Science Technology And Society Mcginn Pdf 14
Chrystal Dueno
Robert McGinn is Professor (Teaching) Emeritus of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E), and of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). He received a B.S. in Unified Science and Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology in 1963, a M.S. in mathematics at Stanford in 1965, and a Ph.D. in philosophy and humanities, also at Stanford, in 1969. Apart from a year at Bell Laboratories in 1978-79, where he directed its Science and Society Program, McGinn was at Stanford from 1971 to 2019.
McGinn's general research area is technology and society, a field devoted to study of social, cultural, ethical, and policy issues raised by developments in science and technology. His specific research area is ethics, science, and technology, a specialty within applied ethics that explores ethical issues raised by developments in contemporary engineering and science, and ethical issues raised by the diffusion of technical innovations in society.
McGinn's publications include SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY (Prentice-Hall, 1990), and articles in scholarly journals such as Professional Ethics; Technology and Culture; Science, Technology, and Human Values; Science and Engineering Ethics; and Nanoethics. His book, THE ETHICAL ENGINEER: Contemporary Concepts and Cases, was published by Princeton University Press in 2018.
From 1995 to 2011, Prof. McGinn served as director or co-director of Stanford's Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program. He was a long-time member of the STS Executive Board and served as an STS Faculty Fellow from 2014-2017. For over two decades, McGinn was a member of the School of Engineering's Undergraduate Council and coordinated the School of Engineering's Technology in Society (TiS) Requirement.
From 2004 to 2014, McGinn conducted research on ethical issues related to nanotechnology for the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), for which he served as Ethics Investigator. He was also Social and Ethical Issues Coordinator for the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF). From 2004-07, he conducted a large-scale study of the views of researchers working in nanotech laboratories at thirteen U.S. universities about ethical issues related to their work.
McGinn received research grants from the Mellon Foundation, the Marshall Fund, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1996, he received the Stanford Tau Beta Pi Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 1997, he received the Dinkelspiel Award for Exceptional Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the Perin Award for Undergraduate Engineering Education.
In April 2019, McGinn was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the School of Medicine at U.C. San Francisco. He is Lead Ethics Investigator and Coordinator for the Center for Cellular Construction.
Named in honor of former STS Faculty Director Robert McGinn, this award is granted each year to the student with the highest grade point average among those graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Science, Technology, and Society. Professor McGinn is Professor (Teaching) Emeritus of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E), and of Science, Technology, and Society (STS). His research explores ethical issues raised by developments in contemporary engineering and science, and ethical issues raised by the diffusion of technical innovations in society. More about Professor McGinn
Robert McGinn is a professor of management science and engineering, and of science, technology, and society at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1971. His academic specialties are ethical issues in engineering workplaces, technology in society, ethics, science, and technology, and ethics and public policy. Before participating in a panel on the future of public space, he talked art, jazz, and 19th-century Neapolitan folk songs in the Zócalo green room.
Since 1979, it has been my good fortune to teach and conduct research about ethics in engineering and about technology in society in the Stanford School of Engineering. The School's remarkable students and faculty members make it a wonderful place for someone with my intellectual interests to be located. I have fond memories of a number of outstanding engineering students whom I've had the pleasure to teach and advise over the years, as well as of a number of remarkable MS&E and other SoE colleagues whom I've been lucky to have as colleagues and friends.
McGinn's general research area is technology and society, a field devoted to study of social, cultural, ethical, and policy issues raised by developments in science and technology. His specific research area is ethics, science, and technology, a specialty within applied ethics that explores ethical issues raised by developments in contemporary engineering and science, and ethical issues raised by the diffusion of technical innovations in society.
Technology, society and life or technology and culture refers to the inter-dependency, co-dependence, co-influence, and co-production of technology and society upon one another. Evidence for this synergy has been found since humanity first started using simple tools. The inter-relationship has continued as modern technologies such as the printing press and computers have helped shape society. The first scientific approach to this relationship occurred with the development of tektology, the "science of organization", in early twentieth century Imperial Russia.[1] In modern academia, the interdisciplinary study of the mutual impacts of science, technology, and society, is called science and technology studies.
Technology has developed advanced economies, such as the modern global economy, and has led to the rise of a leisure class. Many technological processes produce by-products known as pollution, and deplete natural resources to the detriment of Earth's environment. Innovations influence the values of society and raise new questions in the ethics of technology. Examples include the rise of the notion of efficiency in terms of human productivity, and the challenges of bioethics.
Philosophical debates have arisen over the use of technology, with disagreements over whether technology improves the human condition or worsens it. Neo-Luddism, anarcho-primitivism, and similar reactionary movements criticize the pervasiveness of technology, arguing that it harms the environment and alienates people. However, proponents of ideologies such as transhumanism and techno-progressivism view continued technological progress as beneficial to society and the human condition.
Technology has taken a large role in society and day-to-day life. When societies know more about the development in a technology, they become able to take advantage of it. When an innovation achieves a certain point after it has been presented and promoted, this technology becomes part of the society. The use of technology in education provides students with technology literacy, information literacy, capacity for life-long learning, and other skills necessary for the 21st century workplace.[3] Digital technology has entered each process and activity made by the social system. In fact, it constructed another worldwide communication system in addition to its origin.[4]
Although these previous examples only show a few of the positive aspects of technology in society, there are negative side effects as well.[6] Within this virtual realm, social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat have altered the way Generation Y culture is understanding the world and thus how they view themselves. In recent years, there has been more research on the development of social media depression in users of sites like these. "Facebook Depression" is when users are so affected by their friends' posts and lives that their own jealousy depletes their sense of self-worth. They compare themselves to the posts made by their peers and feel unworthy or monotonous because they feel like their lives are not nearly as exciting as the lives of others.[3]
In the modern world, superior technologies, resources, geography, and history give rise to robust economies; and in a well-functioning, robust economy, economic excess naturally flows into greater use of technology. Moreover, because technology is such an inseparable part of human society, especially in its economic aspects, funding sources for (new) technological endeavors are virtually illimitable. However, while in the beginning, technological investment involved little more than the time, efforts, and skills of one or a few men, today, such investment may involve the collective labor and skills of many millions.
The relationship between science and technology can be complex. Science may drive technological development, by generating demand for new instruments to address a scientific question, or by illustrating technical possibilities previously unconsidered. An environment of encouraged science will also produce scientists and engineers, and technical schools, which encourages innovation and entrepreneurship that are capable of taking advantage of the existing science. In fact, it is recognized that "innovators, like scientists, do require access to technical information and ideas" and "must know enough to recognize useful knowledge when they see it."[13] Science spillover also contributes to greater technological diffusion.[14] Having a strong policy contributing to basic science allows a country to have access to a strong a knowledge base that will allow them to be "ready to exploit unforeseen developments in technology,"[15] when needed in times of crisis.
Though the link between science and technology has need for more clarity, what is known is that a society without sufficient building blocks to encourage this link are critical. A nation without emphasis on science is likely to eventually stagnate technologically and risk losing competitive advantage. The most critical areas for focus by policymakers are discouraging too many protections on job security, leading to less mobility of the workforce,[17] encouraging the reliable availability of sufficient low-cost capital for investment in R&D, by favorable economic and tax policies,[18] and supporting higher education in the sciences to produce scientists and engineers.[18]
aa06259810