topic 3

Topic 3

Development, Advancement and Modernity -Science and Technology and its Impact on

Society and the Environment

Assoc Prof Dr Sharifah Norazizan Syed Abd Rashid APPM

Department of Social and Development Science

Faculty of Human Ecology, UPM

[email protected]

Content

Science and Technology and its Impact on Society and the Environment

•Positive and negative impacts on

- the environment

- society

•Global Crisis

GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

• Economic growth provides people with more goods and services.– Measured in gross domestic product (GDP) and purchasing

power parity (PPP). PPPs are indicators of price level differences across countries. PPP compares the standard of living between countries by taking into account the impact of their exchange rates.

• Economic development uses economic growth to improve living standards.– The world’s countries economic status (developed vs.

developing) are based on their degree of industrialization and GDP-PPP.

The New Global Setting

• Increased financial, trade, investment and technology flows

• Rapid and accelerating technological progress, including ICTs, biotechnology, new materials, electronics, robotics have both positive and negative impacts on society and the environment.

• New managerial and organizational systems

• New international rules and regulations: trade, quality, environment, intellectual property rights

Science and Technology and its impact on the environment

• Understand the definition of technology• Difference between science and technology • The human limitations, and the technology we use to

overcome them• Explore the characteristics of technology and the

resources of technology : Renewable and non-renewable resource

What is Technology?

• Technology is the modification of the natural environment in order to satisfy perceived human needs and wants.

• The application of knowledge, tools, and processes to solve practical problems and extend human capabilities.

• Technological literacy is the ability to use, manage, assess, and understand technology.

How is Technology different than Science?

• Technology is the application of knowledge. Science is the accumulation of knowledge.

• Technology is the use of knowledge to turn resources into the goods and services that society needs. Science is the study of WHY natural things happen the way they do.

• SCIENCE answers the question… WHY• TECHNOLOGY answers the question… HOW?

Characteristics of Technology

• evident in all cultures• knowledge based • fundamental to humanity • fundamental to survival • extends our capabilities • is accumulative • alters our culture • future oriented • observable • seeks harmony

Resources for Technology

• Perpetual: On a human time scale are continuous.• Renewable: On a human time scale can be

replenished rapidly (e.g. hours to several decades).• Nonrenewable: On a human time scale are in fixed

supply.

What Keeps Us Alive?

Solar

Natural

Solar

Natural

Natural Capital Degradation

The exponential increasing flow of material resources through the world’s economic systems depletes, degrades and pollutes the environment.

Causes of Environmental Problems

• The major causes of environmental problems are:Population growthWasteful resource usePovertyPoor environmental accountingEcological ignorance

Depletion of nonrenewable resources

SOLAR CAPITAL

Human Capital Human Economic

and Cultural Systems

Pollution and waste

Degradation of renewable resources

Heat

Goods and services

Natural Capital

EARTH

Poverty & Environmental Problems

1 of 3 children under 5, suffer from severe malnutrition.

Resource Consumption and Environmental Problems

• Underconsumption• Overconsumption

– Affluenza: unsustainable addiction to overconsumption and materialism.

Connections between Environmental Problems and Their Causes

Global Perspective

life supporting resources

declining

consumption of life supporting resources

rising

THE TECHNOLOGY DIVIDE: OUTLOOK

• A small number of industrialized countries provide practically all the world’s technology innovation.

• Some developing countries are able to adopt these technologies in production and consumption.

• The remaining part is technologically disconnected, neither innovating nor adopting foreign technologies.

Planet Earth is Impacted -The Developed and Developing

Worlds

• Ecological Footprints -The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems.United States - 5 hectares/personDeveloping nations - 0.5 hectare/person

• For everyone to live at today’s US footprint would require 3 planet Earths

• Increasing affluence and population is damaging Earth’s essential ecology

Our Ecological Footprint

Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded earths ecological capacity.

Our Planet in Danger

• Atmospheric pollution and climate change• Water pollution, including ground aquifers• Deforestation and loss of oxygenation • The oceans, coral reefs and their bounty• National parks, wildernesses and wetlands• Nonrenewable natural resource depletion

Biodiversity is in Danger Global warming…


Worlds





• Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded earths ecological capacity.


Worlds





• Humanity’s ecological footprint has exceeded earths ecological capacity.

Environmentally Sustainable Societies

… meets basic needs of its people in a just and equitable manner without degrading the natural capital that supplies these resources.

