MODULE 1

NATURE OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

This section introduces Science technology and Society (STS) as a field of study.
After discussing the nature of Science, technology and society, the section discusses
the relationship among them. It tackles the different field of Science and Technology. It
also enumerates the positive and negative impact of technology that reinforces the
importance of the study on STS in an age of scientific progress and technological
development.

INTENDED LEARNING OUCOMES

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

1. Define science, technology and society
2. Discuss the relationship of science, technology and society
3. Explain how other sciences relate to technology

Nature of Science

Science is important to people, because it can help resolve problems, concerns

and issues that people face in the day-to-day aspects of living. Science is a
systematized knowledge derived from observation, study and experimentation carried
on in order to determine the nature of what is being studied. It came from the Latin word
scire(meaning to know). It was originally called “Philosophy of the natural world”

Science is a framework for gaining and organizing knowledge. Science is not

simply a set of facts but also a plan of action- a procedure for processing and
understanding certain types of information. Scientific thinking is useful in all aspects of
life in order to find a solution for any problem. The Scientific method is a combination
of the creative reasoning and testing of hypothesis. It is the step by step process of
analyzing and solving science problems:

The Scientific method

1. Ask a Question: The scientific method starts when you ask a question about
something that you observe: How, What, When, Who, Which, Why, or Where?
2. Do Background Research: Rather than starting from scratch in putting together a
plan for answering your question, do library and Internet research to help you find
the best way to do things and make sure that you don't repeat mistakes from the
past.
3. Construct a Hypothesis: A hypothesis is an educated guess about how things
work. It is an attempt to answer your question with an explanation that can be
tested. A good hypothesis allows you to make prediction:

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 4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment: Your experiment tests whether
your prediction is accurate and thus your hypothesis is supported or not. It is
important that your experiment be a fair test. You conduct a fair test by making
sure that you change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions
the same.
5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion: Once your experiment is complete,
you collect your data and analyze them to see if they support your hypothesis or
not.
6. Communicate Your Results: Professional scientists do publish their final report in
a scientific journal or by presenting their results on a poster or during a talk at a
scientific meeting.

It is important to differentiate observation, hypothesis and theories. Observation is

something that is witnessed and can be recorded. Hypothesis is a possible explanation
for an observation. A theory is a set of tested hypothesis that gives an overall
explanation of some natural phenomena. It is an interpretation or explanation of why
nature behaves in a particular way. Theories changes overtime as more information
becomes available. For example, the motion of the solar system has changed greatly
since ancient times.
Science is a distinctive form of human cultural activity referred to as scientist, a
natural philosophers. They represent attempts to explain observed natural behavior in
terms of human experiences. They must continue to do experiments to refine it and be
consistent with new knowledge to approach a more understanding of nature. Scientists
in all periods of time are driven by their deep passion to know and to discover. Thus, the
scientific attitudes include the following:
1. Honesty. This attitude allows a scientist to recognize the work done by other
scientists before him. This attitude is also shown by reporting data truthfully.
2. A scientist is open minded. Open-mindedness is an attitude that allows a scientist
to look at other possibilities.
3. Creative and Critical Thinking. This enables a scientist to come up with new
concept which lead to discoveries that traditional scientists have overlooked.
4. Curiosity. It enables a scientist to discover more about the things around him.
5. Persistent. It enables a scientist to continue a project despite obstacles and
failures.
6. Objectivity. A scientist must be objective in declaring results of his/her
experiments and judgment is based on observable phenomena and not
influenced by emotions or personal prejudices
7. Precision. A scientist must always consider the precision of his work if it forms a
pattern or repeatedly occurring in nature. Lack of precision would mean
inconsistency.
8. Responsibility. The moral, social and personal responsibility and accountability of
a scientist to all of his works must be observed.
9. Collaboration. One needs to consider suggestion and recommendations of others
for an improved work.
As scientist observes nature, they often see that the same observation applies to
many different systems. For example, studies of innumerable chemical changes have

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shown that the total observed mass of the materials involved is the same before and
after the change. Such generally observed behavior is formulated into a statement
called natural law. For example, the observation that the total mass of materials is not
affected by chemical change in those materials is called law of conservation of mass.

Nature of Technology
The initial nature of technology is for survival. According to Steve Jobs, the pioneer
of microcomputer revolution, the thing that separates us from high primates is that we
are tool builders. A caveman created fire to warm himself, cook food to kill bacteria and
protect himself from predators.

Technology, Science of craft, from the Greek word techne, is the collection of
techniques, skills, methods and processes used in the production of goods or services
or in the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation. Every product of
technology helps human to move forward and make life comfortable.

Nature of Society

Aristotle said that man was a social animal by nature and one who does not live in
society was either a beast or God. Human nature develops in man only when he lives in
society, only when he shares with his fellow beings.
Man lives in society because necessity compels him to. Many of our necessities
will be satisfied by the cooperation of the people in the society. Every individual is
offspring of social relationship established between man and woman. Man is totally
dependent for the survival upon the existence of some sort of society.
Man lives in society for his mental and intellectual development. Society preserves
our culture and transmits it to succeeding generations. It both liberates and limits our
potentialities as individuals and molds our attitudes, our beliefs, our morals and ideals.
The society is made up of community of people. Among these people are Scientist
and technologist. Proceeds from the work of the scientist and technologist are used up
by the society. For instance a bus is first developed by Blaise Pascal, the benefactor of
this great invention is the people in the society. But, exploitation of advanced scientific
knowledge and technological advances give rise to situations in which the society
suffers the consequences.
It is important to keep in mind that scientists are human. They have prejudices;
they misinterpret data; they become emotionally attached to their theories and thus lose
objectivity; and they play politics. Sciences are affected by profit motives, budgets, fads,
wars, and religious beliefs. Galileo, for example was forced to recant his astronomical
observations in the face of strong religious resistance.

RELATIONSHIP AMONG SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Science and technology are the best society could ever ask for. Since the industrial
revolution in the 18th century science has been in progress. Some sectors that have
been boosted by science and technology are energy, physical sciences, information and
communication. The society has greatly gained with the invention of technology.

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 Without society then there would be no science and technology and that is why the
inventions and innovations have helped achieve big things. The society needs science
and technology to have comfortable life. The creation of computers is work of art by
individuals was a milestone that would come a long way in helping the society. A
computer helps us to leverage ourselves by gaining valuable information that we can
use to enrich our lives. The impact of science and technology can seriously be
recognized. Many people around the world take for example scholars in colleges and
universities have taken the lead examining the relationship between science and
technology.
The evaluation of this relationship has emerged as an important area of research.
Public interest groups and academic organizations throughout the world are recognizing
the importance of STS. The reason is that people need to recognize that there are
people who are affected by science and technology. Controversies such as
nanotechnology, genetic engineering and robotics are the issues that have brought
policy makers and scientists together to have a way forward on this.
Science and technology has actually largely contributed to the vision of man about
himself. Science has been modified the opinion about the origin of man and place of
origin too. Through the results of scientific discoveries the perception of man about his
behavior and his place of origin has been modified diversely. Experiments in science
today are in one way or another affecting the society. Take for example, Chinese
biophysicist He Jiankui  had conceived two children through artificial insemination. He
had manipulated their genetic material with the help of the CRISPR/Cas9 "genetic
scissors" before implanting the embryos. Ethicists and experts from a wide range of
disciplines sharply criticized he's action. They said he had created a dangerous
precedent and committed a grave ethical breach. Later, the Chinese government issued
strict rules preventing future attempts at germline manipulation.
The developing world has a long tradition of participatory action research, popular
education and community organization joining up to solve some science and technology
issues that affect the society. How is science and technology related to the society is
something that is calling even for the government intervention. Science and technology
related issues are actually discussed worldwide today. Progress in this has resulted to
the ability to produce diverse types of material items.

