Science and Technology History [PDF]

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY  Knowledge of the roots of S and T of the general organization of society contributes significantly to the understanding of man and the world he lives in.  To gain clarity we focus on 3 revolutions that have set the tone of activities in the world across centuries an...

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY  Knowledge of the roots of S and T of the general organization of society contributes significantly to the understanding of man and the world he lives in.  To gain clarity we focus on 3 revolutions that have set the tone of activities in the world across centuries and culture. This drastic change in man’s history was made possible by Science and Technology. -Agricultural Revolution -Industrial Revolution -Information Revolution  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BEFORE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Ancient Times  Paleolithic Age (2500, 000,000-8000 BC) -Mode of living did not afford time for other activities except hunting and gathering food. - No great intellectual and cultural achievements. -Mankind was yet in its beginning. Yet hunting rites, burial rites, magic and myths were manifestations of their attempt to understand the forces that shaped them and their environment.  -Plant and animal lore maybe said the beginning of biology and medicine. -Their rites, magic and myths led to science. -Paleolithic man’s knowledge (or lack of it) determined his ability to use his environment, which ability determined his mode of living society. (Classless Society)  Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) -advance in techniques (manifested in tools) -8000 BC to 3000 BC -Agriculture happened in this period. - Neolithic man discovered domestication of plants and animals. - Purposeful growing of animals for food, wool, pack and draft use. -This settled agricultural economy, give rise to a new social organization (villages) based on agriculture. -Drastic change from small nomadic groups to settled units (villages) based on agriculture. It was drastic change from small nomadic groups to settle units called the villages based on agriculture - Spinning pottery, weaving, brewing - The hallmark of their techniques is the use of ground stone tools whose imprint spoke of design, standard and tradition. These three elements are important ingredients in the march of civilization.  -Demands of sowing/harvesting gave rise to a calendar for use in agriculture. -Settled life in the village where Neolithic man had control of his food production afforded him time for other intellectual and cultural achievements. e.g. geometric design, symbolism, myths on creation.  Pattern: the change in technique in food production dictated the social arrangement of villages. This period marks the active transformation of man by his environment. it also marked the emergence of social differences.  Bronze Age: new dominant element is the use of the alloy bronze. -3000 BC to 1000 BC -Technique in food production advanced as seen by the use of irrigation, water lifting demies, canals and dams. -Improvement in transport- roads, sailboat, wheel carts, horse drawn chariots. -New tools materials and proceeds from same activities in this period. Mining and smelting, copper and bronze casting, riveting and soldiering metal vessels, brick and stone building furniture making, glazed pottery making. -This practical knowledge were complemented by works of the mind such as accounting, ideographic designs, number writing, weights and measures, arithmetic, geometry, solar calendar, astronomy and professional medicine.  The wider set of technical and intellectual activities gave rise to and arose from the formation of cities and classes with society.  Pattern: Gods and temples, priest and kings, craftsman, traders, law, property, debt, city states on war, empires and slavery- These were the ingredients in the interplay of social forces in the more complex organization of this period.  Iron age (1000 BC-600 A.D) -also called new dominant element-iron -Increased forest clearance, plowing, waterwheels and pumps, gears, pulleys, and improved sea-going vessels were some of the improvements in food production and transport. Improve cheaper tools.  -Improved preparation of drugs and dyes and glass- characterized the new tools, materials and processes. -Alongside, the period generated alphabets, literature, coined money, philosophy and rational science.  In the social front, trading cities, politics, republican government, rise of plutocracy, social struggles, intensified warfare characterized the period. Bronze and Iron Age demonstrate the Interlinkage between Technical and Social Organization of Man  In the Ancient times, we find the roots of science and technology of today, the roots of the present arrangement. We say that Science and Technology can be traced back to the practical activities of man to satisfy his material needs- food and protection from the elements. This included even astronomy and math which are commonly regarded as impractical and abstract. Equally even social groupings of today can be traced back to the villages and cities of the ancient.  