Drivers for Technological Change

• Social• Technology and Science• Economic• Environmental• Political

Social Drivers

• Consumer awareness, perceptions, attitudes

and beliefs affecting preferences and choice• Increasing per capita incomes in developing

countries• Demographic changes• Lifestyle changes associated with urbanisation in

developing countries

Environmental Drivers

• Waste reduction along supply chain• Water conservation and use• Energy efficiency• Carbon footprint• Reduced emission• Optimisation of resource use

Economic Drivers

• Current wastage of crops• Commodity / raw material costs (food vs fuel)• Labour costs / availability• Availability of risk capital• Cost of compliance• Cost of regulatory approval• Acceptable returns of capital investments

Biotechnology

• Herbicide tolerance• Pest and disease resistance• Adaption to climatic and soil condition

– Drought

– Salinity

– Acidity

– Temperature extremes• Quality improvement

– Proteins, oils, fats, starches, vitamins

– Functional components, antioxidants

Info and Communication

• Cell phones, internet access• Greater direct access to international markets

– web site

– Internet • Greater accessibility to information

– Technologies, market data, scientific and

technical databases• Direct connection between buyer and seller• Improved and real time traceability

The Social Impact of the Computers and ICT

Computers and Employment

• Has machinery displaced workers?– Steam engine turbines – Industrial revolution.– Factory workers and robotics.

• Have computers replaced workers?• Have more jobs have been created by the new

technology (computerisation)?• What has happened to clerical workers over the last

20 years?

- How has their skills been lost/changed?

The Changing Nature of Employment

• What has happened to the Farm and Factory workers?

• What is the Service industries?• How does computers assist employment in the

Service industry?Consider: banking, travel, supermarket etc.

• Has computerisation given greater job satisfaction?Consider: engineering, architecture, accounting

etc.

Tele-working

• What is Tele-working? The term used for people who work from outside the office, usually from home and is usually connected to the workplace through email, the internet and/or a private network.

• What are the benefits of Tele-working? Consider: environment, commuting, working hours,

commitments, space saving, team-working in a network.• What are the problems with Tele-working?

Consider: management, organisational loyalty, social isolation, separation of work with leisure time.

• Would you do any form of Tele-working? Consider doing school-work at home and e-mailing it to

your teacher.

The Other Side

• What happens to older workers who may find it difficult to re-train to adapt to the new technology?

• What happens to people that do not have access to the new technology?

• What about people who try to ignore the new technology?

• What can happen when people rely on technology?Consider: back up systems for breakdown, fault handling, natural accidents, malicious damage.

New Products and Services

• Will you need to understand and use Information Technology?

• What are some of the new ICT products available now?Consider: CD Rom, DVD, mobile ‘phones,

barcode scanning, Internet shopping.

IT in Banking

• IT used in Banking

Consider: telephone banking, Internet banking, ATM’s, Debit cards, Credit cards, MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) e.g. cheque processing, Direct debiting, etc.

Internet Shopping

• Web sites used for advertising have been developed into a ‘virtual store’. Widespread in the western world.

• How can a virtual store help a business?• What is another useful by-product that a web site

can collect?Consider a database of potential customers.

• What could a business do with this information?

Supermarkets

• Offer on-line shopping for customers unable to get to the shop.

• What are the advantages for the shop?• What are the advantages for the customer?

Manufacturing

• How are computers used in manufacturing?Consider: order processing, stock reports and

replacement, progress tracking. Project management – budgets, on-time.

• What is CAD (Computer aided Design)?• What is CAM (Computer aided Manufacture)?

Medicine

• Give some example where computers are used in the Health service?Consider: records, databases, computerised

medical devices, monitoring, expert systems (diagnosis), surgery.

• What is an expert (knowledge-based) system?Consider: image capture and processing.

• What is robotic surgery?Consider: operations.

• How important are computers for the disabled?Consider: blind, deaf, special devices, implants.

Education

• Why are there so many computers in schools?• How do computers assist with teaching and

learning?• What is an interactive teaching package?• How should the Internet be used to assist learning?• How can computers help with distance learning?

Can Computers Replace Teachers

• What can computers do that is better than having a teacher?Consider: pace, repetition, patience,

consistency, cost effective.• What can a teacher do that is better than a

computer?• What could the classroom of the future look like?

will it exist, will students need to attend school, could they choose what subject to do and when, will they be motivated to take charge of their

own learning?

Dependence on IT

• How are individuals dependant on IT?– Routine chores: money, shopping, holiday,– Scanners and imaging systems,– Traffic control, and car parking, motorway,– Flood warning systems,– Computer controlled braking, fuel, on cars,– Personal use, data, accounts, education,– Electrical devices in the home, washing

machines, video DVD players, microwaves, etc,– Telephone lines for Internet communications.

Possible Shifts in Culture

• 4th dimension: live life on the web• Collaborative Communities• Aggregation and convenience• Multidisciplinary• Rapid change accepted• Ownership and identity• less strictly defined

Net Generation

• Digital• Connected• Social

Social Networks

• Social networks

• MySpace

―Attracts 230,000 new users per day

• Facebook

―17 million members in February 2007

―60% of users log in each day

―85% of users log in each week

― 6 million photos uploaded daily

―7th most visited site in US

Virtual Worlds

• Online, 3D virtual world• Social presence with others• Explore, meet others, socialize,• Participate in group activities• Conversation, reflections, roleplaying

Virtual or Electronic communities …refers to a group of people in cyber space where they communicate, network, and know each

Contd.

