REVIEWER IN STS
Flourishing- it's a state where people experience positive emotions( i.e.
positive psychological functioning & positive social functioning). Living within
an optimal range of human functioning.
Human flourishing- defined as an effort to achieve self- actualization
-Realization of one's talents and potentialities is considered as a drive or need
present in everyones.
-The human person, as both the bearer and the beneficiary of science and
technology, flourishes in a world that he/she builds.
-in the pursuit of a good life, they may acquire, consume, or destroy what the
world has to offer.
*How to live a good life?
-According to Aristotle, “live virtuously”
•Eudaimonia & Aristotle
-Literally "good spirited", is a term coined by renowned Greek philosopher
Aristotle (385-323 BC) to describe the pinnacle of happiness (happiness of
welfare; "human flourishing or prosperity" and "blessedness", “flourishing”)
that is attainable by humans.
-This has often been translated into "human flourishing" in literature, arguably
likening humans to flowers achieving their full bloom.
-Humans of today are expected to become a "man of the world."
-Aristotle’s “Nichomachean Ethics” self help book, he explained how to
flourish by cultivating virtues.
Virtue- a disposition to behave in certain ways that lies between 2 extremes:
1. Courage- feeling fear but doing it anyway
:Cowardice- you feel fear and can't do it
:Recklessness- you don't feel the fear when you should
2. Generosity
:Stinginess
:Profligacy- u throw ur money around
*Aristotle's doctrine of the golden mean:
-Whether u can act virtuously or not depends on how you've been brought up.
-Moral education and choices you make.
*PHILOSOPHY- The study of general and fundamental problems concerning
matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind and language.
*MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)- German philosopher whose work is
associated with phenomenology and existentialism.
-He begins “The Question Concerning Technology”.
*Piety- associated with religion. Also means obedience and submission.
*Questioning as the piety of thought- this questioning leads one to search for
his/her place in the universe.
*Enframing- way of revealing in modern technology.
2 ways of thinking in looking at the world:
1. Calculative thinking- one orders and puts a system to nature so it can be
understood better and controlled.
2. Meditative thinking- one lets nature reveal itself to him/her without
forcing it.
*Instrumental- technology is a means to an end.
*Anthropological- technology is a human activity.
*Steps In Scientific Method:
-Observe
-Observe the Problem
-Formulate Hypothesis
-Conduct Experiment
-Gather & Analysis
-Conclusion
•Verification theory
- gives a premium to empiricism and only takes into account those results
which are measurable and experiments which are repeatable.
- A discipline is science if it can be confirmed or interpret in the event of the
alternative being accepted.
- The earliest criterion that distinguishes philosophy and science.
•Falsification
-Assert that as long as an ideology is not proven to be false and can be best
explained in a phenomenon over alternative theories, we should accept the
said idea.
-It does not promote ultimate adoption of one theory but instead encourages
research in order to determine which among the theories can stand the test of
falsification.
▪Karl Popper- is the known proponent of this theory.
-He was notorious for stating that up-and-coming theories of the time, such as
Marx's Theory of Social History and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis, are not
testable and thus not falsifiable, subsequently questioning their status as
scientific.
-For a theory to be considered scientific it must be able to be tested and
conceivably proven false.
•Science as Social Endeavor
-Sciences cease to belong solely to gown-wearing, bespectacled scientists at
laboratories. The new view perpetuates a dimension which generally benefits
the society.
Several Philosophers:
▪Paul Thagard- He is a Canadian philosopher who specializes in cognitive
science, philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science and medicine.
▪Imre Lakatos- He was a Hungarian philosopher of mathematics and science,
known for his thesis of the fallibility of mathematics and its "methodology of
proofs and refutations" in its pre-axiomatic stages of development, and also
for introducing the concept of the "research programme" in his methodology
of scientific research programmes.
▪Helen Longino - is an American philosopher of science who has argued for the
significance of values and social interactions to scientific inquiry. She has
written about the role of women in science and is a central figure in feminist
epistemology and social epistemology.
▪David Bloor- is a British sociologist. He is a key figure in the Edinburgh school
and played a major role in the development of the field of science and
technology studies
▪Richard Rorty- was an important American philosopher of the late twentieth
and early twenty-first century who blended expertise in philosophy and
comparative literature into a perspective called “The New Pragmatism” or
“neopragmatism.”
*Why is it called the information age?
- Because it makes available instant access to knowledge that would have
been difficult or impossible to find previously. Also known as the
Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age.
▪ PRINTING PRESS - It is a device that applies pressure to an inked surface lying
on a print medium, such as cloth or paper, to transfer ink. (GUTENBERG PRESS)
-This invention was a result of finding a way to improve the manual, tedious,
and slow printing methods and it led to the creation of metal movable type.
*Movable metal type- meant that letters could be rearranged into countless
patterns.
