Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

• Study notes on Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

Science

• A systematic and empirical approach to understanding the natural world and its phenomena.

Technology

• Tools, methods, and processes used to manipulate and control the physical world to meet human needs and solve problems.
• Technology influences how people live, work, communicate, and interact, leading to social changes and new patterns.

Society

• A group of people in a defined geographical area who share a common culture, beliefs, and norms.
• Society affects the direction and pace of scientific research and technological development through policies, funding, and attitudes.
• Scientific and technological developments impact society, bringing both benefits and challenges, and raising ethical and social questions.

Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Defined

• An interdisciplinary field that examines the interactions between science, technology, and society and their impact.
• STS studies the social, cultural, and ethical implications of scientific and technological advancements.
• Explores the role of science and technology in shaping society and how society shapes scientific and technological developments.
• Science, technology, and society are interrelated and interdependent, shaping and being shaped by each other.
• Science provides knowledge that drives technological advancements, which influences social and cultural norms and values.
• Scientific and technological development can impact society and the environment in both positive and negative ways.

Positive Effects of STS

• Improving quality of life through medical advancements and innovations in communication technology.
• Increased efficiency and productivity in various industries.
• Increased access to information and education opportunities through the internet.
• Lowering greenhouse gas emissions through the development of renewable energy technologies.

Negative Effects of STS

• Degradation of the environment through increased pollution and resource consumption.
• Job loss due to automation.
• Health problems associated with excessive technology use.
• Disruption of social norms and values through rapid changes in communication and information sharing.

Overall Impact of STS

• Scientific and technological progress have significant effects on society and the environment.
• It is important to ensure responsible and ethical development and use.

Ancient Period (ca. 3,500 B.C. - 500 A.D.)

• People used stones as tools and as a source of fire.
• Wooden bows and arrows were used in Spain and Saharan Africa.
• Sewing needles made from bone were used in Southern Europe.
• Earliest-known clay pots made in Japan.
• Hindu calendar of 360 days was introduced in India.
• The wheel was invented in Mesopotamia.
• Egyptians began building pyramids.
• Iron working was introduced in Greece.
• Bronze was first made in Thailand.
• Chinese doctors started using acupuncture.
• Phoenicians developed an alphabet.

Medieval Period (ca. 500-1500)

• Known as the Dark Ages because few written records remained from the era.
• Time of discovering great new inventions in science and technology.
• There was greater advancement in technology and adaptation of Eastern technologies in the West.
• Including the invention of vertical windmills, spectacles, mechanical clocks, and improved watermills.
• Regarded as one of the creative periods in human history.
• Said to be the start of the first industrial revolution.
• One of the greatest inventions was the printing press of Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th Century.

Renaissance Period (14th - 17th Century)

• The term Renaissance is used to refer to the period of rebirth as an age of preparation for the 17th century scientific development and achievements.
• One of the greatest achievements in Western Europe during this period was the technology of printing books and other documents which help the rapid spread of knowledge and information.
• Connects the period of middle ages to modern history.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)

• Polish Mathematician and Astronomer.
• Represented the theory of heliocentric where he said that the sun is the center of the solar system instead of the earth.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

• A major Renaissance scientist.
• Persecuted for his scientific experiments.
• He improved the telescope, discovered new celestial bodies.

Industrial Revolution (18th Century)

• Transfer of doing work by human hands and feet to the use of machines.
• One of the major setbacks of the Industrial Revolution was skilled workers were set aside because operation of new machines were used.
• Three important technologies formed the foundations of the first industrial revolution namely: discovered new celestial bodies, steam engine, and textiles.

In the 19th Century

• The rise of Modern Industry, Science made great progress.
• One of the major setbacks of the Industrial Revolution was skilled workers were set aside because operations of new of new machines were used.

John Dalton (1766-1844)

• Published his atomic theory in 1803 and studied color blindness.

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1907)

• Formulated the Periodic Table.

Hermann Von Helmholtz (1821-1894)

• Formulated the law of Conservation of Energy, and he invented the Ophthalmoscope.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879)

• Showed the light is an Electromagnetic wave, later on proved by Heinrich Hertz.

Henri Becquerel (1852-1908)

• Discovered Radioactivity in 1896.

Marie Curie (1867-1934) and (1859-1906)

• Discovered radium in 1898.

Joseph Thompson

• Discovered the Electron in 1897.

Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)

• Discovered that electric current in a wire caused a nearby compass needle to move in 1819.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)

• Showed that a magnet can produce electricity and in 1831, he invented the Dynamo.

Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872)

• Invented the electric Telegraph in 1837.

Karl Benz (1844-1929) and Gottlieb Daimler (1834-1900)

• Made the first Cars.

In the 20th century

• One of the most noticeable in the history of humans for its incomparable technological advances and scientific discoveries.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) and Steve Wozniak (1950)

• Introducing the Apple in 1976.

ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)

• Internet created in 1969 for defense-related research.

WWW (World Wide Web)

• Created in 1989.

Historical Background of Science and Technology in the Philippines

• Pre-Spanish Period (PURE FILIPINO)

Tools and Tech

• Use metal as their tools and so-called IRON AGE.
• Banaue Rice Terraces (BAGUIO CITY).
• Caracoa a refined plank-built warship that well suited for inter-island trade (BALSA).
• Aware of activities and practices related to Science and Technology.
• They have learned the Curative values of plants and able to extract the medicine out of it.
• Had an alphabet, counting methods, weight, and measurements system, and a calendar that they had based on the period of the moon.

Spanish Colonial Period

• Introduced formal education and founded Scientific Institution.
• Parish schools were established where they taught religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, and music.
• Natives were taught more advanced methods in agriculture.
• Established the University of Sto. Tomas, Biology was highlighted during this period.
• The Galleon trade made a big impact in the economic growth of the Philippines.
• SUEZ CANAL was built, visiting each other countries for Europeans and Filipinos and probably influenced by the rapid development of scientific ideals by the Age of Enlightenment.

American Period and Post-Commonwealth Era

• First elected president of the Philippines [ EMILIO AGUINALDO].
• The establishment of Bureau of Government Laboratories was made in July 1, 1901.
• National Research Council of the Philippines was established on December 8, 1933.
• The Science Act of 1985' which is the goal to establish the National Science Development Board.

Marcos Era

• Science was given importance during this period.
• Established PAGASA which function is to give environmental protection and utilize scientific knowledge to ensure the safety of Nation.

Industrial Revolution in the 17th Century

• Age of Enlightenment (18th Century)

Notable Contributions of Ancient Astronomers to the Development of the Universe.

• Is a period in Europe in the 18th century when many writers and thinkers began to question established beliefs.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C., Greek)

• Proved that the Earth is spherical.

Aristarchus (310-230 B.C., Greek)

• The first to proposed the idea that the Sun was the center of the universe.

Hipparchus (190-120 B.C., Greek)

• The greatest Astronomer of ancient times.

Claudius Ptolemy (85-165 A.D., Greek)

• Used Hipparchus' observations to develop the Ptolemaic System which describes the Earth as the center of the universe with sun, moon, planets and stars revolving around it in a circular orbit.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543, Polish)

• Concluded that the sun and the Earth is not the center of the universe.

Galileo Galilie (1564-1642, Italian)

• Supported the Copernican Model of the Universe.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630, German)

• Formulated the three (3) Laws of Planetary Motion.

Topographical Model of the Mind

• Composed of:
• The conscious mind consisting of thoughts that focus on the present state of the mind.
• The preconscious mind consisting of what can be retrieval from the memory
• The subconscious mind consisting of primitive desires, wishes or impulse which is mediated by the preconscious mind.

The Structural Model of the Mind

• Composed of:
• The id - comprises Eros, the life or survival instinct of man and Thanatos, the death or destructive instinct of man.
• The ego- drives socially acceptable way to satisfy the demands of id as it operates the conscious and unconscious mind.
• The super-ego – operates based on the principles of morality that man to become socially responsible and behave in acceptable manner.

The Most Important Events During the Modern Information Revolution

• First Modern Information Revolution (mid-19th century)

Samuel Morse (1791-1872)

• The invention of the Telegraph.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)

• Patented the first Telephone.

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937)

• Proved the feasibility of radio communication, i.e., sending and receiving radio signals.

Second Modern Information Revolution (Mid-20th century)

• Lee De Forest (1873-1961) – early generation computers were made available to everyone.
• Philo Taylor Farnsworth (1926-1931) - Television as one of the best communication tools.
• Segci Korolev (1957) – Artificial satellites were built and linked the world.
• Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001) - quantified information and measured it in bits.

Third Modern Information Revolution (1980's)

• Is labeled as "knowledge Revolution”, this period is only about the development of communication-related technologies that improved society.

