The relationship between history and technology

This weeks reading revealed a conundrum between technology and history that I did not know existed. This weeks readings analyzes the relationship from a few perspectives.

Edgerton confronts the notion that technology shapes history. He also rebuffs the more dramatic notion that technology defines history. Edgerton explains that the relationship between history and technology is understood through the use of technology by people. This analysis by Edgerton is quite intuitive and elementary in retrospect. However, I understand the need for statement of the point when I dwell on my own education. I remember history classes where stoic teachers prepared students to provide unambiguous answers on exams using neat timelines that progressed human history inventions and inventors. Off the top of my head I think of Davinci's Renaissance and Henry Ford's Revolution. Edgerton knocks tech-savvy Americans like myself out of the monolithic technology-box by pointing out the persistence of dinosaurs like the sewing machine and manufacturing in around the world. OBVIOUSLY, people do not simply stop using old things because new things are made. The old and the new exist side by side. This is fully supported by the capitalistic model that prefaces change on tested efficiency of new designs. The lesson I took from Edgerton is not to get lost in the technological rhetoric (think: dot-com bubble).

Williams considers whether technology replaces history. I find that a bit of a trick question because in every generation present understanding defines the way people analyze history. She discusses the importance of reflexivity in the modern landscape as another way the line between history and technology is abrogated. However, I agree with Beck totally! Entreprenuers/Scientists are taking bold liberties with the health and safety of the world and justifying their actions with reflexivity. The risk that science takes with the idea that they can "fix it later" if it does not work out it the #1 ethical issue I have with modern science in almost every field.