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University of Alberta
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This document discusses the history of technology and its impact on human societies. It explores different perspectives on technology and its influence on human development, including the internal and external social factors.
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Research from scholars helped us but ultimately it was our interpretation of the past Internal approach/great men theory/ unidirectional model/technological determinism ○ “Nuts and bolts” ○ They go into detail ○ Stay with science not having any social influence ○ D...
Research from scholars helped us but ultimately it was our interpretation of the past Internal approach/great men theory/ unidirectional model/technological determinism ○ “Nuts and bolts” ○ They go into detail ○ Stay with science not having any social influence ○ Did not invent what they were credited for ○ Always positive result of technology ○ Tech influences society but society does not influence tech ○ New social group discovered stirrup which was the first big technological breakthrough ○ Technology is the most decisive factor of change ○ Level of tech development is only measure of success in society External approach/social approach/social determinism ○ External social factors shape development of tech ○ Society shapes tech ○ No inborn genius ○ Outcome of tech is determined by social factors, religion etc.. also shapes scientific tech progress ○ Society is always in control ○ Because technology comes from society it will never run our lives Interactive view of technology in society ○ Two way relationship ○ Tech influences society but society influences tech What is Required for Survival ○ Food, water, shelter ○ Oldowan tools, flake tools were created ○ Australophitecus we see the first protection ○ Wonderwerk cave w million years ago seen as first shelters ○ Acheulean tools core tools, homo erectus, turkana boy ○ Oldowan tools were flakes of softstone ○ Acheulean tools were carved and the soft stone was used ○ This shifted the diet causing them to eat more meat ○ Meat had proteins that made brains bigger making us a product of tech Climate Change and Technology was part of the next great change in technology ○ Earth got very hot and dry along with no food/water ○ Animals move from heat along with people ○ Mesopotamia was found, lush exotic with food and water ○ Had to learn to use crops, agriculture becoming a new technology ○ Eventually nomadic people went stationary ○ Shift from eat when you catch to save for next year ○ Surplus in food created labor, specialization, political elite ○ The plow was then made Rate of Change ○ Stone tools 2 million years ○ Fire 1 million years ○ Man made huts 20,000 years ○ Agriculture 2000 years ○ After plow rate of technology becomes instant ○ Werent seeking survival, seeking dominance over nature ○ Leading to dominance over less advanced people First Civilization and their Legacy and Impact ○ Mesopotamia was where the plow, agriculture, and civilizations started ○ Completely at the mercy of nature ○ Canals were brought into cities and farms ○ Math came from seminarians also making measurements ○ Schedule of work led to clocks and calenders ○ Resources to pay, people, materials all lead to construction of pyramids and ziggurats ○ Problem on how to records due to temple accounts and donations not keeping up with who paid how much ○ Writing was created and before this everything is prehistoric ○ Alphabet was created ○ Need for better transportation so wheel was made ○ Seminarians were first to make a army due to growth and wealth and trade ○ Everything from egyptians were from seminarians 100 years before Technology and the Art of Social Control ○ Egypt was wealthiest ○ Egypt was well protected due to desert ○ Nile was predictable making harvest easy and 2 times a year ○ Priests would predict flooding and record patterns and when they put these together they gained societal control ○ The nile, plow, food, social control, and wealth were the reason for pyramids ○ Nile would flood and bring fresh top soil to fields ○ Pyramids were built during flooding by farmers because they couldn't do anything else ○ Mastaba was formed as new tomb ○ Pyramids were built to preserve mummified bodies of pharaoh and the possessions on the way to after life ○ Pyramids were looted ○ Believed they had a medicine that could cure anything called mumia it was made of grinded money ○ Greeks were first to separate divine from natural phenomena/science/technology Alexander, Ptolemy, and the Mouseion ○ Alexander was a king who conquered greece and athens and the persian empire, later destroying the persian empire ○ Alexandria became new capital of egypt due to alex conquering it ○ Ptomely came with alexander but egyptians liked him more which divided the empire ○ Ptolemy made first research