Mesoamerica Period (1200 B.C. -3rd Century A.D.)

• 1. Olmecs – with top of society being the priest and nobles who lived in ceremonial centers.
• Normal people lived in farming villages around the elites.
• Carved colossal heads from volcanic rocks as portraits of rulers.
• Invented calendar and carved hieroglyphic writing into stone.
• The mother culture of Mesoamerica.
• 2. Mayans (300 B.C-900 A.D.)
• Organized into city-state without political unity but bounded economically.
• Developed numbering system including place value and the concept of zero and developed solar calendar with 365 days.

Aztecs (12th-15th Century)

• Built chinampas or “floating gardens" to plant crops.

Middle East (17th Century)

• Muslims invented symbols to express an unknown quantity and made use of zero and decimal points.
• Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi (9th century), one of the first directors of the House of Wisdom, introduced algebra in solving equations.
• Arabs made use of human cadaver to study and understand its anatomy and physiology.
• Salat prayers require knowledge in geography to know the direction of the Qublah,i.e., the direction that should face when Muslims pray.

al-Idrisi (1166)

• Produced a world map that has continents, mountains, rivers, and famous cities.
• Al-Muqdishi - a geographer, also produced an accurate colored map.
• Muslims are great navigators for the expeditions of other countries.

Avicenna (ca. 970-1037)

• Wrote an encyclopedia of medical knowledge.
• Al-Razi (854-925 CE) spearheaded the construction of the first Islam Bimaristans (hospital).

Filipino Scientists, Inventors, and Technologists

• Felipe F. Ciron, Sr.
• Land Master power tiller which was imported from England but was too expensive for the common farmers. Mr. Ciron finally found himself an efficient maker of a power tiller, which he himself used in his own farms.
• On May 22, 1973, the first Filipino-made power tiller was patented by the Philippine Patent Office under Patent No. UM-1220. The "Man Behind the Plow", the Filipino farmer, had become an inventor.

Eduardo Carrion San Juan

• More known as the “The Space Junkman"
• Polaris Missile, Skylab Project for missions and lunar surface base which consisted of Apollo command-and-service module.
• Inter-Ballistic Missile System.
• Lunar Rover was used in 1971 Apollo XV moon exploration; its prototype was reportedly built out of scrap.

Oscar B. Varona

• "An Electronic Fire and Burglar Alarm” with Phil. Pat. No. 4836 which gave him the first Presidential Award.
• "A Process of Making Vegetable Food Products and with Meat-like Structure and Flavor" with Phil. Pat. No. 5615 issued on March of 1971 gave him his second Presidential Award.
• Recipient of the Philippine Legion of Honor for inventing an alcohol attachment to the weapons carrier while serving at the Philippine Army Research and Development Center in 1951.

Roberto V. Celis

• Dama Filipina, the first unsinkable boat was approved by the Filipinas Foundation Inc. (FFI) which tested the model. It travels with less resistance, when it goes into full speed. Less energy is thus spend, minimizing gas cost.

Sofronio Sian

• Had four inventions but his third invention made him famous, the Portable Mini-Cone Mill. His cone-rice mill has only two moving parts: a main shaft turning the huller and the cone polisher and an auxiliary shaft for rotating both blowers.
• It was nicknamed as Knonopak.

Science and Government Policy (The Case of the “War on Drugs")

• Forensic science plays an important role on the prosecution of cases involving illegal drugs.
• Links in the chain of custody for illegal drugs:
• Republic Act 9165, Section 21, must be given to PDEA Laboratory Service for qualitative analysis within 24 hours from confiscation, seizure or surrender.
• The PDEA Laboratory Service must immediately issue a certification of its examination results, under oath by the forensic laboratory examiner, within 24 hours from receipt of the items.
• Turnover of drugs to the forensic chemist to ensure that the drugs seized, recovered, or surrendered are the very same drugs that will be subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis.
• Turnover of the marked illicit drugs by the designated forensic chemist to the court when presented as evidence in the case.

PDEA Laboratory Service consists of three divisions

• 1. The Examination Division conducts laboratory examination on seized dangerous drugs and testifies in court as expert witnesses.
• 2. The Documentation and Evidence Division manages the inventory and safekeeping of drug and nondrug evidence.
• 3. The Special Research Division conducts needed research, develops, or validates new methods of analyzing drugs.

