Effective Technology
BACK: Cold War
These are mostly just from slides–the recording didn’t work on this day.
What does it mean for a technology to be effective?
Weapons
There are three main theories regarding the development of military technology:
- Rational response to external threats;
- It follows the internal logic of technology
- Consequence of organizational processes and bureaucratic conflict
What Shapes Weapon Designs?
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The M-16: It started out as a light, fully automatic rifle that troops trained with for Vietnam. It was the product of the Army’s arsenal system, different weapon labs, private contractors, and the “ordanance corps.” Even though many people used it to train for Vietnam, it was meant for long ranged combat–Vietnam was mostly short ranged. As it continued evolving, different design tests were rigged in order to favor other designs–the different relevant social groups didn’t communicate and all had different agendas.
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Thor-Jupiter Controversy: Who should design, produce, and deploy the IRBM? The Airforce or the Army? The different techniques of legislative politics and postponed difficult decisions, responsibility, and agreements were compromised. What did the technology really mean, since these different social groups wanted different things? Who should have the power and responsibility?
MacKenzie on Accuracy
The guiding systems for missiles–accelerometers, gyroscopes, computers–were those ‘natural trajectories?’ Different technologies were shaped by different priorities (in terms of reliability and cost). Trajectory became this self-fulfilling prophecy (like Moore’s Law?). MacKenzie argues that accuracy shouldn’t be seen as a natural goal, but rather as the result of a historical process shaped by economic/political/bureaucratic factors.
Essentially, in order to abolish nuclear weapons, we need to eliminate social preconditions and physical engineering. A lot of the technical knowledge we’ve required is tacit–there need to be skills and experiences that can’t be put into writing. As a result, housekeeping of this knowledge has been poor.
It’s extremely hard to uninvent nuclear weapons because of continuous social conditions of the red scare and fear and vulnerability.
The Patriot Controversy
Israel was faced with the threat of intense destruction by Iraq–they fired several Scud missiles and at Saudi Arabia which were targeting American bases. Patriot was used to combat Scud, but how many Scuds did Patriot destroy?
How do we define the success of Patriot? Sometimes the Scud missiles were a decoy, sometimes they correctly damaged or intercepted missiles, sometimes they boosted morale, sometimes it increased sales..
Mechanization and Automation
Automation refers more to the social process (not the technical view). Mechanization is more of sources of power–using water/electricity to power a mill instead of a human or horse. Automation is automating the series of actions of humans.
What then is effective automation?
Study of Production Technologies
- Information Society: We now live in an information society–we don’t really prioritize capital and labor, but rather information and knowledge.
- Post-Fordism: We’ve sort of left behind the idea of ‘mass production’ and are more flexible in our organization of labor. We have highly skilled workers.
- Post-Modernism: Technological change has led to work being ‘knowledge-based,’ rather bringing your body into a factory and using your physical strength.
We have left production behind in a way that goods just appear out of nowhere. After the mid 20th Century. But factories aren’t disappearing–they’re still around, they just moved. The idea of factory is changing, depending on where we live.
All of these idea share the view of a technological deterministic view. They don’t look at technology itself as an actor, but as an external force that overpowers us. Mechanization and Automation are not just things that happen. Are they inevitable as a result of progress??
Social Implications of Mechanization/Automation of Productive Technologies
There’s a simple intuition that mechanization and automation helps factories meet their ‘quota’ of how many things they need to create by the end of the month. And it makes sense that they might want to automate–but this isn’t what happens in most cases. There’s not always an economic advantage in doing this.
To work in a mechanized factory, you have to work in a different manner. You have to live to the rhythm of the machine. Mechanization and automation involves an entire reorganization of social structure–think about the growing industrial revolution, how people had to live, contrasted to farmers who lived out in the countryside.
The effects of new machinery are built into a design–they could be designed differently. Production technology could be seen in the expression of existing social relations–child labor. The simplicity of the machine allowed child labor–which people saw as a way to discipline or teach children something. We could’ve easily designed the machines to not need the jobs fulfilled by children, but this was a desire that the technology reinforced.
Technical choices/changes are always social choices/changes.
The Mechanization of Mills
Feudal lords often monopolized things like mills. Mechanization of the mills challenged their authority: using a mechanized mill meant you wouldn’t be taxed for using it, and in general challenged their authority.
New machines replace old and inefficient machines–they are more powerful, require a different kind of labor, and can only function in a new kind of society. Life is changing, politics are changing, and technology goes with it.
Automation in the Factory
Marx argues that innovations are associated with certain kinds of society. If you give him a certain kind of technology, he can tell you what kind of society it is used in or what kind of society it will create.
“The hand-mill gives you society with the feudal lord; the steam-mill society with the industrial capitalist.”
Harry Braverman: wanted to deskill and homogenization of the workign class in order to control labor and maximize profit. If you make it so simple for ANYONE to work you’ll get the people who are easier to control.
David Noble: Talked about different ways to automate machine tool automation. Record Playback suggests a way to still allow some skilled workers to work, rather than having a computer dominating the rhythm of the workflow, but managers didn’t like it because it gave them room to strike.