Technology and Culture

Technology has always been a part of human existence. Today though technology has large-scale effects on culture itself, says the experimental physicist, Ursula M. Franklin, in the 1989 CBC Massey Lectures, "The Real World of Technology" cbc

For Franklin, technology is a set of practices in the "here and now" rather than an array of machines or gadgets. It is also a comprehensive system. "Technology involves organization, procedures, symbols, new words, equations, and, most of all, a mindset." wikipedia

An ancient Chinese bronze ding. Franklin describes the prescriptive methods used in producing such ritual vessels.

I don’t think it’s possible for anybody who has read Ursula Franklin’s The Real World of Technology to look at the current state and trajectory of tech and be happy with any of it. mastodon