Positive Impacts of Technology on Society

1. Technology Has Mechanized Agriculture

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 Modern agricultural technology allows a small number of people to grow vast
quantities of food in a short period of time with less input which results into high
yields and RIO return of investment. Through government subsidies, small and
medium-sized farmers have managed to acquire plowing, sowing, watering and
harvesting machines. Proper use of technology in agriculture has also resulted in
the manufacturing of genetic crops which grow fast and are resistant to many
pests and diseases. Likewise, when use responsibly, artificial fertilizers add value
to the soil and boost the growth of high quality crops. Agriculture in dry areas has
been made possible through technology. By using advanced water pumps and
sprinklers which derive water from rivers to the farms, For instance, Egypt can
now grow crop by pumping water daily from River Nile to the rice fields.

2. Technology Has Improved Transportation

Technology has improved transportation:   Transportation is one of the basic

areas of technological activity. Both society and businesses have benefited from
the new transpiration methods. Transportation provides mobility for people and
goods. Transportation, like all other technologies, can be viewed as a system. It
is a series of parts that are interrelated. These parts all work together to meet a
certain goal. Transportation uses vehicles, trains, airplanes, motorbikes, people,
roads, energy, information, materials, finance and time. All these parts work
together to move and relocate people and goods. Technology has helped in
advancing all the four types of transportation and these include ; (1) road
transport used by automobiles ,(2) air transport which is used by airplanes ,
(3)water transportation which is used by ships and speed boats and (4) space
transportation used to go to the moon. The most used of all these is Road
transportation, this one facilitates the movement of goods and people.
Technologies like automobiles, buses, and trucks have improved the way
humans move and how they transport their goods from place to another.  Also,
developing countries are getting funds from wealthy countries to improve their
road transport which has resulted in the development of rural remote areas.

3. Technology Has Improved Healthcare Services

From improved operational efficiency to standards in patient care, the healthcare

transformation has enhanced the entire experience for both patients and medical
professionals. Elcom enumerates five of the top healthcare technology and
healthcare industry trends and innovations that are revolutionizing the field.

a)  Availability of Information and big data. The Internet, intranet systems, search
features and the ability for healthcare professionals to rapidly share
information have enhanced the synthesis and analysis of data. “Big data” in
healthcare allows the entire field to benefit from comprehensive research
studies.  Their analyses can be used to identify risk factors and recommend
the right preventative treatment by comparing patient data with data from
thousands of other patients;

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 b)  Medical professionals can now use media such as video, online discussion
platforms and real-time meeting capacities to communicate and advance the
spread of knowledge in the field. Electronic medical records in-house are
accessible by all relevant departments and care providers. This results in
improved case management, treatments and patient recovery;
c)  Electronic medical records allow all patient histories, test results, diagnoses
and relevant information to be stored centrally in an online location. The data
allows for more focused and accurate care as well as the ability to see health
trends for each individual. Medical billing systems allow hospitals, clinics and
medical practices to run much more smoothly;
d) Telemedicine/Telehealth Telemedicine/Telehealth services such as video-
conferencing are becoming cost effective ways to complement local health
services. It is particularly beneficial to those living in rural, regional and
remote communities and requiring regular access to medical specialists who
live several kilometers away; and
e) Mobility and Mobile Apps Mobile software applications (aka mobile apps) are
key to improving accessibility for patients and healthcare
professionals. Mobile apps enable people to easily manage their health and
wellbeing; everything from prompting them to get checkups, to finding general
medical information or accessing their test results securely online 24/7
without having to book in an appointment with their GP and wait days for
results. Healthcare professionals on the other hand, can quickly access
information relating to diseases and drugs, images for clinical matters,
continued education activities and so on.

4. Technology Has Improved Communication

Communication is used for a number of purposes. Both society and
organizations depend on communication to transfer information.  People use
technology to communicate with each other. Today people can use the internet
to get the latest news from any country around the globe. Services like Twitter or
YouTube have enabled people to become journalists. They can now report news
instantly by tweeting or vlogging. Electronic media like mobile phones, radios,
televisions, internet, and social media have improved the way people exchange
and share ideas. People can Skype, or use Viver or Messenger to send
messages or make video call totheir loved ones instantly. Likewise, finding both
old and new friends have become very simple. With social networks like
Facebook or Instagram, one can easily keep up with all his/her old friends and
also make new ones. Politicians use smart phone, radio, television and internet
media to reach the people they want to serve..

5. Technology Has Improved Education and Learning Process

Technology has improved education and learning process: Education is the
backbone of every economy. People need well and organized educational
infrastructures so that they can learn how to interpret information. Many schools
have started integrating educational technologies in their schools with a great
aim of improving the way students learn. Technologies like smart whiteboards,

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 computers, mobile phones, iPads, projectors, and internet are being used in
class rooms to boost students’ moral to learn. The business community has
invested money in various educational technologies which can be used by both
teachers and their students.  For example, on iPhone App Store or Google Play
Store, you will find many educational applications which can allow students and
teachers exchange academic information at any time, this has made learning
mobile.  Also, programs like Long distance learning have opened boundaries too
so many scholars around the world.

6. Technology has Improved Business or Job Opportunities

Modern Technology has been prominent in job role creation and the emerging of
technology-based companies. With access to a computer and internet, anyone
can start a business while at home. Most successful technology-based ventures
like Amazon or Facebook started from home but now they employ thousands of
people.

7. Technology has Improved Entertainment

Technology has changed the entertainment industry; now people have many
options to choose from. They can have a playlist of 10,000 songs on their
smartphone or you can watch movies on the go with an iPad; the list is endless.

Negative Impacts of Technology on Society

1. Resource Depletion
The more demand for new technologies and advancement of current
technologies, the more pressure is put on earth’s natural resources. The high
demand for more mobile phones or laptops will certainly lead to exploitation of of
Mother Nature for resources like aluminum. Once these resources are extracted
from the earth plates, they may never return back because it took them a billion
years to mature.  That means that at one time, the world shall be left with no
natural resource which can be a problem to the future generation and economy. 
Likewise, the intensive farming practices will deplete the soil. This makes heavy
applications of commercial fertilizers necessary to yield healthy harvests, but also
these fertilizers have chemicals which are dangerous to the soil and human lives.

2. Increased Pollution
Pollution affects the land we grow crops on, the water we drink and the air we
breathe. The increased demand for new technologies and advancement of
technologies has resulted in many manufacturing and processing factories. As
they work so hard to create the best technologies for both society and business,
they release harmful chemicals and gasses which have polluted our environment
and this has resulted in climate changes (global warming). So the more
technology we enjoy, the more we harm our environment. Experts have tried to
implement ways of reducing this impact by encouraging factories to go green, to
a small extent, this has been achieved through the development of green

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 technologies like; green cars, green computers, but a great effort is still needed
to reduce the pollution of the air and the earth.

