Who Controls Technology Part 1 I Who s Responsible for Technology A Ethics and Technology People are social creatures who learn to conform to normative standards People need to be made aware of how their use of technology affects the safety and interests of others Need to use social pressures e g shame guilt to get people to act responsibly B Regulating Technology Standardization of Technology Some level of regulation over technology is needed in any society Regulations give control to certain groups Any time users give up regulatory control of a technology they are giving power to those who set the standard Setting standards then is likely to involve powerful sponsors and vested interests Whether standards are set by private or public bodies pressure is likely to be applied to groups that will benefit from favorable treatment Even though the public can benefit from uniform standards who sets the standards and why is an important issue p 304 Are there any Alternatives Regulation can be good e g setting uniform standards and bad e g overregulation hinders growth innovation Regulation can be a way for those in power to ensure they remain in power 1 What We Must Assume if for greater good 1 Those setting standards are doing so for the best interests of the user nonuser 2 Those setting the standard are competent enough to set standards without generating unintended consequences 3 When a standard is set it does not serve personal gain and trump public interests Over regulation can lead to inefficiencies and hinder innovation Who Controls Technology Part 2 II Constructing the Control of Technology Technologies are still social constructions and serve social purposes Technologies are often created designed to be restrictive e g so that only a certain social group can use them or only certain people have access to them A Democratic Technology Possible or Impossible Sclove s Main Thesis The technologies we are creating and using today are resulting in a loss of community and greater inequality and a lack of participatory politics Technology and Political Disenchantment The approach to technology policy proposed here is grounded morally in the belief that people should be able to shape the basic circumstances of their lives It is aimed at organizing society along relatively equal and participatory lines at achieving a system of egalitarian decentralization and confederation that Rutgers political scientist Benjamin Barber calls strong democracy Historic examples of strong democracy include New England town meetings the confederation of self governing Swiss villages and cantons the tradition of trial by a jury of peers Strong democracy also is apparent in the methods or aspirations of various social movements such as the late nineteenth century American Farmers Alliance the 1960s Civil Rights movements and the 1980s uprising of Solidarity in Poland In each of these cases ordinary people claimed the rights and responsibilities of active citizenship If citizens ought to be empowered in determining their society s basic structure and if technologies are an important part of that structure it follows that technological design and practice should be democratized Substantively technologies must be compatible with our 2 fundamental interest in strong democracy And procedurally people from all walks of life must have expanding opportunities to shape the evolving technological order p 92 93 B Sclove s Design Criteria for Democratic Technologies Technological decisions should attend initially and foremost to strengthening democracy because democracy provides the necessary circumstances for deciding freely and fairly what other considerations must be taken into account in technological and nontechnological decision making Until we do this technologies will continue to hinder the advancement of other social objectives in subtle yet significant ways p 94 TOWARD DEMOCRATIC COMMUNITY A Seek a balance among communitarian cooperative individualized and inter community technologies Avoid technologies that establish authoritarian social relationships We should create technologies that promote local social interaction and involvement within the local community Rejecting technologies that promote private space and increase those that promote public space e g would be all for public transportation and the elimination of personal automobiles Promotes public space and helps people interact TOWARD DEMOCRATIC WORK B Seek a diverse array of flexibly schedulable self actualizing technological practices Avoid meaningless debilitating or otherwise autonomy impairing technological practices Too many of our work arrangements are based on technological considerations and not the worker s experience Design work technologies that cater to the worker s interests Develop experiences that avoid isolation or the stifling of creativity Reduce or eliminate hierarchical differentiation between workers via self management 3 Linear assembly lines not only tend to restrict possibilities for workers self management conviviality and meaningful work but also to impair the ability of workers to envision technological alternatives 95 TOWARD DEMOCRATIC POLITICS C Seek technologies that can enable disadvantaged individuals and groups to participate fully in social and political life Avoid technologies that support illegitimately hierarchical power relations between groups organizations or polities Too many technologies result in more inequality Male designers need to be more considerate of women s needs TO SECURE DEMOCRATIC SELF GOVERNANCE D Keep the potentially adverse consequences e g environmental or social harms of technologies within the boundaries of local political jurisdictions E Seek local economic self reliance Avoid technologies that promote dependency and loss of local autonomy Seek to develop technologies that give us greater local control e g avoid technologies that undermine local regulations invest in technologies that strengthen support for local businesses 4