Archive for Global Science
Suspicious Technologies
As someone who is somewhat familiar with computer terms and development processes, while reading the first paragraph in Anna Everett’s article I was taken back by her near assumption that software engineers had settled upon the terms “master” and “slave” because of existing human relationships. For her to think about this every time her computer [...]
Read moreProgress: Local Politics or Global Politics?
In Andrew Lakoff’s book there are several contradicting references to politics and progress. As pharmaceutical companies continue to create a market in which they can be profitable, in Argentina they face the obstacle of either standardizing the industry by convincing psychoanalyst that their drugs will allow for better analysis or by cutting them out completely. [...]
Read moreDisaster at Chernobyl Documentary
A few years ago I remember watching a documentary on Chernobyl that was focused on the clean up of the site. One of the things that was evident throughout the film was how little help was given to victims and the clean up effort by other countries when Russian and eventually the Ukraine were clearly [...]
Read moreCan we avoid technology?
A few weeks ago I answered the phone at the computer repair shop I work for and talked with a lady who had nearly come to terms with the ways in which she had become dependant on technology. Her computer had broken down a day after she lost her job and subsequently her work cell [...]
Read moreIs this just a vicious cycle?
This week’s readings gave some great examples of the differences between the way things actually are and the way westerners perceive them. All three readings discussed the ways in which westerners have failed to uncover and address our underlying social problems. As Hacking pointed out, many of these problems have to do with the way [...]
Read moreDigitally Divided
Kavita Philip’s article gave a severe example of the destruction that can be caused by a digital divide. The concept of “sameness and difference” (pg. 6) that is talked about along with the reinforcement of “certain moral and political economies” tells a lot about why a large gap in technology continues to exist when life [...]
Read more