Test Questions
Multiple choice: Circle the letter of that best applies to each question.
The Office of Technology Assessment's reports have included the following subjects:
A. The price of tea in China.
B. The decommissioning of nuclear power plants.
C. The street layout of St. Paul, MN.
D. The future of Digital Television.
Short answer essays: Write organized, concise answers to the following questions. (Point value in parentheses at the end of each question)
Why were OTA reports considered to be of high quality? (5)
Long answer essays/opinions.
Author Allen Mazur states, "Technical controversies are part of the normal flow of political activity. Therefore it seems reasonable to decide the political issues raised in these controversies in the same way we decide other political issues." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain. (10)
Review of Lectures
What are the purposes of Technological Assessment? How is this process similar and different from Environmental Assessment?
Historical Analogy: The United Kingdom become a world leader in sailing/shipping technology. How did that result in them also advancing other technologies?
What is the electromagnetic spectrum? What types of technology use the spectrum? How does the government regulate the spectrum? Why? How does the government benefit from the electromagnetic spectrum?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the following methods of technology assessment: Delphi, extrapolation, interrogation, historical analogy, scenarios.
Define the following: Project-induced technology assessment, Problem-induced technology assessment, Technology-induced technology assessment.
Why is regulation of technology by society (often government, but also through social norms) necessary?
What technology assessment made Amory Lovins famous? What technology is Lovins forecasting now and how is he trying to influence society to make that forecast come true?
Explain the perspective of technology "questioners" such as Neil Postman? How is this different from the perspective of technology assessment advocates such as Joseph Coates?
What is sustainable development and how could it be assessed? Why would we want it to be assessed?
What are the differences between hazards and risks? How do we (as individuals and societies) deal with reducing risk? How does the government reduce risk?
Videos
How does Ray Kurzweil think technology will transform us? What are Niall Ferguson's six killer apps of prosperity?
Does Malcolm Gladwell think that the advances in weapons technology in 20th and 21st centuries are a good thing? What has been the unintended consequence of this advancement?
Review of Technology and the Future Reading Assignments
What is the main point of Leo Marx's article, Does improved Technology mean Progress? Robert Pool gives examples of trade-offs in technology in the chapter How Society Shapes Technology. What are some of these examples?
Why does Edward Tenner consider shoelaces to be a technology?
What is Social Engineering as defined by Alvin Weinberg? What is a technology fix? Which is easier and why is it easier?
Why does Samuel Florman describe technology as tragic? Does he have a point?
What are some of the examples of old technology that are being used in new ways and in new places?
Why does Bill Joy think that technology could replace humans? Why do other people (such as John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid) disagree?
How does Ray Kurweil describe "The Law of Accelerating Returns?"
How do author Jack Dempsey and The 9/11 Commission think that the need for security and the need for civil liberties should be balanced?
What issue about stem cells leads to what author Christopher Thomas Scott (and others) call the Great Moral divide?
Why is the author of The Case Against Perfection against perfection of human muscles and brain function, or is he? What are some examples from his writing?
According to Henry T. Greely, how could advances in neuroscience affect health care, schools, business, and criminal justice.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of computers? Why were computers impact on society underestimated in the past? How are computers used unethically?
Wendell Berry is against computers. Why?
Give examples of how the government has mandated the use of technology to solve a problem and where it has banned a technological application to solve a problem. What other entities beside governments have been about to change how societies use technologies?