Middle Ages (15 AD to 1500 AD) -Due to intensive economic and political struggles arising from the money- salve economy, the classical civilization- Greeks and Roman eventually disintegrated. From the Roman Plutocratic, slave economy’s disintegration grew a new decentralized economic and political order of Feudalism. -The economy of the feudal order was based on land with the village constituting the economic unit. -Hierarchy of authority- peasants, lords-lay or clerical, overlords- bishops and Kings, popes or Emperor. - Pervasiveness of religious view. - Theology held sway over minds of people. -Age of Faith- Christianity, Islam, Buddhism. -Intellectual life including science was expressed in religious dogma, was confined to churchman.  -Feudal system was not conducive to scientific advancement. Demand for useful science was reduced to a minimum. - Codification of the classical sciences- astronomy, medicine, mathematics, resulting in comprehensive treatise.  -Science was confined to book learning and disputation. - Rational science was made a hand maiden to theology in justifying the divine order of the universe whose main features are given in the bible. -On the other hand, other Economic forms were growing up inside the feudal system: trading and urban manufacturing economy, where feudal surplus was great, towns begun to grow again.  -Manufacturing movement gave rise to the Bourgeois class that would prominently figure in the rise of Capitalism in later decades. - Movement gave birth to utilitarian science, gave significant impetus to technical innovations.  -Technical advances continued in the feudal order even as science was stagnating. They were a source of transformation for medieval economy. -New developments in agriculture: heavy wheeled plough, transport and power were collar shoe, mariners compass, clocks, windmill, water wheel, improved sailing ship etc.  -Gunpowder, and cannons, alcohol, use of paper, printing and cannons directly stimulated the growth of the sciences of physics and chemistry. Canon and gunpowder played key roles in politics, economics, mining, wars and accumulation of capital. In Summary:  -There was an impressive total technical development in manufacture and transport in the middle ages. These technical developments were motive forces for the transformation of the medieval economy. Technical advances contrasts with science stagnation. -The widespread of religious attitude and feudal system of production initiated against science development.  Science and Technology in Islamic Indian and Chinese Societies: -had knowledge of materials and developed techniques comparable to the European countries. -Chinese society had more advanced technical capability than European. China was ahead of any country in the invention of materials as paper, magnetic compass, printing gunpowder, cast iron and mechanical clock.  Why modern science did not grow? According to Joseph Needman, it lies on the social, intellectual and economic structure of Chinese civilization. Chinese’s non-interventionist world views of human activity. “Production without possession, action without self-assertion, development without domination. “Going with the grain of things instead of going against it”  Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution (1450-1690) -The economy of feudalism was incompatible with the rise of towns, trading and industry. -The production of commodities for sale steadily increased. -Capitalism developed as the leading method of production.  -The transformation from feudal to capitalist economy was accompanied by a change in world outlook. -From organic qualitative religious world view, it changed to the mechanistic, quantitative secular world outlook. -Reconciliation with the world to controlling nature through knowledge of its laws.  The Renaissance can be divided into three phases: First phase- 1450-1540 Second phase- 1540-1650 Third phase- 1650-1690 First phase- 1450-1540 -change of the system of social relation from one based on a fixed hereditary status to one based on buying and selling commodities and labour. -the major economic factor that provided the drive for the movement was the rapid expansion of trade made possible by a greater available output  -This greater surplus was the result of technical improvement in agriculture and cloth making. -Greed for more profits from overseas prompted ship building and navigation in Europe resulting in the easy availability of the surplus produced to an ever widening market. Huge profits made possible the first accumulation of fund capital which was invested.  -The interplay of profit, manufacture and market created an increasing demand for an environment conducive to inventions, innovations and understanding of the way of nature. -Marriage of the craftsman and the scholar. -Social prestige and recognition was accorded to individuals who combined mental work and manual labour. Practical labour was not regarded as only fit for slaves.  -The explosive combination of technique and theory led to the establishment of the scientific method or modern science as we know it today. -Navigation demanded the use of science of astronomy and instrumentation.  DA VINCI, COPERNICUS, VESALIUS- catalyst in the social transformation.  SECOND PHASE (1540-1650) With the practical knowledge of the craftsman and fused with the theoretical methods of the scholar- experimental philosophers. GALILEO HILBERT HARVEY -they are one among those who spearheaded the advance of the sciences.  -Thinking about nature was no longer guided by philosophical principles but by hard facts carefully gathered from experiments. -Technology advanced independently of science. --- the blast furnace, cast iron., from wood to coal. -Economically, the period was dominated by the cumulative effects of navigation for trade. It resulted in the unprecedented increase in the wealth of those traders and manufacturers who could draw on new raw materials and supply new markets overseas.  