center called mouseion ○ Divided into faculties and scientists would pay for research ○ Making the first library, the great library of alexandria ○ Ptolemy made a back up library underground and put important work down there ○ Library was destroyed multiple times but went down in AD 200 ○ After that christianity became main religion ○ Backup library was discovered by the arabs Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt Engineers were part of military unit, they had over 80,000km of this road but the roads were not built by the army they were built by the people and were born 2 meters thick they were able to do this through the social control the government had over them. Greeks used columns and the romans used arches this new method of construction granted them access to build domes. We mostly think of rome being built in marble but it was actually just a siding for all the buildings while the buildings were actually made of cement. Rome was the first city to have a population of over 1 million. They needed fresh water so they made aqueducts and the continuously running water was ran through led pipe. First city to have public private toilets. The cloaca maxima is the paradigm or example for our modern drainage or sewer systems. Architecture, technology, engineering and state propaganda in public structures, the roman sennet had to approve buildings and once you build with own personal money it was a public structure. Colosseum was known as the flavian theatre because it was built by the flavians. It was built on a lake and the lake was by emperor nero therefore it was house of nero. The flavians were trying to say they are the emperor and they wanted to give back what they had taken from them. Government used colosseum for social control, you got paid and fed to fight in the colosseum though. West roam collapsed because there was no longer external support for the government and east rome was conquered by chinese technology The Chinese Connection ○ Ancient chinese invented nearly everything ○ They had a lack of social flexibility and there class prevented them from inventing ○ Government and religion controlled th rate at which change religion and world view were shaped ○ In the west there was rapid change ○ They invented the stirrup with caused immediate change in europe ○ Medieval europe had created the middle class ○ Christianity formed men with weapons but they had nothing to do ○ First crusade was on jerusalem ○ Believed they found elixir of life but was actually black powder which chinese ended up using for rockets ○ Roman empire came to end due to domestication of pigs ○ Pigs urine and pigs droppings made potassium nitrate allowing them to make large cannons ○ Need for books were from alexandria and bible ○ Only problem was there was very few available copies ○ Commercialization of faith made a price guide for sins which made a sin now pay later ○ Causing the making of the printing press Printing Press and Diffusion of Knowledge ○ Gutenberg bible was the first printed book ○ The problem to make the printing press was paper and fast drying ink and reusable type along with the press only being in europe ○ Paper was in china in the 1st century and moved to europe in the 11th ○ They wanted to use linen fibers but it was very expensive to produce ○ Linen was turned to paper and increase of wealth caused need for books ○ Scribes were monks but were wiped out ○ Johannes gutenberg was a german gold smith and he made the first printing press causing the diffusion of tech in china ○ Before gutenberg the process was proposing a text ○ Rediscovery of alexandria gave development of knowledge sciences new tech and clocks The Day we Stopped Looking up ○ Started with sun dials and water clocks ○ Candle clock in china for indoors, this doubled as a alarm clock as you would put a object in the candle and when it burnt down to that it would fall out and make noise ○ There was also a sand clock in europe ○ Religion and climate change called due for new tech ○ It was extreme sin for monks to miss prayer and some would miss it due to not knowing what time it was ○ Water clocks stopped working due to climate change ○ Monk richard of wallingford built first mechanical clock ○ Escapement mechanism made weights into time and rods were calibrated to release 1 notch per minute ○ Giovanni de’dondi made astarium although it was destroyed its remembered as showing location of planets and cosmos ○ Everyone thought god governed everything but geovanni thought it was the cosmos and mechanical and mathematical means ○ This gave uprise to mechanical uprise and not through god External Factors and the Watch Industry ○ Britain made the best and most expensive watches ○ Then the swiss had mass production that was inexpensive ○ This would make up 80% of watches ○ Then the seiko quartz came in and was 10x more accurate than any watch prior and was first watch to use a battery ○ The swiss