Final Reflection

This class has taught me a lot about viewing the world around me with skepticism. Any technological artifact can be deconstructed and analyzed to find the true meaning behind it’s origin. One of the early examples in class, the bridges in New York, is a clear demonstration that even objects that seem as mundane as a new means of transportation to Long Island can have tangible roots in inequality.

I think one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that it is very difficult to create blanket policies which will create equality in all situations. Rather, it is much more important for us to carefully follow the progress of technology, and legislate more specific and detailed occurrences. One example of this in class was when we talked about nuclear technology. While nuclear power can greatly help third world nations, it is dangerously close to giving them nuclear weapons, and so the necessity of nuclear power compared to the likelihood of giving an enemy a very powerful weapon must be judged on a case by case basis.

In an interesting side note, in a podcast I listen to I recently heard about a company who is now making self-contained nuclear batteries which do not use the same process of nuclear power as power plants, are a lot smaller, are designed in a way that has no chance of meltdown, and also run at such a hot temperature that it is nearly impossible for anyone to tamper with. The nuclear batteries are said to be enough to power 20,000 homes for 5 – 10 years, at which point the company services/replaces them. From what I heard, the technology isn’t quite ready yet however solutions such as this could be the next step.

If nothing else, this class has left me with an optimistic perspective on the future of technology. As long as people are active and pay attention so technical inequalities can be discovered and changed, technology is a progressive medium for social change – and should we allow it – any inequalities it is capable of creating, it is also capable of fixing.