3. Cyber-Sickness
With the increased addiction to social networks and internet games, people are
spending more time on computers and reject their normal offline life, resulting in
increased isolation and social imbalance. This social isolation has increased a lot
as more and more people are involved in online interaction. The number of
children playing outdoor games is decreasing due to a lot of options available like
video games and apps.

4. Unemployment
Reduction in employment. Modern technology has replaced many works done
by human beings. Works are being done by machines in more productive and
efficient way thus replacing personnel who used to perform the work.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FIELDS

1. Life Sciences is a very broad field, it encompasses numerous specializations. It is

commonly defined by sciences that pertain to living organisms like microorganisms,
plants, animals, and most importantly human beings. Some of the well-known fields
in the Life Sciences are Zoology, Botany, Biology, Microbiology, Biotechnology, and
Biomedical technologies.
2. Engineering is the field of science that applies both science and math to solve
problems. It concerns the use of technology in practical ways that can advance the
human condition. Some of the fields of engineering include mechanical engineering,
electrical engineering, civil engineering, structural engineering, and industrial
engineering.

3. Agriculture is the field of science wherein it concerns with the different techniques
of land cultivation, crop and livestock raising, or otherwise, farming. The Department
of Agriculture (DA) is a government agency responsible for the development of the
Philippine's agriculture by generating policies, investments, and support services
which are significant in the local and export-oriented trade.

4. Aquaculture is the rearing or cultivation of aquatic animals and plants for foods.
Oceans are productive ecosystems on the planet, providing an array of services that
directly and indirectly support economic activity and growth. Services including
protection from natural hazards; weather regulation; shoreline stabilization;
carbon sequestration; wild-catch fisheries; energy from wind, waves and offshore oil;
sea bound trade; tourism; and many others all provide the foundation for an
estimated 3 to 5 trillion dollars of annual global ocean economic activity. 

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5. Metal Industry deals with the creation and innovation of metallic and steel products.
The metal/steel industries have shown remarkable technological dynamism over the
centuries and with the growing product innovation, there have been a great
significance on the steels' economic and political influence. The Philippines have
become part of the growing revolution of the industry. The Metal Industry Research
and Development Center (MIRDC) is a government agency under the Department of
Science and Technology that supports the local metals and engineering industry
through support services enhancing the industry's competitive advantage.

6. Food and Nutrition science is the field of science studying the nature of foods and
the natural changes in them resulting from handling and processing. It is the science
concerned with food and nourishment and the role of nutrients in health. In the
Philippines, food and nutrition research investigates the ideal diet for Filipinos to
solve the problem of malnutrition and the current state of nutrition.

7. Forestry practices planting, managing and taking care of trees. The governing body
for the Philippine forestry is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR). During 1987, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources was
formally established. Under this department, the Forest Management Bureau was
the sector that focuses on preserving the forest and the harvesting of its resources.

8. Natural disaster preparedness is developed to address disaster risk, since the

Philippines is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to natural disasters. Every
year, between six and nine tropical cyclones make landfall, alongside other extreme
events such as floods and landslides. The Philippines has been investing heavily in
critical infrastructure and enabling tools such as Doppler radars, generating 3D
disaster-simulation models from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology
and the wide-scale installation of locally developed sensors for accurate and timely
disaster information nationwide.

9. Health. One aspect of healthcare is the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of

diseases; the other pertains to provisions for medical care for people in the
community. In the Philippines, healthcare is under the Department of Health (DOH).
This government office is responsible for organizing public healthcare and making
sure that all Filipino citizens have access to quality health services. This office is
also responsible for supervising and funding researches pertaining to new medicines
and medical devices.

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 MODULE 2
HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS IN THE COURSE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

INTRODUCTION
This lesson will give light to the development of Science and scientific ideas in
the heart of the society. It explores the dynamic interactions between different societal
factors on science and technology. Along with the discussion of this antecedent during
the ancient period, Middle Ages and modern ages, it also discussed Philippine invention
and innovations. It is goal of this lesson to articulate ways by which society is
transformed by science and technology.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Discuss the paradigm shift through history
2. Explain how science and technology affected the society and vice versa.
3. Identify inventions and discoveries that changed the world over the course of
history
4. Explain how the industrial revolution changed the ways of human life

The development of science and technology is as old as mankind. From the

genesis of time Science has existed. It is always interwoven with the society. It indeed
plays major roles in the everyday life.
The birth of technology was when the first human-like species, Homo habilis made
sharp cutting edges from stone. Later, Homo neanderthals or cave men used tools and
weapons and were the very successful ancestors of Homo sapiens.
Many features of civilization emerged gradually as agricultural economics
developed. The invention of tools increased agricultural production, which led both to
new job specializations. A more complex economy also created new needs for more
formal governments and better methods communication and record keeping.

ANCIENT TIMES

The Sumerian Civilization

The first civilization emerged in Sumer, the southern region of ancient Mesopotamia
(Iraq and Kuwait) about 3500 B.C.E. Between the desert of Arabian Peninsula, running

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from the eastern Mediterranean cost to the plains of great Tigris and Euphrates rivers
lays a fertile soil that generated several features characteristic of civilization including
system of farming, writing, expanded cities, complex social structure, distinctive
religious beliefs and artistic styles. It was so flat that it was open to invasion, leading to
the rise and fall of the empire.

Many technical innovations are attributed to the Sumerians. Among these are:
1. Cuneiform is the first form of writing developed by Sumerian. It
was a system that utilizes word pictures and triangular symbols,
baked on clay tablets, which were turned into symbols and
gradually transformed into phonetic elements. It recorded data,
generated scientific knowledge and promoted trade.

2. The wheel around 4500 BC the wheel and axle combination

became the most important invention of all time. The Sumerians
were able to invent the wheels not intended for transportation
but for farm work and food processes.

SAILBOAT

3. The first successful efforts to control the flood of water and to

grow crops were developed by Sumerian. An irrigation system
was usually made up of canals, dikes, basins, dams, and
levees. Water was stored in basins or dikes, along the fields for
the crops. The canals, levees, and dams were used to stop
flooding.

4. Cities and temple complexes, with their famous ziggurats were

all built using oven-baked bricks of clay which were then
painted. A ziggurat is a type of massive structure and it has the
form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or
levels.

5. The invention of the plow helped them provide their city-states

with a stable food supply. Before farmers invented the plow,
they used animal horns or pointed sticks to poke holes in the
earth. 
Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/mes
opotamia-history/top-10-sumerian-
inventions-followed-many-civilizations/

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Babylonian Civilization

A civilization derived from Sumerian culture around 1800 B.C.E. the Babylonian
Empire arose and again unified much of Mesopotamia. This empire was headed by
Hammurabi which sets the Hammurabi’s law. The Babylonians went on to greatly
influence Mesopotamian culture. More importantly, they had a great impact on the
history of western civilization. Among the most important contributions of Babylonia are
the first ever positional number system; accomplishments in advanced mathematics;
laying the foundation for all western astronomy; and impressive works in art,
architecture and literature.

