We are also often unaware of the manner in which social forces such as economics, politics, and research professionals shape our technological advances. This is also evidenced in our response to technology that malfunctions; we oftentimes do not seek to understand how to fix it and instead will call in a professional to do so (Bijker, & Law, 1992). This does not make us any more knowledgeable about our own technology, its workings, or its design. One must question if this is due to a lack of knowledge or a purposeful desire to remain uninformed as to not have to face the give and take relationship between technological advances and the good of society.
Technology is not pure and while it provides us with opportunities to function in ways that we have never done before it also has negative aspects that cannot be ignored (Lawson, 2010). While it is difficult to envision a world where robots would exhibit human characteristics and pose a threat...
In a society where technology is created for the sheer purpose of increasing human capabilities this message is an important one (Lawson, 2010).
References
Asimov, I. (1968). Robot visions. London: Grafton Books.
Bijker, W.E. & Law, J. (1992). Shaping technology, building society: Studies in sociotechnical change. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Lawson, C. (2010). Technology and the Extension of Human Capabilities. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 40(2), 207-223. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5914.2009.00428.x.
Smith, W. (Executive Producer), & Asimov, A., Goldsman, A., Seitz, H., Vintar, J.
Writer/Screenplay/Screenwriter). (2000). I robot. United States: 20th Century, Fox Distribution.
