Actor-Network Theory

It feels like I’ve been being rather mean to my STS (science, technology, and society) class. Really it’s not a complete waste of time. There are a few worthwhile aspects.

1. Using a theory someone else came up with as a lens to look at a new problem can help analyze it. For example, in order to look at how the distribution of responsibility for security between the common people and large organizations such as the government has been affected by the advance in communication technologies, I used actor-network theory. This theory basically holds that nature and technology can in actors in a system as well as humans and organizations. Therefore the communication technology itself influenced the responsibility distribution just as much as the organizations.
2. Synthesis is usually the better option than an extreme option. While it is of course good to know where you stand on an issue, synthesizing the extreme points or theories about that issue is usually a good way to come up with that position. For example, the extreme ends of a spectrum may say (1) that technology completely determines society and itself and (2) that society completely determines technology and itself. The truth lies somewhere in between as a synthesis of the two extremes. This is a typical technique in philosophy spanning back to the dialectic (the Greeks).
3. “Biologicalization” is going to become more and more of an ethical issue as we gain the ability to do more and more things. This includes genetically modifying ourselves to become more “perfect” (which may start out as a way to help those with illnesses but will also likely be available for healthy people), modifying our kids (is it okay to make sure they don’t have a genetic disease? Is it okay to make sure they have blue eyes?), and making robots more and more human-like. Hopefully it doesn’t become another case where people who do bad things (like get robotic arms for the wrong reasons or get surgery so they can see IR) make it so that technology that would be beneficial to some people (like prosthetics or blind people) is not available. Hopefully it doesn’t become like medical marijuana. 
4. Sometimes a technology that’s possible is not a technology that’s good for society. Just because we can do it doesn’t mean we should. Technology really can impact society and we, as engineers, should not design products that are going to worsen the quality of our society even if they are legal, don’t threaten anyone’s life, and make a profit.

While I wouldn’t recommend taking STS (it’s required anyway), it wasn’t a complete waste. Maybe it will even evolve to be more engineering-oriented and be a good class. For now, I can just be glad it wasn’t a class on how to write.