One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was built on the banks of the
Euphrates river. It may never have existed except in the imagination of Greek poets and
historians although archaeologists claim to have found the remains of its walls. Most
scholars attribute its construction to King Nebuchadnezzar II to console his Median wife,
Amytis, who missed the mountains and greenery of her home land. The Gardens didn't
really "hang" but were built on terraces which were part of the ziggurat and was irrigated
by water lifted up from the Euphrates. There is not a single mention of a "hanging
garden" in the Babylon cuneiform record but this is probably because it was considered
part of the ziggurat structure and not a separate entity in itself.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon

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Egyptian Civilization

Egyptian civilization formed by 3000 B.C.E along the Nile River. They benefited
from trade and technological influence from Mesopotamia, but they produced a very
different society and culture. More stable that Sumer and protected from the main
invasion route by desert, Egyptian civilization flourished for more than 2000 years
before beginning to decline about 1000 B.C.E.

Many inventions and developments of Science and Technology are attributed to

Egyptian. Among these are:

1. The Egyptians kept written records using a writing

system known as hieroglyphics. Some writing was
preserved on stone or clay, and some was preserved on
papyrus, a paper-like product made from reed fiber.
Papyrus is very fragile, but due to the hot and dry climate
of Egypt, a few papyrus documents have survived.

2. Building pyramid, such as the Great Pyramid and the

Sphinx in Giza, and temples for different gods required a
centralized government that could command vast
resources.

3. Egyptians cosmetics reflected their social class, so they

devoted a lot of time to their personal appearance. Wigs
were often worn not only for style purposes but also as
protection as people needed to protect their skin from the
dry climate and strong sun. 

Mummification is a process in which the skin and

4. Flesh of a corpse can be preserved. They wanted to
preserve their pharaoh because they believe in
afterlife. When a pharaoh died, his life force would
leave his body, but only temporarily. It was important
to preserve the body because the spirit would return.

5. The Egyptians were among the first to divide their

days into parts. They invented the first portable clock

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 which was so lightweight that people could carry it
with them.

Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/
egypt-history/top-10-inventions-
discoveries-ancient-egypt/

GREEK CIVILIZATION

Greek civilization began to take shaped around 800 B.C.E. on the peninsula and island
of Greece and in the surrounding territory in the eastern Mediterranean.

1. Water mills have been used all over the world for the
purpose of metal shaping, agriculture and, most
importantly, milling. This in turn led to the production
of edible food staples like rice, cereals, pulses, flour,
and so on.

2. Odometer, measures the distance traveled by a

vehicle such as a bicycle or automobile. It was
invented by Archimedes of Syracuse

3. Cartography is the study and practice of making

maps. It has played an important role in travel and
navigation since ancient times.

4. Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician of the

Classical age and was considered one of the most
outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He was
referred to as the father of Western medicine in
recognition of his lasting contributions to the field and
was the founder of the Hippocratic School of
Medicine.

Source: https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/greek-history/

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ROMAN CIVILIZATION

Roman and Greek achievements in science and technology were closely intertwined but
somewhat Roman had more focused on engineering. Roman used and copied Greek
Science, monumental architectural styles, sculpture and drama.

1. Romans are the first to set an arch on top of tall

pedestal. These arches went on to become pivotal
engineering constructions that the foundation for
building bridges, aqueducts, sewer, amphitheater and
coliseum

2. The first Roman aqueducts were built around 312 BC

and from then on took off as an engineering marvel
that used the downhill flow of water to supply the city
centers.

3. Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome.

Constituting one of the most popular numbering
systems still in use today, the first use of these
numbers dates back to somewhere between 900 and
800 BC. 

4. Rome was the first to establish a sophisticated

system of circulating written news which it published
the Acta Diurna (“Daily Events”). The majority of the
content in the Acta Diurna usually comprised of
political news, trials, military campaigns, executions
and major scandals.

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5. The revolutionary concrete developed by the Romans
helped to build impeccable and lasting structures,
playing a huge part in the architectural accession of
ancient Rome. 

Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.com/rome-
history/top-10-ancient-roman-inventions/

CHINESE CIVILIZATION

Chinese civilization started along Huanghe or yellow river. Established by

nomadic warriors and lasted for six centuries. The vital irrigation systems that earlier
inhabitants of the yellow river basin had begun were greatly expanded and improved.
They also developed a system of writing that has proved critical identity, unity and
civilized development among the chines

Science and Technology development arose in this era. Among these are:

1. Silk was widely used in a variety of sectors including

writing, fishing, and for musical instruments. It was
dominantly used by emperors and high-class society
but later it spread to the rest of the population. 

2. Tea was discovered by the Chinese emperor

Shennong in 2737 BC. During a march, while they
were resting, his servant prepared some boiling water
for him. A brown leaf fell into the water and the water
turned brown. The servant presented it to the
emperor, he drank it and found it refreshing.

3. The Chinese used silk or paper and lightweight

bamboo framework to make kites. Paper kites were
being used to carry messages for rescue missions, to
test the wind, measure distance, and for military
communication.

4. The Chinese considered south their cardinal direction,

and the original compass was created by the
Chinese using a lodestone to point south. This was
called the south pointer.

16
5. Invention of the wheelbarrow can be credited to
prime minister Zhuge Liangof Shu Han. It was created
the wheelbarrow to carry military weapons and to
move injured and dead soldiers from the battlefield.

6. Han dynasty invented the first seismograph called

“Houfeng Didong” to measure the movements of the
earth and seasonal winds. 

7. The first chemical explosive known as a gunpowder

or black powder was made from sulfur, charcoal, and
potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Gunpowder wasn’t a
sudden invention. The Chinese used gunpowder and
gunpowder-based weaponry as a military defense.

8. The Great Wall of China was built by the first emperor

of China, Qin Shi Huang to protect the country from
northern invaders. 

Source:
https://www.ancienthistorylists.co
m/china-history/top-18-ancient-
chinese-inventions/

MEDIEVAL AGES

The Medieval Era, often called The Middle Ages or the Dark Ages, began just
before 500 A.D. following a great loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman
Emperor. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, ending around 1450 A.D.

1. Building great Cathedrals as there was a huge rise in Christianity

17
 The role of the cathedral is chiefly to serve God
in the community, through its hierarchical and
organizational position in the church structure.
The building itself, by its physical presence,
symbolizes both the glory of God and of the
church.

https://www.google.com/search?q=image+of+great+cathedral

2. Building great castles for local nobility

A castle was a fortress built to protect strategic

locations from enemy attack or to serve as a
military base for invading armies.
People seeking protection from invading
armies built villages around established
castles. Local nobility took the safest
residences for themselves, inside the castle
walls. 
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-castle-architecture

3. Astrolabe was an important Medieval invention, They were used by navigators,

astronomers who studied the movement of celestial bodies

https://www.google.com/search?q=image+of+astrolabe&rlz=

4. Printing. Spreading knowledge and information was a very slow process before the
invention of typography. Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing
machine in the 1440s. The first printed book was the Bible in 1456 with a run of 150
copies.

