STS 101

INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this section, the students should be able to:

1. discuss the general concepts related to science and technology

2. explain the scope of the study of STS; and
3. demonstrate the preparedness and readiness in the study of STS.

Science comes from the Latin word scientia, meaning ‘knowledge.'

It refers to a systematic and methodical activity of building and
organizing knowledge about how the universe behaves through
observation, experimentation or both. According to the famous
American science historian, John Heilbron (2003, p. vii), “Modern
science is a discovery as well as an invention.” Heilbron considered
science as a discovery of regularity in nature, enough for natural
phenomena to be described by principles and laws. He also explained
that science required invention to devise techniques, abstractions,
apparatuses, and organizations to describe these natural regularities
and their law-like descriptions.

Technology, for its part, is the application of scientific knowledge,

laws, and principles to produce services, materials, tools, and machines
aimed at solving real-world problems. It comes from the Greek root word
techne, meaning ‘art, skill, or cunning of hand.’ During a live public
Q&A in December 2014, one member of the audience asked Mark
Zuckerberg what his definition of a technological tool is, and the CEO of
Facebook responded:

“What defines a technological tool-one historical definition—is

something that takes a human's sense or ability and augments it and
makes it more powerful. So, for example, I wear contact lenses or
glasses; that is a technology that enhances my human ability of vision
and makes it better.”

Wolpert (2005) made an interesting comparison between science and

technology that is helpful in the study of their interaction with society. In
his landmark paper, The Medawar Lecture 1998: Is Science
Dangerous? Wolpert explained that reliable scientific knowledge has no
moral or ethical value. It is meant simply to explain how nature and the
universe work and that the obligation of scientists, besides studying the
nature of the universe, is to explain the possible uses and applications
of such scientific knowledge. Along this line, Wolpert made it clear that
science is not the same as technology. Scientists are not responsible
for the application of knowledge in technology. He further explained
that the very nature of science is that it is not possible to predict scientific
and how these discoveries may be applied. While scientists are
responsible for the reliable conduct of scientific inquiry and its honest
interpretation and dissemination, technological applications of science
are influenced by other sectors such as politics and governance,
religion, and business. With this distinction, one can surmise the need
for the study of the various ways in which science and technology act
and are enacted in society. This is a particularly timely and relevant
concern because of the advancements in science and technology today.

Nowadays, advancements in science and technology have become

pervasive. They are manifested in the activities that humans pursue and
the tools they use every day. The beauty of this is that an advancement
builds upon itself. As such, humans today live more productive and more
exciting lives than their predecessors. With the way things go, it could
be expected that this generation's children, and the children of their
children have the chance to lead even better lives than this generation
already does.

However, the dynamism and immensity of scientific and technological

progress also pose challenges and drawbacks to the way humans live.
The introduction of machines tremendously cut the need for human
workforce and gave rise to questions about whether machines will
eventually replace humans. The invention of drugs that cured the
previously incurable diseases introduced new strains of bacteria and
viruses that are resistant to the very same drugs that once fought them-
take an antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea as an example. The rise
of social media drastically changed the way humans communicate,
interact, and share information; however, this tends to put people's
privacy at risk. Indeed, science and technology have served a
predominantly double-edged function. This is succinctly captured in a
famous line of popular American scientist, Carl Sagan, quoted in Tom
Head's (2006) book:

"We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology

and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands
science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster.”
 As problems in science and technology continue to rise and become
more observable, the need to pay attention to their interactions with
various aspects of human life, e.g., social, political, and economic,
becomes ever more necessary. How the different aspects of society
shape and influence the progression and further development of science
and technology is the area of concern of a relatively new academic
discipline called Science, Technology, and Society.

Science, Technology, and Society (STS) is a relatively young field

that combines previously independent and older disciplines, such as the
history of science, philosophy of science, and sociology of science. As
an academic field, STS, according to Harvard University's Kennedy
School (2018), traces its roots from the interwar period and the start of
the Cold War. It was during this period when historians and scientists
found interest in the interconnections of scientific knowledge,
technological systems, and society. The rise of STS as an academic
field resulted from the recognition that many schools today do not really
prepare students to respond critically, reflectively, and proactively to the
challenges posed by science and technology in the contemporary world.

In general, STS applies methods drawn from history, philosophy, and

sociology to study the nature of science and technology and ultimately
judge their value and place in society. As an interdisciplinary field, the
emergence of STS was a result of questions about science and
technology's dynamic interaction with various aspects of society and
was thus viewed as a socially embedded enterprise. Thus, as the
Kennedy School effectively encapsulates, STS seeks to bridge the gap
between two traditionally exclusive cultures-humanities (interpretive)
and natural sciences (rational)---so that humans will be able to better
confront the moral, ethical, and existential dilemmas brought by the
continued developments in science and technology.

The John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values of the
University of Notre Dame is responsible for listing the ten emerging
ethical dilemmas and policy issues in science and technology every
year. Below is the list for 2018:

1. Helix - a digital app store designed to read genomes

2. Bless U-2 and Pepper – first robot priest and monk
3. Emotion-Sensing Facial Recognition - a software being
developed to assess your reactions to anything such as shopping
and playing games
 4. Ransomware - a way of holding data hostage through hacking and
requiring a ransom to be paid
5. Textalyzer – a device that analyzes whether a driver was using his
or her phone during an accident
6. Social Credit System - a system of scoring citizens through their
actions by placing them under constant surveillance (which China
plays to adopt)
7. Google Clips – a hands-free camera that lets the user capture
every moment effortlessly
8. Sentencing Software - a mysterious algorithm designed to aid
courts in sentencing decisions
9. Friendbot - an app that stores the deceased's digital footprint so
one can still “chat” with them
10.Citizen App - an app that notifies users of ongoing crimes or major
events in a specific area

Even though several items in the list sound unfamiliar to many, it can
be a useful springboard in the study of science and technology. The list
points to the evergrowing challenges, questions, and issues that need
to be addressed and resolved when science and technology and
humanity intertwine. However, methods of critiquing these emerging
ethical dilemmas may come from similar methods used in previous
critiques of science and technology issues. For example, one can use
methods used in critiquing the rise of clinical trials of gene therapy in the
1990s. Today's approach in critiquing emerging science and technology
issues, such as the ones listed above, may be influenced by how
scientists and non-scientists evaluated the positive and negative
implications of clinical trials of gene therapy in the 1990s. For this
purpose, one can continue to specifically draw from the tenets on
history, philosophy, and sociology in making informed and critical
judgments of the ethical and moral values of these innovations in
science and technology.