Third Phase (1650-1690) -The growth of science was intense and concentrated in London and Paris. -Stable governments in England and France at the time were the enabling political condition.  -The great increase in manufacture and trade with new possibilities opened by navigation put a high premium for mechanical invention. -The condition was very conducive for the growth of science. -Scientist were recognized and honoured  -The motivation lay in the common interest by governments in trade, navigation, manufactures and agriculture. There was an organized and conscious effort to use science for practical ends. -The organization took the form of scientific societies. *Royal Society of London. * French Royal Academy  -These societies tasked themselves to concentrate on the central technical problems at the time- pumping, hydraulics, gunnery, navigation, optics vacuum—they avoided general philosophical discussions. -With the formation of scientific societies, science established itself as a fully recognized factor in culture, as a new institution in society.  SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1690-1895 (As analyzed by J. D. Bernal) Four Phases: 1690-1760 1760-1830 1830-1870 1870-1895  Industrial Revolution- described as the rapid economic transformation from agriculture to manufacture, with the population moving from the countryside to town side. This revolution signified a radical transformation of man’s way of working and living. The present day arrangement is largely the effect of this transformation.  First Phase (1690-1760) Transitional period to the industrial; revolution proper -Science waned after outburst of scientific activity in the 17th century. -Technological changed continued as evidenced by rapid improvement in agricultural practices.  -The small manufactures who would play a key role in the industrial revolution are not yet aware of the existence of science and its great possibilities. -They continued developing better methods for the most part, hand operated to cope for the rising demands for cloth and wood fuel.  -Towns and cities rapidly grew. Freed from the limits of wood fuel. -A new heavy industry based on coal expanded rapidly. -Transition from an economy of food to an economy of power.  Second Phase (1760-1830) -Regarded as the industrial revolution proper. -Capitalist mode of production together with the birth of the experimental quantitative method of science in the 16th century and 17th century paved the way to the dramatic rise in productivity of manufactured goods.  -Fivefold increase in the output of cotton goods. (1766-1787) -Steady rapid growth of the market for manufactured products mainly textiles. -Widespread use of iron and the shift to coal raised the level of economic activity. -Mechanism of the textile industry. From manual operation to machinery. -Water-driven-steam engine driven. -More demand for the efficiency of agriculture. -As manufacturing population grew in towns and cities, the demand for food for non-farm family’s increases---New cash crop agriculture replaced the peasants and their subsistence agriculture  -Scientist was not the creators /movers of the industrial revolution. It is where the artisans and inventors. -textile industry occurred without the use of any radically new scientific principle. -Science played an ancillary role; it slowly increased in importance with the introduction of the steam engine in the light and heavy industries.  -The engine was the result of the conscious application of scientific principles. -Search for reliable source of power was a problem raised by the industry. -Science during the IR is characterized as an activity closely integrated into the mechanism of production. Science was supportive to the IR thru engineering, chemistry, and electricity. Science became indispensable in industry.  Third Phase (1830-1870) -Time of explosive growth, new cities were established, new means of transport—railways, steam ships. -New class of capitalist’s entrepreneurs rose amidst industrial activity.  Science and Technology after the Industrial Revolution -The period focused is the 20th century, from the turn of the century up to the present. *S&T in the age of imperialism. *S&T and the industrial civilization.  S&T and The Age of Imperialism -The questions at hand are: -What was the relation between the centers of science and technology in Europe, which were the same as the centers of industry and the rest of the world? -Was there a transfer of science and technology? in what areas? -What were the characteristics of the development of science in the interest of the world? -The pattern of relationship between the industrial centers in Europe and what are known as the third world countries may be said to be one-sided. On the whole, the rest of the world was the source of cheap raw materials for the advanced countries. The third world countries served as ready market of the manufactured goods coming from the industrial centers. Indirectly thus, the advanced countries exerted control over the political and economic life of the rest of the world.  The sciences transferred underwent characteristically thru three phases: 1st Phase: The European scientist stayed in the country gathering scientific knowledge on its Flora and Fauna. They published their results in European journals. 2nd Phase: The local scientist who worked as the assistant to the European scientist carried on the investigation of their mentors. Their standard and reference were those of their teachers. 