New technology effects social restructuring. Easy as that..
I would agree with that basic idea, but as your history/eco mate said, that idea by itself is a little simplistic. I think it’s important to expand it a little by saying that not all technological advances will affect culture, and that which does affect it, does so to varying degrees. For the record, I am looking at this issue from the perspective of modern Western culture, which I have lived my life within.
Say that someone invented some kind of computer that could do finely detailed, long-range predictions of the weather with unfailing 100% accuracy, no surprises at all. That would be quite a clever technological innovation, but would that really have a significant impact on our culture? It might make agriculture more efficient and allow farmers to prevent weather-related damage and plan ahead for less ideal conditions. People could plan vacations to the beach and be certain that they will get perfect weather. Air travel would be safer perhaps. But would it do anything to change our culture as a whole? I personally don’t think so. Aside from some specific advantages to specific facets of our culture, and the world’s meteorologists having to find a new line of work, I don’t think it would change the basis of the lives we live and how we live them, or influence what we find entertaining and stimulating, or how we communicate. It would have some economic effects for sure, but I don’t think it would have any notable effect on our political and social systems.
But look at other technologies like the Automobile, television and the internet. They have made big impacts on our everyday culture. The automobile for example, has become quite important in American culture. As well as being something of a personal status symbol to many people, it has affected things like where people decide to live, the physical layout of cities and towns, foreign policy (due to heavy reliance on middle-east oil), and even people’s eating habits (the car culture helped the rise of the fast-food industry).
because it is very hard to define what technology is exactly. His response was, I think, what about ideas? Is democracy a technology?
I think in a discussion of this topic, it needs to be made clear what we are referring to when we say Technology. A dictionary definition I just found is science of industrial and mechanical arts. I think that is a good basis to work from. I would consider ideas to be just ideas, and cannot be considered a technology until they are turned into an industrial or mechanical reality. The example of Democracy certainly affects a culture, but I’d define it more as a philosophy or an ideology rather than a technology. In my own words, for me to consider something as being technological, it has to be real and applicable to one or more physical tasks.
I was just wondering if someone here could put me straight on why this idea stinks?
I don’t think the idea stinks, I think it’s quite interesting but it just needs a bit more detail and clarification. In the general relationship between culture and technology, I would also look at it the other way around. I mean, technology can drive cultural change but cultural influences can also be a driving force behind technological advances. For example, where a culture emphasises importance of business, competition, money and profit, there is a big incentive to look for technological innovation to produce more product at a lower cost.
Hopefully, after all that, I’ve given you a few worthwhile things to think about.
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