about business. Social networking is now a main cog in the business world- which helped solidify the Automobile and Telephone industry. Understanding that, the pockets of society that create the technologies are necessary. But do they always have full control? Are people right in being afraid?The externalities that come from these applied techs are very significant to note when you think of societal change. How does the iPhone/iPad/Macbook affect the learning curve of young adults? Do new types of cars eliminate the need to learn how to park, and is that preferable to drivers? Will the need for voice calling fade as time goes on and newer methods of communication arise in smartphones?
I think of, as the biggest example, the movie and novel "I, Robot". The premise of the piece is that the technology created by humans in order to regulate a dystopian society- however, it soon takes a turn for the worst where the robots that were created become the destructive force that the part of society that created the robots tried to avoid. Will we reach a point where we don't need human energies to drive society? Will the culture become autonomous in that manner? I feel as if it is too early to understand just how powerful these techs are- the decade after the turn of the millennium (2000-2010) where we saw a major change in how technology look, felt and worked has just passed, and I feel we are on the brink of something huge. This era will test the control we have over what it is that we create and how much of an influence these non-living items have. I do not believe that society is technologically determined... however, I feel we are heading in a direction where technology will influence the direction of society more than we could ever fathom at this point.
I think your example of I Robot and the idea of technology taking control of society is something to consider. Maybe not so much to the point where robots actually take over society, however even in this day and age there are examples of how technology is replacing humans. For example, in many factories there are jobs that are now done solely by robots, some for the purpose of safety, some for the purpose of convenience. But nonetheless they are taking jobs out of the hands of people, which means more people are looking for jobs. From a business standpoint it makes sense because it costs businesses less in the long run to buy a machine and maintain it than to constantly pay a worker to do the job. So it's a conundrum in the sense that while businesses can now be more efficient, but at the expense of humans. And this is something that is going to be a bigger and bigger issue as we move forward.
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