STSC 003 Technology and Society
Cross-listed as HSOC 003, SOCI 033
Offered:Spring 2008
Ensmenger TR 12-1:30
Core Course (required of all STSC majors)
"We shape our technologies; thereafter they shape us."
This course surveys the ways in which technology has shaped our societies and our relations with the natural world. We will examine the origins and impact of technical developments throughout human history and across the globe--- from stone tools, agriculture, and cave painting to ancient cities, metallurgy, and aqueducts; from
windmills, cathedrals, steam engines and electricity to atom bombs, the internet, and genetic engineering. We will pay attention to the aesthetic, religious, and mythical dimensions of technological change, and consider the circumstances in which innovations emerge and their effects on social order, on the environment, and on the
ways humans understand themselves.
