ON the night of Dec 31, 1999, the-then newly-connected world worried about the possibility of computers incorrectly resetting and “relocating” us back to the year 1900. It was believed then that year 2000 (Y2k) could potentially bring about the systemic collapse of power lines, energy grids, irrigation, aviation and financial systems, amongst others. The misalignment of technology with the trajectory of time could be disastrous.
Yet, the dawn of the 21st century did not bring any of those. In fact, it heralded a time of promise and discovery. We were on the cusp of yet another revolution. The agricultural, industrial and knowledge revolutions were being replaced by the Internet revolution. And, the key to this revolution was technology. Now, almost two decades later, we witness how technology and the Internet have altered the way we conduct our lives.
In personal spaces, relationships are now formed through distanced, multimodal, multimedium means of communication. Smartphones have brought unimaginable ways of communicating. Artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), among others, have brought unbelievable changes.
In professional spaces, workers are warned that the nature of jobs will alter dramatically. This is because jobs that have been in existence for the last 100 years are now disappearing. Industry 4.0 has become the catchphrase that encompasses the anticipated alterations in workspaces. The skills that were taught in the 20th century schools and universities are argued to have become obsolete. Children born in this millennium require learning experiences that must match the technology of their time. Smartboards have replaced whiteboards; tablets and the styli have replaced paper and pencils. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) have democratised education. Anyone anywhere with a device and connectivity can learn. In fact, anyone anywhere with a device and connectivity can also teach.
Yet, in the rush to hop onto the technology bandwagon, several questions are less often raised. How does this revolution change human culture? How will the habit of talking to a smartphone alter the way young adults form their self-identity and self-confidence? How will the replacement of smartboards and tablets propel children’s educational attainment? Without these questions, there is the tendency to think of technology only in terms of devices (smartphones, computers), software (apps, programmes) and connectivity (wireless technology, cloud computing).
History reveals that “technology” is not a modern, 21st century phenomenon. The term is derived from the 17th century Greek word “tekhnologia” — meaning it refers to the idea of treating something systematically. Interestingly, tekhnologia is derived from the word “tekhna” which means art or craft. Therefore, the accepted wisdom of what technology means lies in how the systematic application of something that has been creatively crafted, has permeated and significantly altered human lives and cultures.
Technology is fundamentally about human culture.
For our hunter-gatherer ancestors, the discovery of fire was the technological revolution of their time. It transformed the way they ate their food, hunted for animals and kept their dwellings safe. Fire reshaped the way they thought about sustaining lives. But fire, if not properly managed, can also destroy. Thus, the technology of their time had to be appropriated with the culture of their community.
When the technology of writing was invented more than 5,000 years ago, human lives were altered by way of intellectual progress. Although Socrates cautioned that writing would cause the destruction of man’s supreme memory, the community then embraced it. Human memory was transformed dramatically, and in its place, remembering past lives and literature were documented.
In the 15th century, when the mechanical movable type printing press was built, mass printing and wide circulation of reading materials became possible across Europe. Therefore, mass literacy was the technology to be reckoned with. The reading culture took hold.
Reading and writing formed the bedrock of modern education systems. Mass education became the lynchpin that shaped and liberated modern civil societies. And that, is the trajectory from which the 21st century was launched.
Thus, when technology is understood as a construct of history, its “vehicle” — fire, writing, books or smartphones — will be seen to account for only one facet of what it actually is. Much more than the vehicle is the multiple ways in which human behaviour and attitudes appropriate, misappropriate, use and abuse the vehicle.
Technology, therefore, should be seen as the systematic application of creative power which impacts lives and reshapes cultures. Parents for example, must be aware that handing a smartphone to their teenager is both beneficial and risky.
Here, the cultural ways with which families form and sustain familial bonds will be tested. New theories in family psychology must be found to face the new challenges. Teachers who shift from face-to-face to online instructional methods must be confident of pedagogical principles which call for a learning culture that is receptive to human emotions, power relations and contextual differences.
As such, technology can only exist when it is appropriated within a cultural milieu. In order to advance technology, therefore, the sociology and psychology of human behaviour must lie at its heart. Negating this may result in the “vehicle” destroying the fabric of human society. Ultimately, the difficult questions would have to be addressed when taking on these new cultural challenges and changes to ensure the sustainability of the human culture across current and future technologies.
The writer is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Management and Humanities as well as core member of Institute for Sustainable Living (ISL), Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). She is also the Publications Chair for the upcoming International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (ICHSS) 2018