Week Thirteen Postindustrial Society Essay

Week Thirteen: Postindustrial Society and the end of the Cold War Order, 1965-1989

Hunt, 987-1027

1. How did the scientific advances from the 1950s and 1960s challenge established patterns of thought and social behavior?
-Technological advances during the 1950s and 1960s accelerated scientific productivity and discovery, enlightening a variety of information organization and access problems. The most visible of these is the commonness of scientists directly involved in the development of technological solutions to information problems, particularly in the growing "e-science" domain, which consists of large-scale, distributed scientific research that produces digital data. In broad strokes, the conditions for information management in the late 1950s and 1960s resulted, in part, from the information flood produced following World War II, when many thousands of documents and technical reports were imported from other countries and many thousands more from our own scientific activities released from classified status. The outcome of the war led to a belief that access to scientific information would lead to increased wealth and security for the country.

3.
The movement away from the conservative fifties continued and eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change. The Civil Rights movement made great changes in society in the 1960's. National Organization for Women questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women's Lib, and disclosed the "glass ceiling." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The government was working with all the different organizations to somewhat satisfy each. The birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some