Current Forensic Capabilities in Dangerous Drugs Cases

• Evaluated by the UNODC's Global Synthetics Monitoring Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART Program).
• The forensic infrastructure of 11 countries in Asia.
• The existence of many laboratories could lead to substantial drug abuse patterns.
• Multiple law enforcement agencies have extensive, overlapping anti-narcotic functions.
• Limited interaction between the national drug control bodies and the forensic laboratories exists.
• Most drug laboratories have not received training in the forensic aspects of top-secret laboratory investigations.
• Forensic investigators are miseducated on potential dangers posed by chemical elements and chemical reactions in clandestine laboratories.
• The Philippine laboratories are considered as well equipped.
• No quantitative testing on drug samples is actually conducted in the Philippines due to law-imposed time restrictions on identifying drug samples.

Human Flourishing in Terms of Science and Technology

• Flourishing - is a state where people experience positive emotions, positive psychological functioning, and positive social functioning.
• Human Flourishing - is an effort to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her own such efforts.

Science and Technology Factors

• Science and Technology are at the forefront of our society today.
• Technology eases our labor, cures various diseases, and provides abundant food supply and potable water.
• Enables communication, and travel across the globe.
• Technology as a double-edged sword

Technology as a Way of Revealing

• Martin Heidigger - a German philosopher wrote an essay “The Question Concerning Technology" which addresses modern technology and its essence as an instrumental way of revealing the world.
• Heidegger's Understandings:
• The essence of technology is not something we make; it is a mode of being, or of revealing.
• Technology even holds sway over beings that we do not normally think of as technological, such as gods and history.

Two Characteristics of Modern Technology as a Revealing Process

• The mode of revealing modern technology is challenging. Things are revealed or brought forth by challenging or demanding them.
• The mode of revealing modern technology is challenging, which brings forth the energy of nature as "expediting”.

Happiness

• A mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Eudaimonia

• A term that combines the Greek words for "good" and "spirit" to describe the ideology, it defines happiness as the pursuit of becoming a better person.

Components of Human Flourishing

• Phronesis
• Friendship
• Wealth
• Power

Aristotle's Schema, Four Aspects of Human Nature

• 1. Physical -we require nourishment, exercise, rest, and all other things that it takes to keep our bodies functioning properly.
• 2. Emotional - we have wants, desires, urges, and reactions.
• 3. Social - we must live and function in particular societies.
• 4. Rational - we are creative, expressive, knowledge-seeking, and able to obey reason.
• Human flourishing also known also known as personal flourishing involves the rational use of one's individual potentialities including talents, abilities, and virtues in the pursuit of his freely and rationally chosen values and goals.

Eastern vs Western Conception on Human Flourishing

• For Eastern, the focus is community-centric and that the individual should sacrifice himself for the sake of society.
• For Western, is more focused on the individual with human flourishing as its end.
• Encourage studies of literature, sciences and art of a greater cause.
• Aims for eudaimonia as the ultimate good.

Science, Technology and Human Flourishing

• Every discovery, innovation and success contribute to our pool of human knowledge.
• Human's perpetual needs to locate himself in the world by finding proofs to trace evolution.
• Technology is a human activity we excel in as a result of achieving science.

Topics of Theories.

• Verification Theory, a discipline is science if it can be confirmed or interpreted in the event of an alternative hypothesis being accepted.
• Falsification Theory, as long as an ideology is not proven to be false.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Assumes that as people move through and up the pyramid of needs to reach self-actualization, the idea of good life changes.
• Values, such as power, security, tradition or benevolence are a collection of principle that guide the selection or evaluation of actions, events, and people and what deem to be correct and desirable in life.

Environment topics

• Public Good, is a product that one individual can consume without reducing its availability to another individual, and from which no one is excluded.
• Nonrivalry - denotes any products or service that does not reduce in availability as people consumes it.
• Nonexcludability - refers to any product or service that is impossible to provide without being available for many people to enjoy.
• Climate Change, A change in global or regional climate patterns resulting from global warming.
• Role of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases.
• Causes of energy crisis, overconsumption overpopulation, poor infrastructure, unexplored renewable energy options, wastage of energy, poor distribution system, major accidents and natural calamities and wars and attacks.
• Deforestation.
• Environmental Awareness of Air pollution and Water pollution.
• Soil and Land Pollution, Mining.
• Climate Change, Global Warming and Effect on Marine life.
• Public Health Issues, Overpopulation and loss of biodiversity.