3rd Phase: the development completed of the establishment of an independent science capability. -A new pattern emerged in the relationship between nations as a result of science and technology. With a big head start in the industrialization, the advanced countries used science and technology to further boost their economic strength over that of the rest of the world. On the other hand, the lack of science and technology capability coupled with the presence of strong competition from the advanced countries it is doubly difficult to achieve industrialization.  S&T and the Industrial Civilization S&T does the building of governments and big corporations. In both capitalist and socialist systems, the industrialized countries share a common rhythm and pattern of life. The rest of the world thru the purchase of manufactured products share the same rhythm and pattern in varying degrees in accordance with the stage of development. This pattern and rhythm we call the industrial civilization (The second wave’s civilization)  Alvin Toffler asserts that the architecture of the industrial civilization consists of three parts: The techno sphere- the fossil fuel and the machine tools including the vast array of hardware, consist of the system of power sources together with the nonrenewable energy sources, here wealth is produced and allocated. Wealth produced- manufactured goods. Wealth allocated- wages and profits.  -The socio-sphere consists of unclear family, factory type school and giant corporations. -The extended family suited in the agricultural village has outlived its usefulness in an industrial city. The new reality of factory closures and of other better job offerings elsewhere dictates a family of father, a mother and a few children which can pact in no time and roll to a new or better job opportunity.  The punctuality, the discipline and the obedience instilled in the school prepare the young pupils for their future work in the factory. The drive for mass production has created a third institution, the giant corporation. By the late corporation is an immortal entity meaning it could last longer than its original incorporators. This makes for very long term plans and for bigger projects than ordinarily possible. The socio sphere allocates the roles to individuals in the system. To make the entire system work, information is allocated by the info-sphere- print, radio, TV etc.  Principles that govern the overall pattern of the lives of individuals in an industrialized world (according to Toffler): 1. Principle of standardization -standard products, standard procedures, standard currency, weights and measures.  2. Principle of specialization -specialization for the Efficient production of standard goods Efficient provision of services The standard of organization of factories in the division of labor. 3. Principle of synchronization -keeping appointments on time is necessary for an industrialized world.  4. Rule of concentration Industrialism set of a tendency towards… Concentration of people in urban areas -of work in factories -of children in school -of criminals in prison -of mentally ill in lunatic asylums -of capital in a few giant corporations Concentration leads to efficiency  5. Principle of maximization (the economics of scale). Bigness is the yardstick by which the status of anything is measured the aim is to become megacities, to organize megaprojects and to manage mega business.  6. Principle of centralization In politics, in business in the national economy, the bulk of decision is made by the central government, top management, the central bank. Etc.  The six principles operate in both capitalist and socialist industrialized societies, they do not spring from political ideology but from the split between the producer and the consumer and thereby the increasing role of the market.  TECHNOLOGY DEFINED In its broadest sense, technology is refers collectively to any human made tool and the how for making or using that tool.  In the past, science followed technology i.e. the technology that previous generations had invented and used thru trial and error to insure survival and growth were collated, coded, verified put into theory and documented to become part of the state of the art.  At present, it is now scientific knowledge and advancement which is spawning and spinning technological progress. Instead of a more stable technological product existing over time, we see as fast changing technological innovation production process. As scientific knowledge grows and as more people in society assimilate and use this knowledge, more people use this base to create and will invent new technologies.” What people do with what they know is simplified.”  Technology is any systematized practical knowledge based on experimentations and/or scientific theory, which is embodied in productive skills, organization and machinery.  Technology as man-made and for it to benefit society techniques and procedures must be created to manufacture, commercialize and distribute the tool, the process and the product. Technology enables man to extend capacities and enhances capabilities of the mind and muscle.  FORMS OF TECHNOLOGY: Object- embodied such as machines and materials. Know-why type which includes knowledge of how something works, skills and experience. Know-how type such as processes, techniques, methods, pertinent facts and relationships.  Institution- embodied which includes those with vital catalytic role to make a system produce or function. These are institution –base information services, media, policy that activities decisions and commitments.  -End- Thank you.