- Before it was invented, books were expensive and copied by hand or made by
using block printing.
*Block printing- texts and images had to be carved into blocks of wood, then
covered with ink and stamped onto a page.
-It made the mass production of books possible which made books accessible
not only to the upper class.
▪JOHANNES GUTENBERG - German craftsman and inventor who developed
new techniques for improving the printing press.
▪HARVARD MARK 1 - A general purpose electromechanical computer that was
50 feet long and capable of doing calculations in seconds that usually took
people hours.
▪GERMAN NAVY'S ENIGMA CODE - The Enigma was an enciphering machine
that the German armed forces used to securely send messages.
▪ALAN TURING- An English mathematician who was hired in 1936 by the British
top- secret Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park to break the
Enigma code.
-His code breaking methods became an industrial process having 12,000
people working 24/7. Working with Allies countries.
-He demonstrated the simulation of the Turing machine to construct a single
Universal Machine which became the foundation of computer science and the
invention of computer.
▪BOMBE - An electromechanical machine that was invented by Alan Turing that
enabled the British to decipher encrypted messages of the German Enigma
machine.
TURING MACHINE- A theoretical machine presented by Turing that can solve
any problem from simple instructions encoded on a paper tape.
COMPUTER- a machine that can solve any problem by performing any task
from a written program.
“Electronic brains”- the generation who witnessed the dawn of the computer
age in the 70’s. They were the first to be introduced to personal computers
(PCs).
The Homebrew Club- An early computer hobbyist group, gathered regularly to
trade parts of computer hardware and talked about how to make computers
more accessible to everyone.
Steve Wozniak- co-founder of Apple Inc., developed a computer called “the
Apple I” in 1976.
■The Good life
•Aristotle - was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period
in Ancient Greece. One of the greatest philosopher and the first genuine
scientist in history.
•Materialism
-The first materialists were the atomists in Ancient Greece.
-Accordingly, the world, including human beings, is made up of matter and
there is no need to possess immaterial entities as sources of purpose.
-Democritus and Leucippus led a school whose primary belief is that the world
is made up of and is controlled by the tiny indivisible units in the world called
atomos or seeds.
•Hedonism
-Pleasure has always been the priority of Hedonists. For them, life is obtaining
and indulging in pleasure because life is limited.
•Stoicism
Zeno of Citium- Founder of stoicism.
-It is a philosophy of life that maximizes positive emotions, reduces negative
emotions, and helps individuals to hone their virtues of character.
Epicurus the stoics- He exposed the idea that to generate happiness one must
learn to distance oneself and be apathetic.
-happiness can only be attained by careful practice of apathy.
*Apatheia- means indifferent
•Atheism- lack of belief in gods
Atheism- no god
Theism- god is good all the time, all the time god is good.
-Atheism is too often defined incorrectly as a belief system.
•Humanism- freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to legislate his own
laws, free from shackles of god that monitors and controls.
-man is the captain of his own ship, not as steward of the creation but as
individuals who are in control of themselves and the world outside them.
-It is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential
and agency of human beings.
-It considers human beings as the starting point for serious moral and
philosophical inquiry.
-becoz of the motivation of humanists, scientists turn to technology to make
life easier.
■[ When technology and Humanity cross ]
-technology came from the Greek words "techne" and "logos" which mean art
and word respectively.
▪Paul Gottlieb Nipkow- invented the "electric telescope" that has 18 lines of
resolution. Based on a German student's attempt to send images through
wires with the aid of a rotating disk.
▪Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, an English scientist, and Boris Rosing, a
Russian scientist, created a new system of television by using a cathode ray
tube in addition to the mechanical scanner system.
*Martin Cooper- he is a sr. engineer at motorola, created the world’s mobile
phone (4/3/1973). !983 when the phone was made public.
Types Of television system: mechanical & electronic television.
▪Charles Babbage- a 19th century English Mathematics professor, who
designed the Analytical Engine which was used as the basic framework of
computers until present.
*The Osborne 1- The 1st true portable computer was released in April 1981.
•[ Ethical Dilemma of Ethical advancement by Technological advancement ]
-People who develop different kinds of sickness because of too much use of
technological devices.
-More likely to experience alienation because they no longer take time to get
out of their houses and mingle with other people.
■[Robotics and Humanity]
*Robot- an actuated mechanism programmable in two or more axes with a
degree of autonomy, moving within its environment, to perform intended
tasks.
*Autonomy - ability to perform intended tasks based on current state and
sensing without human intervention.
*Service robot- robot that performs useful tasks for humans or equipment
excluding industrial application. Classified into 2: Industrial robot, Service
robot.
*Professional Service robot- Used for a commercial task, usually operated by
properly trained operator.
•[Roles played by Robot]
-Ease the workload of mankind
- Make life more efficient and less stressful
-Perform complicated activities.