18
 5. The telescope was invented by Dutchman
Hans Lippershey. In 1610, using his improved
design, Galileo Galilei was able to prove that
the Earth revolved around the Sun. This
confirmed the ideas of the Polish astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus but it angered the
Catholic Church who had adopted the idea that
the Earth was at the center of everything.

https://www.google.com/
image+of+telescope+during+medieval+period&
tbm=isch&source

6. The microscope Looking at small things became possible when a Dutch maker of
spectacles, Hans Janssen and his son, put glass lenses together in 1590 to make a
primitive microscope. Anton van Leeuwenhoek took this invention a step further in 1676
with a magnification of 270 times and discovered tiny single-celled creatures in pond
water. Ultimately, this helped our understanding of microorganisms and disease.

https://www.google.com/search=image+of+microscope+in+the+mwdieval

19
 7. Lightning conductor In1752, Benjamin
Franklin, the American statesman, philosopher
and scientist proved that lightning was a form of
electricity when he flew a kite in a thunderstorm.
Around 1754, Franklin and the Czech scientist,
ProkopDiviš independently developed the lighting
conductor to protect buildings from being hit and
damaged by lighting.
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY

8. Mechanical clock

Among the traditional time-keeping devices used at the time were water clocks,

candle clocks, the use of astrolabes for determining time and sundials. It was during
the High Middle Ages that new methods of time-keeping were discovered and new
instruments discovered for the purpose.

8. Eyeglasses.
When eyeglasses were first produced, they were known as iteros ab oculis ad legend or
“glasses that are for reading. Physical evidence for the use of spectacles during the
Concave glass is used to correct nearsightedness, so that the rays of light are diverged.
Convex lenses are used to aid the correction of farsightedness, so that the light rays are
converged. Cylindrical lenses used to correct astigmatism were invented by Sir George
Airy in 1825.

20
 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_ eye+glassestheir+uses+inmiddle+age

MODERN ERA

The First Industrial Revolution

The Modern period is a cultural movement that has a lasting impact on the world.
The Romantic period provoked everyone to rebellion and two of the greatest revolutions,
the American and French, were an outcome of that period. Thus, the Modern period was
born when the Romantics faded out and this shift in culture changed the world forever.
Modernism changed the way people lived in a number of different reasons, but there are
three that stood out from the rest.
The Modern Era changed the world through literature, producing some of the
greatest works in history, through technology and science, this new scientific movement
invented groundbreaking technology, and lastly through wars, people realized that being
ruled by one all-powerful monarchy is not the way they want to live. A lot of credit can go
to the Enlightenment and Romantic periods, but the Modern period shaped the world so
radically that it would not be the same without it.
Modern history is the history of the world beginning after the Middle Ages.
Generally the term "modern history" refers to the history of the world since the advent of
the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries and the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
The early modern period is roughly around the 1500s - 1800s. It begins with European
exploration and ends around the period of the French Revolution. The late modern
period follows the early modern period and ends around World War 2.

21
https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/steps/education/msc/courses/162261sciencetechnmodernsociet/

The First Industrial Revolution

Steam power. This era saw the development of steam engines to power factory
machinery. Heating water in a boiler to make steam to power a vehicle was a major
technological advance. James Watt is recognized as the inventor of the steam engine in
1765. Water could be pumped out of mines and industrial processes speeded up.
George Stephenson’s, Rocket was the first locomotive to pull heavy loads a long
distance. This led to the rapid expansion of railways throughout Britain and the world.
The combination of iron and steam paved the way for the great Victorian engineering
projects of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He designed bridges, tunnels, viaducts and
ships.

https/
www..historyhit,com/key imventions

https://www.google.com/search1C1CHNphotography

Photography is the art, application and practice of creating durable images by

recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an
image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic
film.
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their
seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are
then processed into various cotton goods such as linens, while any undamaged cotton
is used largely for textiles like clothing.

22
 https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYCotton+gin&stick

Typewriters were a very good way to write books. Typewriters were much more
comfortable than writing in hand. This helped the industrial revolution by allowing people
to write manuals for the workers and mass produce them much more easier.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz+impact+of+typewriter

In the 1880s, when the typewriter was first adopted in many offices, America

was a country in the throes of rapid change. The way in which the typewriter
was adopted reflected changes in women's roles, new ideas about the organization of
work, and the rapidly growing corporations of the day.

Telegraph
Samuel F. B. Morse created the telegraph in 1836. This invention changed the
face of communication. Instant communication became possible between the east and
west coasts and allowed people to know what was happening. This would revolutionize
media and personal. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid
between stations communication. The telegraph revolutionized long-distance
communication.
Each new communications technology has had a greater impact on society than
the one before. The telegraph changed society indirectly, by transforming the workings
of government and industry. But the telephone and radio had direct impacts on people's
working and social lives.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYAbS35jACg&q=i+imaget+of+telegraph

23
Sewing Machine

Elias Howe created the sewing machine in 1844. This forever changed the way
clothes were made and allowed the mass production of clothing. Before this it was most
common for women to make all of the clothes for their families. Only the very wealthy
could afford to have a tailor or seamstress make custom clothing of the latest fashion. It
was later improved upon and patented by Isaac Singer

https://
www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYwAOgib6wBw&qsewing+machine

Power Loom

Edmund Cartwright invented the power loom in 1785. It dramatically changed the
way cloth was woven by making it much easier. It would take almost another fifty years
and several alterations by other inventors before it would become commonly used.
The power loom, which partially automated textile weaving, was one of the most
important inventions of the Industrial Revolution. The  loom and
associated equipment went into operation in 1817, and with Lyman's encouragement,
Gilmour made his design freely available to other mechanics

https://www.google.com/search?q=power+loom+image&rlz=1C1CHNY

24
Power looms reduced demand for skilled handweavers, initially causing reduced wages
and unemployment. Protests followed their introduction. For example, in 1816 two
thousand rioting Calton weavers tried to destroy power loom mills and stoned the
workers.

THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Bulb. In 1879, Thomas Edison’s invented

electric light bulbs for cheaper, opt for clean
and convenient electric lights. To sell bulbs,
energy was needed, so Edison’s Electric
Illumination Company built their own power
station in New York.

https://www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1CHNYiimage+of+bulb+in+second+industrial+re
volution&tbm

The telephone. This is an invention that made money. Alexander Graham Bell was the
first in the race to patent a machine in 1876 that you could use to talk to someone on
the other side of the world. Admittedly, it was initially from one room to another. The
message was “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you”. A year later in 1877 he set up his
company and demonstrated long distance calls.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYimage+of+telephone+in+second+industrial+revolution

The motor car. Until the 1860s all prototype motor cars were steam driven. German
inventor Nicolas Otto created an improved internal combustion engine in 1876 and this
is still the way cars work today. In 1885, the first car, the Benz Patent Motorwagen, was
developed by Karl Benz. It was a long time before cars became common. Petrol, a
cleaning fluid, was only available from the chemist. Famous names such as Rolls Royce
and Henry Ford developed the technology; Rolls Royce for the rich and Henry Ford for
the man in the street.

25
 https://
www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_ imageof+motor i+second industrial+revolution

The movies. It has been only just over one hundred years since the first movie, or film,
was shown by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière at the Grand Café in Paris. The
terrifying film was entitled The Arrival of a Train at Ciotat Station. In 1889, George
Eastman pioneered celluloid film with holes punched in the side so that the movie
camera could show the film precisely frame by frame.

htt
ps://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY_image+of+movies++in+second+industrial+revolution

X-rays Science is impressive when something is discovered that cannot be seen. In

1895, German physicist Wilhelm Rontgen working with electrical discharges in glass
tubes noticed that there was a faint glow on a nearby screen. These rays were invisible
and could pass through most materials. He also recorded them on photographic paper
and thus the first X-ray image was developed. He quickly realized the medical potential
of his discovery. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896 while trying to find
more out about X-rays. Marie Curie, a Polish born French chemist and physicist and two
times Nobel Prize winner, is best remembered for her research into radioactivity and
new radioactive elements.

