8.15: The Real World of Technology—Examined

We point out several concerns that we have with the arguments Dr. Franklin makes in her lectures-turned-book: the ineffectiveness of her holistic and prescriptive technologies frame, her deeply cynical view on policy, and other thorny places that her arguments lead (like the Soviet Union).

The Real World of Technology, Ursula Franklin Show Notes

• Cold War peace movement
• Peace movements in Canada
• Second-wave feminism (to which Dr. Franklin’s feminism approximately belongs to)
  
• History of environmental movements, post-WWII
• Bijker, Hughes & Pinch’s seminal work on Social Construction of Technology: Stephen left out Hughes. Sorry, Thomas P. Hughes.
• Actor-Network Theory
• John Law and Annemarie Mol’s Handpump article: Stephen incorrectly only mentioned Mol instead of Law and Mol. Sorry, John Law.
• Robert Moses’s bridges
• Bay of Pigs invasion, also sometimes known as the Bay of Pigs incident: Stephen’s point in bringing this up was to allude to the point made neatly in the Wikipedia article: “[The failed invasion] also pushed Cuba closer to the Soviet Union, and those strengthened Soviet-Cuban relations would lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.”
• Almost no nuclear power plants have been built since 1990
• Nuclear power plants historically have decreased carbon emissions significantly: see paragraph four

Here’s the great cover of the book from the ’80s–note that at no time are floppy disks mentioned in the book.

Dr. Franklin does not advocate throwing floppy discs at people’s faces, presumably Upcoming Book

September (8.16 and 8.17): Evolution as a Religion: Strange Hopes and Stranger Fears, Mary Midgley

Credits Music

• “Vista” by Escaper. Used by permission, please don’t use without permission. We usually announce that on the show, but a technical error resulted in a second straight month without verbal crediting. Argh! Argh!
• “Winning Slowly Theme” by Chris Krycho. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, meaning you can do whatever you want with this music… as long as you share it for others to likewise do what they want.

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• Daniel Ellcey
• Douglas Campos
• Jake Grant
• Marnix Klooster
• Spencer Smith

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