CORE 320 - INTD 301: The History Of Technology And Its Social Consequences

University of La Verne

Edward Beardsley
E-mail: ebeardsley@ulv.edu

Felicia R. Beardsley
E-mail: beardsle@ulv.edu
Office: HB 115






COURSE DESCRIPTION

Understanding the history of technology and its evolving social consequences - cultural, economic, and political - is of paramount importance in a world in which technologies have come to dominate almost every aspect of life, determining not just the character of our lives, but also the quality of our lives. The course will explore this history over a span of the last 3.5 million years, tracing its initial slow pace from its ancient roots in Africa to the invention of agriculture, manufacturing, writing and mathematics, printing, mechanical devices, industrial production, war machinery, computers, medicine, genetics, and space travel. The growth of technologies since the invention of printing has been exponential, but since the invention of digital computing the rate has gone off the scale, requiring an order of adaptation on the part of humans that is unprecedented. We are also faced with the consequences of our success as a technological society, consequences that have serious implications for the future including diminishing fossil fuels, global warming, population pressures, the consumption of finite resources, and waste and pollution.


OUTSIDE READING

Articles available at Wilson Library:

Paul Erhlich, From Seeds to Civilization (Sep. 18)
Paul Erhlich, History as Cultural Evolution (Oct. 2)
J. Diamond, Why Some Societies Make Disastrous Decisions (Oct. 23)
E.O. Wilson, Bottleneck (Nov. 13)
Paul Erhlich, A New Imperative (Dec. 4)



ONLINE SYLLABUS, TERM PAPER, AND TIPS






Term Paper Assignment (PDF)


If you wish to make copies of our PowerPoint presentations to view on your own computer, you can do so by obtaining a copy from Felicia Beardsley during office hours (bring your own blank CD or removable drive (USB thumb drive).

If you do not have the PowerPoint application installed on your computer you can obtain a free Microsoft PowerPoint Reader on Microsoft's website. Or, click here to go the downloads page. Make sure you get the correct reader for your computer and operating system.