26
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNY-QaWha+image+of++x-ray+machin e

Communications Radio waves travel in all directions at an incredible 300 000 km per
second. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz was the first to prove they existed but it
was Guglielmo Marconi who set up the world’s first radio stations to transmit and
receive Morse code. In 1896, he sent the first message across the Atlantic from
Cornwall to Newfoundland. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909. It was
not until 1915 that engineers were able to transmit sound effectively. The first clear
television pictures to be transmitted were sent by Scottish-born John Logie Baird. He
founded the Baird Television Company Limited and worked on programs for the BBC
(British Broadcasting Corporation).

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYof+communication+radio+in+second+industrial+revolution

Flight. At the turn of the century, in 1903, two bicycle repairmen from Ohio, Wilbur and
Orville Wright built and flew the first really successful airplane near Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina. From that time progress was rapid and the military advantages of flight were
realized in WWI.

27
 https:
//www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYi+image+ofcommunication+radio

Rockets and space flights. The earliest rockets were used in China in the 11th century
but by the 19th century speed and accuracy were much improved. Knowledge of
astronomy meant that scientists knew the relative movements of the planets in relation
to the Earth. A Russian mathematics teacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first
person to draw up plans for space stations and air locks to allow space walks. He
correctly calculated that a rocket would have to travel at 8 km per second to leave the
atmosphere and that liquid rocket fuel would be essential. American scientist Robert
Goddard not knowing of Tsiolkovsky’s ideas, independently developed liquid fuelled
rockets from 1926. Ultimately, NASA took up the challenge but the Russians eventually
won the race to put a man into orbit. Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in 1961. In the US,
NASA scientists redressed the balance in the space race with their moon landing in
1969.

https://www.google.com/search?
rlz=1C1CHNYspace+flights+in+second+industrial+revolution

The atomic bomb. Science and technological advances can be seen as good or bad.
The invention of gunpowder must have seemed like that. In 1932, physicists John
Cockcroft and Earnest Walton did the impossible. They proved Albert Einstein’s theory

28
of relativity and unlocked the secrets of the atomic nucleus. Splitting the atom was a
brilliant scientific achievement. However, It allowed scientists to develop the atomic
bomb that was used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan to end the WWII in
1945.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHNYatomic+bomb+
+in+second+industrial+revolution

THE THIRD SCIENTIFIC-TECHNICAL REVOLUTION

After the WWII new discoveries and advances in science and technology came thick
and fast. Plastics were developed for the first time. In 1949, the first practical
programmed electronic computer ran mathematical problems.
It fitted into one room! In the 1960s, the electronic silicon chip was invented, computers
became smaller and more powerful. In 1984, the CD was born and the digital revolution
began.
MODULE 3
INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION THAT DEFINED SOCIETY

INTRODUCTION

This section reviews the intellectual revolutions that changed the way people
perceive the influence of science on society in general. It focuses on the most
intellectual revolutions in history: Copernican, Darwinian and Freudian. By discussing
these topic in the context of science, technology and society, the attention of students
are drawn again toward the complex interplay of the various social contexts and the
development of modern science. The section also engages students in a critical
analysis of ongoing intellectual and scientific revolutions, which they may find
themselves to be part of.

INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Identify the intellectual revolutions that shaped society’s across time;

29
 2. Discuss how the ideas postulated by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud changed
the way how humans see the world
3. Analyze how scientific revolution is done in various parts of the world like in
Latin America, East Asia, Middle East, and Africa

Human beings have undertaken scientific activities in order to understand how

the nature works. They have persistently studied physical and natural world to find
meaning and answers to their question. Over the years, society has been reformed by
new ideas of science. We learn more and more about global warming, outer space, and
technology. However, this pattern of gaining knowledge did not pick up significantly until
the Scientific Revolution. In the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the Scientific
Revolution started, which concerned the fields of astronomy, mechanics, and medicine.
These new scientists used math and observations strongly contradicting religious
thought at the time, which was dependent on the Aristotelian-Ptolemy theory.

Source: http://www.actforlibraries.org/difference-between-heliocentric-and-geocentric-models-of-the-universe/
The geocentric model of the universe was formulated by the Greek philosopher
Ptolemy around 140 AD. The sun, moon, planets and stars all revolved around the earth
in circular orbits. There were problems with this model because the planets do not move
on circular orbits and they wander among stars. Their speed varies, their orbits wobble,
and they occasionally reverse their direction of travel, what is known as "retrograde"
motion. At that time it was believed that planetary motion must be based on circles.
Plato had argued that heavenly bodies were governed by different laws than those that
governed the motion of objects on earth.

The Copernican Revolution

The view of geocentric universe could not answers irregularities of the movement
of the earth, until the early sixteenth century when the Polish astronomer, Nicolaus
Copernicus, develop a different model. According to him, the apparent movement of the
heavens was an illusion, caused by the movement of the observer. He went on to argue
that the wandering motion of the planets could be explained if they were orbiting the sun

30
rather than the earth. This led to heliocentric theory that the earth was itself just
another planet orbiting the sun.
Being a distinguished churchman, Copernicus knew how tenaciously it held
geocentric theory. In proposing heliocentric theory, he was not just challenging orthodox
science; he was challenging the established religious view of reality, which in those
days held even greater sway than the scientific view. So, fearing the wrath of the
church, he kept his ideas to himself for thirty years. Only as he was nearing death, he
finally decided to publish his book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres ( this
is the start of scientific revolution) but it was immediately placed on the list of forbidden
books.
After eighty years, an Italian scientist Galileo Galilei took up an interest in
planetary motions. Utilizing the newly invented telescope, he found convincing evidence
in favor of the Copernican model. He saw that Venus had phases, just like the moon,
when only half, or just a crescent, of it would be lit, which is what would happen if Venus
orbited the sun. He also found that Jupiter had its own moons in orbit around it,
dispelling the idea that everything went around the earth. Under threat of torture, he was
forced to detest the absurd view that the earth moves around the sun. He was then put
under house-arrest so that he could be watched and remained there till his death.
A German mathematician, Johannes Kepler, put into place another key piece of
the puzzle. He formulated three major laws of planetary motion, conventionally
designated as follows: (1) the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus;
(2) the time necessary to traverse any arc of a planetary orbit is proportional to the area
of the sector between the central body and that arc; and (3) there is an exact
relationship between the squares of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the
radii of their orbits.

Kepler himself did not call these discoveries “laws,” as

would become customary after Isaac Newton derived
his mathematical description of gravity for planetary
motion. He regarded them as celestial harmonies that
reflected God’s design for the universe.

Kepler and Newton’s discoveries turned Nicolaus

Copernicus’s Sun-centred system into a dynamic
universe, with the Sun actively pushing the planets
around in noncircular orbits.
https://earthsky.org/human-world/johannes-kepler-
birthday-dec-27-1571

Darwinian Revolution

31
 Source: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/18/charles-
darwin-victorian-mythmaker-review-an-wilson

Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist popularized theory of evolution by

natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. His theory sets
about explaining the progressive changes that occur within species down the
generations, as well as the formation of new species, when environmental pressures
have differential effects on the reproductive success of all individuals.