-Pleasure, entertainment in Parks or Exhibits
- Toys, Child-friendly
-Used in Movies
▪George Charles Devol
-An American Inventor known for developing Unimate (from the words
Universal Automation), the 1st material handling robot employed in industrial
production work.
▪Isaac Asimov
-An American Writer and Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University.
Isaac's Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"
*Three Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a
human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey order when it by human beings except when such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does
not conflict with the First or Second Law.
•[Ethical Dilemma of Robots]
-The Internet (interconnected network)- a worldwide system of computer
networks in which users get information from any other computer.
▪Software robots - basically, just complicated computer programs- already
make important financial decisions.
*Pepper - the world’s first social humanoid robot with emotions.
*Information Age- the idea that access to and the control of information is the
defining characteristic of this current era in human civilization.
-Stone age
-Iron age (hoe and cutlass)
-Middle age (feather, pen Electronic age and ink)
-Industrial age (machine)
-Computer & Information age
*Computer- a device that can store and process information.
*Mechanical calculators- were created in the 19th century to address the
growing complexity of number-crunching problems.
*John William Mauchly, was an American physicist who, and J. Presper Eckert,
designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well
as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the
United States.
*7 types of computer
-Supercomputer
-Main frame
- Server Computer
-Work station Computer
-Personal Computer or PC
-Microcontroller
-Smartphone
*World Wide Web - also known as WWW, W3, or the web.
-An interconnected system of public webpages accessible through the internet.
-Another way to describe the internet. Published in 1992
-Means for transferring text and graphics simultaneously
*Internet- is a network of computers which are connected and that share
information and allow communication around the world.
•Tim Berners Lee- invented the WWW at CERN in 1989-1990.
*Types of Computer
-Analogue Computer
-Digital Computer
-Hybrid Computer
*Personal computer- a machine that can store and process information.
*Desktops- are the oldest computers and are used to run a large variety of
programs and access the Internet.
*Laptops- are portable versions of desktops that are smaller so they can be
carried around with ease. Portable and suitable for use while travelling.
*Tablets- a wireless, portable personal computer with a touchscreen interface.
Smaller than a notebook computer, but larger than a smartphone.
*Held Computer - designed to provide a suite of computing communication
and informational tools.
*Servers- is the computer that is providing information or services to the other
computer.
*Workstations- it's intended for business or professional use (rather than
home or recreational use).
*Smartphone- is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone
and computing functions into one unit.
*Wearable Computer- is any small technological device capable of storing and
processing data that can be worn on the body. (I.e. smart watch)
*Smart Glasses- are wearable computer glasses that add information alongside
or to what the wearer sees.
*Super Computers- used for scientific and engineering applications that must
handle massive databases.
*Quantum Computer- machines that use the properties of quantum physics to
store data and perform computations.
■[Timeline from sumerian to Egyptians]
3000 B.C. - Sumerian writing system uses pictographs to represent words.
2900- Beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
1300- Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing.
500- Papyrus roll.
220- Chinese small seal writing developed.
100 A.D. - Book (parchment codex).
105- Wood-block printing and paper was invented by the Chinese.
1455- Johann Gutenberg invented a printing press using movable metal type.
1755- Samuel Johnson's dictionary standardizes English spelling.
1802- The Library of Congress is established. Invention of the carbon arc lamp.
1824- Research on persistence of vision published.
1830s- First viable design for a digital computer. Augusta Lady Byron writes
the world's first computer program.
1837- Invention of telegraph in Great Britain and the United States.
1861- Motion pictures projected onto a screen.
1876- Dewey Decimal system introduced.
1877- Edweard Muybridge demonstrates high-speed photography.
1899- First magnetic recordings.
20th Century
1902- Motion picture special effects.
1906- Lee DeForest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode).
1923- Television camera tube invented by Zvorkyn.
1926- First practical sound movie.
1939- Regularly scheduled television broadcasting begins in the U.S.
1940s- Beginnings of information science as a discipline.
1945- Vannevar Bush foresees the invention of hypertext.
1946- ENIAC computer developed.
1948- Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E. Shannon.
1957- Planar transistor developed by Jean Hoerni.
1958- First integrated circuit.
1960s- Library of Congress develops LC MARC (machine readable code).
1969- UNIX operating system developed, which could handle multitasking.
1971- Intel introduces first microprocessor chip.
1972- Optical laserdisc developed by Philips and MCA.
1974- MCA and Philips agree on standard videodisc encoding format.
1975- Altair Microcomputer Kit: first personal computer for the public.
1977- RadioShack introduces the first complete personal computer.
1984- Apple MacIntosh computer introduced.
Mid 80’s - Artificial intelligence separates from information science.
1987- Hypercard developed by Bill Atkinson recipe box metaphor.
1991- Four hundred fifty complete works of literature on one CD-ROM.
Jan 1997- RSA (Encryption and network security software) Internet security
code cracked for a 48-bit number.