refused this tech and in 1 year production moved to japan ○ Mechanical philosophy led to newtonian physics The holy other and experimental approach ○ The royal society had no women and was controlled by men ○ Issac newton hated women so many people believed this as well ○ Kathleen lonsdale was the first women in the royal society ○ In 1665 there is a plague and newton goes home and invents the calculus and laws of gravity and motion ○ He worked in secrecy and believed he found the secret to eternal life which was just mercury so he went crazy from drinking this mercury ○ Robert Hooke discovered the movement of planets ○ Then a book was published about mathematics of gravity this changed the british society ○ Newton vs robert hooke began ○ Robert hooke built a reflective telescope but newton claimed that he made it ○ This caused a huge fight making newton say he will never publish as long as hooke was alive ○ Then in 1703 hooke died ○ Steam Engine ○ Heron of Alexandria (c. 50 AD) invented the jet stream/turbine. The steam engine, initially created for naval water pumping, was first experimented on by Thomas Savery, who built a vacuum pump based on Edward, Marquise of Worcester's designs—the first patented steam engine. Denis Papin (1681-1708) contributed to steam engine development, including the steamboat and piston steam engine. ○ Robert Boyle, a Royal Society founder, had ties to Savery and Papin, while Robert Hooke and Papin became friends, aiding Papin's funding after Boyle's death. With Hooke's later death, Papin lost support, and Isaac Newton, the new Royal Society head, rejected Papin's funding proposal due to personal issues. ○ Thomas Newcomen developed the first commercially successful steam engine for mine drainage. James Watt improved the design at Glasgow University by creating an external condenser to minimize heat loss. Matthew Boulton ran a factory for Watt's engines, while John Wilkinson invented a cannon boring machine for precise cylinder production. The crank/flywheel revolution was introduced by James Pickard Factory System ○ Before factories, the putting-out system paid workers based on production at home. By the 1720s, machines grew too large for home use, leading to the first factories, which separated workers from families and paid minimal wages that often couldn’t support them. ○ The Silk Mill in Derby (1722) was powered by water, while Richard Arkwright’s Cromford Mill (c. 1781) introduced steam power. Marc Brunel’s Portsmouth Block Mills (1802) automated production with unskilled labor. Factories moved into cities, increasing proximity to markets and workers, and marking the rise of modern industrial society. ○ This shift resulted in significant wealth growth alongside increased poverty, with technological positivism suggesting a solely positive relationship between technology and society, linked to a transportation revolution. From puffing devils to genetics ○ Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) invented a high-pressure steam engine in 1799, increasing horsepower and creating a small, powerful design (40-60 hp). His Puffing Devil (1801) was a full-sized road vehicle, and the Penydarren locomotive followed in 1804. ○ The "Catch Me Who Can" railroad aimed to prove locomotives were faster than horses. Despite his innovations, Trevithick died in poverty, while George Stephenson gained credit for his work, and James Watt opposed high-pressure steam due to safety concerns. ○ At the Rainhill Trials (1829) for the Liverpool-Manchester railway, several locomotives failed, but Stephenson's Rocket finished, despite not being the best design. Watt's negative views on high-pressure steam stifled engineering progress, leading to significant social and biological changes with the rise of railroads. The golden age of civil engineers and the eighth wonder of the world ○ isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), dubbed the "man who built the modern world," faced challenges in 1835 over a Great Western Railway project that was three times over budget, largely due to his ambition for a long tunnel. ○ In 1838, he transformed transatlantic travel with a ship that crossed to New York in 15 days. His Great Britain ocean liner (1843) was the first iron ship with a propeller, designed to carry 4,000 to 15,000 passengers. ○ The Crystal Palace was Britain's most expensive structure at £79,000, while Brunel's Great Eastern would cost £1.6 million, featuring 12 watertight compartments and three propulsion systems. By 1857, thousands had bought tickets for it, but it ended up in dry dock. ○ Henry Bath and Sons purchased the Great Eastern for £16,000, using a wrecking ball to dismantle it, making them the only profitable company from the venture. Brunel’s innovations significantly impacted transportation and globalization, shaping perceptions of time and space during the industrial revolution, the first era documented by photography.