ENGS 7: Technology: Boon or Bane?

What is the role of technology in people's lives? Does it make living easier or harder? Has technology reduced or increased the socio-economic divide? Does it impact men and women differently? Does technology help or ruin our environment? What kind of world will technology give us in the 21st century? Will it be a nightmare or utopia?

This seminar will investigate the relationship between technology and society. Besides considering the above questions, students will learn how scientific developments become engineering applications. The engineering process and its problem-solving approach will be demonstrated. Discussion will take place on how society influences the engineering process, as well as the positive and negative impacts of technology. This seminar is for both those who love and those who fear technology.

The reading list will include: parts of The Laser in America, Joan Bromberg (MIT Press); readings from Smithsonian, Technology Review, the New York Times, and chapters from various books, including: Lifting the Veil, Linda Jean Shepherd (1993); Women Changing Science, Mary Morse (1995); Simian, Cyborgs, and Women, Donna J. Haraway; and The Machinery of Dominance, Cynthia Cockburn (1985).

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