• Until the advent of telecommunications technology, definitions of community focused on close-knit groups in a single location. Factors such as physical location determined belonging to a community. Interaction took place primarily face-to-face; therefore, social relationships took place with a stable and limited set of individuals (Gergen, 1997; Jones, 1997).

• This way of defining community became less useful as the development of modern transportation and telecommunication systems increased personal mobility and reduced the costs of communicating across distances.

59

Rheingold (1999) Definition of E Community

“...any groups of people who may never meet one another face to face, but who exchange words and ideas through the mediation of computer

bulletin board and networks.”

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A SLICE OF LIFE IN MY VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

by…. Howard Rheingold

For the past seven years I have made many friends and acquaintances, engage in many intelectually stimulating and professionally rewarding conversations and debates...and I still spend many of my days in my room, physically isolated. My mind, however, is linked with a worldwide collection of like minded (and not so like minded) souls: My Virtual Community.

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Millions of people other than me, have already built communities where our identities commingle and interact electronically, independent of local time or location. The way a few of us live now might be the way a larger population will live, decades hence.

cont

• “..online or virtual community is the gathering of people, in an online “space” where they come, communicate, connect and get to know each other better over time”. Boethcher ; 2002

• “..virtual community is a place in which people meet to share ideas, thoughts, feelings and opinions about particular issues that they have in common.” Kawamura, 1999

Virtual Meetings

Lectures On You Tube

• How are organisations dependant on IT?• Consider the type of organisation:

Supermarkets,Hospitals,The emergency services,The utility companies,Schools,Air traffic control,Nuclear power stations.

• What would be the consequences of failure on the organisations above?

Summary

• Major increases are occurring in human population and affluence.

• Major stresses result in our society, natural environment, and ecology.

• Technology and engineering are central to the creation and the mitigation of problems.

• Predicting the future is difficult. The next twenty five to fifty years will be decisive.

Role and Impact of Technology:Sustainability

• It is technological development that meets the economic and environmental needs of the present while enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

• As world population increases, the industry can serve more customers with higher quality, higher performing products and services, while demonstrating responsible responsible stewardship of our planet.

• The nation should be properly positioned to bring into reality the technology vision of an industry – one that protects environmental quality, improves economic well-being, and promotes a higher quality of life.

cont

• The industry now has the opportunity to accelerate its development of advanced manufacturing technologies and innovations that use materials and energy more efficiently.

• Environmental technologies make sustainable development possible by reducing risk, enhancing cost effectiveness, improving process efficiency, and creating products and processes that are environmentally beneficial or benign.

References

•Kim, A.J (2000) Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies For Successful online Communities, London, Addison Wesley

•Preece, J (2000) Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability. John Wiley and Sons.

•Lee Komito (1998) The Net as a Foraging Society: Flexible Communities http://www.ued.ie/lis/Ikomito/virtband.html

cont

• Cohen, Joel, How Many People Can The Earth Support?, W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1995, p79-82.

• G.Edward Stephen (2004) The Concept of Community in Human Ecology http://www.ac.wwu.edu/stephen/Articles/70.psr.html

• Chris Werry (2004) Imagined Electronic Community Representations of Virtual Community in Contemporary Business Discourse http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_9/werry/

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cont

• Gurstein M. Michael (2000), Community Informatics: Enabling Communities with Information and Communications Technologies. Hershey, PA, Idea Grp Pub.

• Loader, B and L. Keeble (2002) Community Informatics: Shaping computer mediated social relations. New York, Routledge.

• Kim A J (2000) Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities, London: Addison Wesley

• Marc Smith and Peter Kollock (eds) (1999) Communities in Cyberspace, London, Routledge.

• Preece, J (2000) Online Communities: Supporting Sociability, Designing Usability. Chichester. John Wiley and Sons ltd.

Discussion

1. Explain the benefits and drawbacks of the use of information and communication technology in:

• manufacturing, • industry, • commerce, • medicine, • the home, • education • tele-working.

cont

• Discuss the difference between conventional community and the e community? In your opinion which is a better form of community?

Thank You

Our Changing Society

• Living longer• More generations co-existing• Rising divorce rate• Changing household structures• Smaller households• Fast rising incomes & wealth• Changing ethnic mix (Eurasian)• Living elsewhere• Living differently• Home leasing on the rise• New tribalism• Spending differently• Outsourcing tasks and chores

• Rise of virtual shopping

• Living with leisure

• New entertainment & sports

• Increasing knowledge

• Increasing financial literacy

• Living with IC&T

• Electronic “guardian angels”

• Working differently

• New industries/ occupations

• Changing spirituality

• Outlawing discrimination

• Changing politics (ideologies)

• Ecological sensitivity

topic 3

Documents

resources of technology

technology flowsrapid

technology different

environment positive

natural environment

human capabilities

human time scale

human limitations