Summary Of The Whale And The Reactor
According to Langdon Winner, “Our society needs to establish forms and limits for a technological change that derive from a positively articulated idea of what society ought to be. (p.52)” With this powerful thought, Winner has presented an alternate route to evaluate the ethics of technology and practice of engineering. It is important that individuals develop technology that is compatible with the kind of society they want to build (p.52). Thus, it is significant to scrutinize three constituents of philosophy of technology namely political, social and ethical.
In The Whale and the Reactor, Winner discusses technology as a form of life. He emphasizes that the traditional view of technology is misleading; it is based on the theory of creation …show more content…
He emphasized that the technical decisions are based on political decisions as well as profound choices about power and order. In the Goodrich case, a key reason for the corporation to move ahead with their break design was because the production of break has already begun. A change in a brake design at that stage might have cause them economic loss and inconvenience. Winner also lays an emphasis on development of technology. He argues that the new form of technology should be compatible with the kind of society we want to build. In Goodrich case, the engineers should have paid more attention on building brakes that would have been compatible with military requirements rather than adjusting data and manipulating testing procedures to meet the requirements. Additionally, the decisions were mostly taken by the hierarchical authority like Warren and Line despite Lawson’s resistance. Others like manager Van Horn were silent as they followed ‘don’t know- won’t hurt’ philosophy (p.63). This example supports argument made by Winner that the interpretation of social and political order (authority) varies and applies differently in distinct circumstances (p.39). In this case, a democratic power structure could have worked better in order to take decision to change the brake
In The Whale and the Reactor, Winner discusses technology as a form of life. He emphasizes that the traditional view of technology is misleading; it is based on the theory of creation …show more content…
He emphasized that the technical decisions are based on political decisions as well as profound choices about power and order. In the Goodrich case, a key reason for the corporation to move ahead with their break design was because the production of break has already begun. A change in a brake design at that stage might have cause them economic loss and inconvenience. Winner also lays an emphasis on development of technology. He argues that the new form of technology should be compatible with the kind of society we want to build. In Goodrich case, the engineers should have paid more attention on building brakes that would have been compatible with military requirements rather than adjusting data and manipulating testing procedures to meet the requirements. Additionally, the decisions were mostly taken by the hierarchical authority like Warren and Line despite Lawson’s resistance. Others like manager Van Horn were silent as they followed ‘don’t know- won’t hurt’ philosophy (p.63). This example supports argument made by Winner that the interpretation of social and political order (authority) varies and applies differently in distinct circumstances (p.39). In this case, a democratic power structure could have worked better in order to take decision to change the brake