Does Technology Drive History?
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Transcript of Does Technology Drive History?
Does Technology Drive History?
• “The traditional answer was that engineers and inventors had made possible a technological triumph.”
• The academic version of this argument,…claimed that “culture evolves as the amount of energy harnessed per capita is increased,….”
• “…and, that ‘the degree of civilization of any epoch, people, or group of peoples, is measured by ability to utilize energy for human advancement or needs.’”
Nye’s Approach – the Social Construction of Technological
Systems
• “Contextualist”
• “How technologies are shaped by social conditions, prices, traditions, popular attitudes, interest groups, class differences, and government policy.”
• “Human beings select the machines they use and shape them to fit within different cultures”
Possible Strengths and Weaknesses of the Contextualist Approach
• People act, things do not.• By emphasizing cultural studies one may easily
neglect the importance of in-depth technical and scientific knowledge to an understanding of the story.
• Contextualists emphasize the importance of “ordinary “ people. There are times when key individuals and their inventions make in incredible difference to the history of technology.
The Idea of Technological Momentum
• Capital Investment in a Technology
• The Existence of a Creative Potential Related to an Existing Technology
An Examination of Overlapping Technological Systems
• Muscle Power• Water Power – Mills and Canals• Steam Power – Railroads, Steamboats,
Factories• Electricity – Motors, Flexible Lighting• ICE – Tractors, Trucks, Autos• Nuclear Power• The Chip
The Energies of Conquest
• Native Americans -- “Everything they built was built by human muscle power; the horse and ox were unknown to them until the Spanish Conquest. Native Americans commanded less energy and intruded less on the environment.”
“…the use of firearms undermined Native Americans’ traditions and joined them to a market economy. They were no longer hunting for subsistence, and soon the balance between their needs and local supplies was upset. They were becoming a part of the European
Economy.”
• “The most efficient sailing ships were thus able to produce a maximum of 200 to 250 times the human energy required to operate them. For 200 years this energy efficiency gave coastal cities a decisive advantage over inland rivals.”
Wood – The Key Energy Source and Material of the Colonial Era
• Used for Structures – later significance of the balloon frame design (1833)
• As a fuel/source of energy for heating
• As a reactant (charcoal) in the manufacture of iron
• As a source of potash for glass manufacture – a chemical
• “Much of America’s economic development [ in the period before the Civil War] relied on improving use of human muscle power. Improved hand tools made work more efficient, increased agricultural productivity, and released additional labor for non-farm work.”
In 1644, near the first English settlement in the State of New York, Southampton, colonists built a water mill for grinding of corn.
Colonial Population Estimates
(in round numbers)
Year Population
1610 350
1620 2,300
1630 4,600
1640 26,600
1650 50,400
1660 75,100
1670 111,900
1680 151,500
1690 210,400
1700 250,900
1710 331,700
1720 466,200
1730 629,400
1740 905,600
1750 1,170,800
1760 1,593,600
1770 2,148,100
1780 2,780,400
America’s Horsecar Business, Early 1880s
• 415 Street Railways in Operation
• 18,000 Cars
• 100,000 horses
• 150,000 tons of hay consumed each year
• 11,000,000 bushels of grain consumed each year
• 1,212,400,000 passengers carried
Daily Cost to Keep 9 Horses, Needed to Power a Two Horse Car• Feed $2.70• Hay 1.44• Bedding .18• Shoes .72• Medicine .20• Stableman 1.64• Pavement repairs
.14• Tow Boys .14
• Brushes .03• Driver 1.75• Water .05• Gas for lighting
stables .09• Stable repairs .05• Harness .18• TOTAL $9.31