Darwin's observations

1. All species have such great potential fertility that their population size would
increase exponentially if all individuals will reproduce successfully.
2. Populations tend to remain stable in size, except for seasonal fluctuations.
3. Environmental resources for things such as food and shelter are limited.
4. Individuals of a population vary extensively in their characteristics which impacts
upon their own ability to survive and reproduce.
5. Much of this variation is genetic and is therefore heritable.

Inferences drawn from observations

1. Due to the limited resources, there is a struggle for existence among individuals -
often with only a fraction of offspring surviving through each generation to
reproduce successfully.
2. It is not a random process that determines which individuals will reproduce and
which will not, as it depends in part on the genetic / hereditary constitution of
those surviving individuals. Those individuals whose inherited characteristics
best suit them to that environment in which they live are likely to have more
offspring than those that are not so well adapted to the environment. This, by
definition, is natural selection.
3. The unequal ability between individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to
gradual evolution of the population, with favourable characteristics accumulating
over the generations through natural selection.

Natural selection shapes adaptations and differentiates between the reproductive

success of individuals. Adaptations are anatomical structures, physiological processes,
or patterns of behaviour that contribute to ancestral survival through the unique
suitability of those traits(Crawford, 1998).

Theory of Natural Selection

32
 1. Natural selection is differential success in reproduction.
2. Natural selection occurs through an interaction between the environment and the
variability inherent among the individual organisms making up a population.
3. The product of natural selection in the adaptation of populations of organisms to
their environments.

Theory of Evolution

1. Evolution is not progressive - Evolution is not designed to produce the best

quality products, it only seeks to design adaptations 'that will do the job' most
efficiently and economically. Therefore, evolution used the 'mammal template'
throughout the development of all mammal species - eg. pentadactyl limbs,
mammary glands, spinal curvature, pelvis structure - and made the necessary
modifications to suit the niche that species lived in.
2. Evolution is not an argument for the status quo - Evolution does not dictate why
things are the way they are. It must be remembered that some of an animals
features may be by-products of the evolution of an unrelated adaptation.
3. Evolution provides constraints - What has gone before sets physical limits on
what we can do now. This is seen in the fact that we learn some things much
more readily than others. In this sense evolution has also constrained what
things we are able to perceive and attend to.
4. Evolution provides complexity from simplicity - Species that depend on each
other for food (predator - prey relationships) often enter into 'arms races', as they
try to outdo each other.

To understand the origin of whales, it's

necessary to have a basic understanding of
how natural selection works. Natural selection
can change a species in small ways, causing a
population to change color or size over the
course of several generations. This is called
"microevolution". Given enough time and
enough accumulated changes, natural
selection can create entirely new species,
known as "macroevolution." It can turn
dinosaurs into birds, amphibious mammals into
whales and the ancestors of apes into human.

Source:https://reason.kzoo.edu/biology/cour
ses/BIOL102/

Freudian Revolution

33
 Source: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis.

His work and theories helped shape our views of childhood, personality, memory,
sexuality, and therapy. His ideas have become interwoven into the fabric of our culture,
with terms such as "Freudian slip", "repression", and "denial" appearing regularly in
everyday language.

One of his most enduring ideas is

the concept of the unconscious mind,
which is a reservoir of thoughts,
memories, and emotions that lie outside
the awareness of the conscious mind.
He also proposed that personality was
made up of three key elements, the id,
the ego, and the superego. Some other
important Freudian theories include his
concepts of life and death instincts, the
theory of psychosexual development,
and the mechanisms of
defense. https://www.slideshare.net/dennis43/lec-11-
freudian-theory

The worldwide web has given us access to billions of documents with information
and images as well as online shopping and banking.
Mobile telephone technology means we have instant contact with friends and family.
During this period, there have also been huge advances in genetics since the discover
of the structure of DNA in 1953 .
Today, genetic engineering and nanotechnology show fast growth trends and, also, are
big business

MODULE 4
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND NATION BUILDING

INTRODUCTION
This section situates science, technology and society in the context of Philippine
nation building. It traced the historical development of science and technology on from
precolonial times up to present administration. These discussion are geared towards

34
engaging students in a critical analysis of Science and technology as a tool for nation
building.

INTENDED LEARNING OUCOMES

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Explain how early Filipinos applied scientific principles in their daily living
2. Evaluate government policies on science and technology in terms of each
contribution to the nation building
3. Discuss the role of science and technology in nation-building

The development of Science and technology in the Philippines has already come a
long way. The Philippines has improved in terms of its preparedness for technological
change in the next few years. Many significant inventions and discoveries have been
accomplished by or attributed to Filipinos.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is the premiere science and
technology body in the country charged with the twin mandate of providing central
direction, leadership and coordination of all scientific and technological activities, and of
formulating policies, programs and projects to support national development.

Pre-Spanish Period
Prior to colonization by the Spaniards in the Philippine islands, the natives
already had technology. Filipinos were already aware of the medicinal and therapeutic
properties of plants and the methods of extracting medicine from herbs.
They already had an alphabet called baybayin,an indigenous Indic script that
has been widely used in traditional Tagalog domains. They also have number system,
a weighing and measuring system and a calendar. Filipinos were already engaged in
farming, shipbuilding, mining and weaving.

The Banaue Rice Terraces are among the

sophisticated products of engineering by pre-Spanish
era Filipinos. It shows the innovative and ingenious
way of the natives to survive. It is commonly thought
that the terraces were built with minimal equipment,
largely by hand. The terraces are occasionally called
the "Eighth Wonder of the World".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banaue_Rice_Terraces

Spanish Colonial Period

The Spanish colonization contributed to growth
of science and technology in the Philippines.
They also provided modern means of
construction to the field of engineering by
constructing government buildings, churches,
roads, bridges and forts. They introduced
formal education and founded scientific
institution.

