Today: Begin: Tools for Analysis Week 3, Lesson 6 Wednesday, September 16, 1998 Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM SOSC Science, Technology and Society 1

Overview for today n Begin : tools for analysis & QOTD n Introduce TA and return QOTD n Finalize teams -Turn in sheets with photos, etc. n Give dates of choice for oral presentation 2

Questions of the day n Q1. Is more technology always better? Why or why not? 3

Tools for analysis n Is more technology always a good thing? u good when we get the intended results u what about the unintended results? n Primary result, Secondary results n Social Lag, Social Payoff, Social Cost 4

n Primary results u When people make a technology they have certain intended results u usually these are short term goals and have positive impact on the society u intended results 5

n Secondary results u most if not all technologies also have secondary results, which are unintended, or unplanned. u usually unintended or unplanned results u the secondary effects/results usually show up over the long term, and many are negative 6

u ex. asbestos, cigarette smoking u cancer is a an unintended result F though the company may or may not have known, the society/users did not intend the result of using cigarettes to be getting cancer 7

Predicting secondary results n It would be advantageous if businesses, designers and governments could predict the secondary results of a new technology n However there are a number of forces that tend to make this difficult u more details in future discussions 8

Social Payoff and Social Cost n Social Payoff - u the value of something (in this case, a technology) to the society u typically a measure of the economic benefits of something n Social costs - u technologies also have cost to society u ex. pollution 9

n Measuring social payoff and social cost u It is difficult to measure the benefits and costs. u many times it is related to more than one technology (more details later) u sometimes it can not be felt right away 10

Social lag n While society may quickly acquire a new techology u it may take much longer for society to adapt to the new technology u new technologies often create tensions in society F it may be years or decades before social frameworks integrate the new technology F ex. nuclear power deciding what to do with the waste?deciding what to do with the waste? 11

n n Q.2. Consider dirty air from buses and taxis. If Hong Kong were to require the use of cleaner fuel, what would be the primary results, secondary results, social payoff, social cost and social lag? u All are not so clear, right? u Difficult to predict some of these u We will discuss more with regard to homework 1

n TA s u Vivienne Tao Yick Ku F sovvt u Alex Chan Ching Shing F sschchan n either or schedule appointment to meet to discuss grading questions n Grading u please turn in the other half (h) for any missing or please write your answers (a) for any of the first 6 QOTD by next Friday 18th September u turn in to me after class u 1 full credit, 0 no credit

n n Q.3 You will be asked to do an oral presentation for one of the 3 homework assignments. Please give your first and second choices for dates (same day hwk is due).Choose: 1 st & 2nd n n Hwk 1. Friday September 30_________ n n Hwk 2 Monday, November 9________ n n Hwk 3 Friday, November 27_________

n Next reading posted on webpage w/notes n Friday: Effects of technological change. n Monday: homework 1 distributed