Post date: Jul 9, 2015 2:47:42 AM
As part of a how-to-philosophize-about-technology project, I'm trying to develop a survey tool that helps people to identify their personal attitudes toward technology. My strategy has been to adapt some ideas from the Circles of Social Life approach (from sustainability studies). I don't want to actually post the survey, because I'm not sure how IRB issues work with blogs, but I'm posting the prompts. (Were they developed into a survey, each would request the participant to indicate level of agreement on a Likert scale, and the survey itself would solicit information about the participant.)
The prompts appeal to two technical notions:
Technology products are movable and manufactured objects. They can be moved without destruction but perhaps with disassembly. They come into existence as a result of a human-designed industrial process. Exemplar technology products include plows and chemical fertilizers, computers and batteries, dishwashers and dish detergents, automobiles and gasoline. Less obvious examples include genetically modified foods, computer apps, bathtubs, space rockets.
Technology industries are systems that enable the creation of specific technology products. An exemplar technology industry is the automotive industry. This industry consists, in part, of automobile manufacturing plants and machines organized into assembly lines. The industry also includes organizational structures for managing workers, acquiring materials, creating product demand, distributing products, and handling social or legal issues relating to the impacts of those products.
Feedback is most welcome on the prompts (do they make sense? etc). Here they are:
Economic Domain
EN1. Technology products enhance the accessibility and availability of jobs, goods, and services for members of my community.
EN2. Technology industries enhance the accessibility and availability of jobs, goods, and services for members of my community.
EN3. Technology products enhance the ability of people in my community to accumulate wealth and property.
EN4. Technology industries enhance the ability of people in my community to accumulate wealth and property.
EN5. Ensuring that my community becomes or remains prosperous requires placing limits on how people use technology products.
EN6. Ensuring that my community becomes or remains prosperous requires placing limits on how technology industries operate.
Ecological Domain
EL1. Technology products enhance the accessibility and availability of natural resources for the needs of my community.
EL2. Technology industries enhance the accessibility and availability of natural resources for the needs of my community.
EL3. Technology products enhance the ability of my community preserve or restore the natural environment.
EL4. Technology industries enhance the ability of my community preserve or restore the natural environment.
EL5. Ensuring that the natural environment becomes or remains resilient requires placing limits on how people use technology products.
EL6. Ensuring that the natural environment becomes or remains resilient requires placing limits on how technology industries operate.
Political Domain
PL1. Technology products enhance the ability of local authority figures to lead my community well.
PL2. Technology industries enhance the ability of local authority figures to lead my community well.
PL3. Technology products enhance my ability to control my own life and make my own decisions.
PL4. Technology industries enhance my ability to control my own life and make my own decisions.
PL5. Ensuring that people in my community become or remain engaged participants in the life of the community requires placing limits on how people use technology products.
PL6. Ensuring that people in my community become or remain engaged participants in the life of the community requires placing limits on how technology industries operate.
Cultural Domain
CT1. Technology products promote social unity and integration among the diverse groups of my community.
CT2. Technology industries promote social unity and integration among the diverse groups of my community.
CT3. Technology products make it harder to engage with people in my community who are not like me.
CT4. Technology industries make it harder to engage with people in my community who are not like me.
CT5. Ensuring that the traditions and shared customs of my community acquire or retain their vitality requires placing limits on how people use technology products.
CT6. Ensuring that the traditions and shared customs of my community acquire or retain their vitality requires placing limits on how technology industries operate.