35
Source:https://www.vigattintourism.com/tourism/articles/St-Augustine-Church-in-Paoay
Parish schools were established where religion, reading, writing, arithmetic and
music was taught. The study of medicine in the Philippines was given priority in the
Spanish era. Colleges and universities were established including the University of
Santo Tomas.
The Galleon Trade have accounted in the Philippine colonial economy. Trade
was given more focus by the Spaniard colonial authorities due to the prospects of big
profits. The opening of the Suez Canal provides an opportunity for the Filipino to study
in Europe. But health and education systems were only enjoyed by principalia class.
American Period
July 1, 1901 the Philippine Commission established the Bureau of Government
Laboratories under the Department of Interior. The Bureau dealt with the study
of tropical diseases and laboratory projects. On October 26, 1905, the Bureau of
Government Laboratories was replaced by the Bureau of Science. The Bureau of
Science became the primary research center of the Philippines until World War II. Its
focus is on agriculture, food processing, medicine and pharmacy.
On December 8, 1933, the National Research Council of the Philippines was
established. It is considered as the oldest scientific organization that promotes country’s
scientific development. Up to present the agency support researches through financial
grants to research projects, the holding of seminar and conferences, support for human
development. Currently, a measly sum is shared for allocation to grants for research to
bring about sustainability, diversity, and continuity for humans within their immediate
ecosystems.
In 1946, the Bureau of Science was replaced by the Institute of Science. The lack of
support of experimental work and minimal budget for scientific research and low
salaries of scientist leads to establishment of the National Science Development Board.
It was supported by Science Act of 1958 during the regime of President Carlos P.
Garcia.
President Ferdinand Marcos
During Ferdinand Marcos' presidency, many agencies in Science and
Technology was established. He declared that the "advancement of science and
technology is the key for national development."  The Department of Education, with the
National Science Development Board (NSDB), organized Philippine Science High
School System to provide scientifically and research-oriented student. It focuses in
science, technology and mathematics in their curriculum.
He wanted to reduce “brain drain” by providing medical interns do a tour of duty
in provincial hospitals to arouse their social conscious for the love of the country.
On April 6, 1968, he proclaimed 35 hectares in Bicutan, Taguig, Rizal as the site of the
Philippine Science Community. The government also conducted seminars for public and
private high school and college science teachers, training programs and scholarships
for graduate and undergraduate science scholars, and workshops on fisheries and
oceanography.
In 1970, He established the Philippine Coconut Research Institute to the NSDB
to modernize the coconut industry. The NSDB also established the Philippine Textile
Research Institute. The Philippine Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) of the NSDB
explored the uses of atomic energy for economic development. Marcos assisted 107
institutions in undertaking nuclear energy work by sending scientists to study nuclear

36
science and technology abroad, and providing basic training to 482 scientists, doctors,
engineers, and technicians. It leads to the creation of Bataan Nuclear Power plant that
was never operated because of the anomalies and geographic location.
In 1972, he created the National Grains Authority (NGA) to provide for the
development of the rice and corn industry to fully harness it for the economy of the
country. He established the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research (PCAR) to
support the progressive development of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries for the
nation.
He established the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical
Services Administration (PAGASA) under the Department of National Defense to
provide environmental protection and to utilize scientific knowledge to ensure the safety
of the people.
In 1973, he created the Philippine National Oil Company to promote industrial
and economic development through effective and efficient use of energy sources.
In 1976, he enacted a law under Presidential Decree No. 1003-A, s. 1976 to establish
the National Academy of Science and Technology, which is composed of scientists with
"innovative achievement in the basic and applied sciences," to serve as a reservoir of
scientific and technological expertise for the country.
In 1978, he created a Task Force on the formulation of a national action program
on science and technology to assess policies and programs of science and technology.
InJuly 23, 1979, the government invested funds and time in organizations for scientific
research, such as the NSDB, the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research and
Resources, the Plant Breeding Institute, the International Rice Research Institute, the
Bureau of Plant Industry, and the Bureau of Forest Products.
In 1979, he constituted the Health Sciences Center as an autonomous member within
the University of the Philippines System to improve the internal organization and unity of
leadership within its units.
In 1980, he created the National Committee on Geological Sciences to advise
government and private entities on matters concerning development in geological
sciences.
In 1982, he reorganized the National Science Development Board and its
agencies into a National Science and Technology Authority to provide central direction
and coordination of scientific and technological research and development. He enacted
a law on the completion of the National Agriculture and Life Sciences Research
Complex at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
Fifth Republic

In 1986, during Corazon Aquino's presidency, the National Science and Technology

Authority were replaced by the Department of Science and Technology.
On August 8, 1988, Corazon Aquino created the Presidential Task Force for Science
and Technology which came up with the first Science and Technology Master Plan or
STMP. The goal of STMP was for the Philippines to achieve newly industrialized
country. It was formulated to modernize production sector, upgrade research activities,
and develop infrastructure for science and technology.
Free Public Secondary Education Act of 1988 opened doors to free education up to the
secondary level, implemented in the education system together with this was the

37
“Science for the Masses Program” which aimed at scientific and technological literacy
among Filipinos
A Research and Development Plan was also formulated to examine and
determine which areas of research needed attention. The criteria for identifying the
program to be pursued were, development of local materials, probability of success,
potential of product in the export market, and the its strategic nature.
During President Fidel Ramos administration there was a significant increase in
personnel specializing in the science and technology field. At 1998, the Philippines was
estimated to have around 3,000 competent scientists and engineers. The government
provided 3,500 scholarships for students who were taking up professions related to
S&T. Schools were becoming more modernized and updated with the addition of high-
tech equipment for student improvement and teachers were getting training programs to
benefit themselves and their students. Health care services were promoted through
local programs such as "Doctors to the Barrio Program."
Priority for S&T personnel increased when Magna Carta for Science and Technology
Personnel was established. The award was published in order to give incentives and
rewards for people who have been influential in the field of S&T. Fidel V. Ramos
believes that science and technology was one of the means wherein the Philippines
could attain the status of new industrialized country (NIC). During his term, he was able
to establish programs that were significant to the field of S&T. In 1993, Science and
Technology Agenda for National Development (STAND) was established. Among its
priorities were:
1. exporting winners identified by the DTI;
2. domestic needs identified by the President's Council for Countryside
Development;
3. support industries and
4. coconut industry development.

Congress, during his term, was able to enact laws that were significant for the field.
Among were:
1. Magna Carta for Science and Technology Personnel (Republic Act No.
8439);
2. Science and Technology Scholarship Law of 1994 (Republic Act No. 7687)
and
3. Inventors and Inventions Incentives Act (Republic Act No. 7459).
4. The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 8293)
In President Joseph Estrada's term, two major legislations that he signed were
Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 (PCAA) and Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (ECA).
PCAA was designed to protect and preserve the environment and ensure the
sustainable development of its natural resources, and ECA outlaws computer hacking
and provides opportunities for new businesses emerging from the Internet-driven New
Economy. Aside from these, President Estrada launched a full-scale program based on
cost-effective irrigation technologies.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration was dubbed as the "golden
age" of science and technology. Numerous laws and projects that concerns both the
environment and science was passed to help increase the productivity from Science,

38
Technology and Innovations (STI) and help benefit the poor people. "Filipinnovation"
was the coined term used in helping the Philippines to be an innovation hub in Asia.
Helping the environment was one of the focus in developing technology in the
Philippines. One of the more known laws to be passed by her administration was the
R.A. 9367 or the "Biofuels" act. This act promotes the development and usage of
biofuels throughout the country. This potentially enables a cheaper alternative to
gasoline as a medium in producing energy that is ecofriendly.
In an effort to improve the efficiency of both land and water, the government
imposes Republic Act 10601 which improves the Agriculture and Fisheries Sector
through Mechanization (AFMech). RA 10601 covers research, development, and
extension (RDE), promotion, distribution, supply, assembling, manufacturing, regulation,
use, operation, maintenance and project implementation of agricultural and fisheries
machinery and equipment.
In 2010, President Benigno Aquino III proposed 10 ways to fix basic education in
the country. Kindergarten to grade-12 is an education system under the Department of
Education that aims to enhance learners’ basic skills, produce more competent citizens,
and prepare graduates for lifelong learning and employment.
Today, in the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the science and
technology sector is top priority based on the budget given for research and
development. Currently, our country has Philippine Space Technology Program which
launched DIwata-2 in 2018 after the launch of Diwata in 2016 that displayed the
Philippine flag in space. It also gives importance to agriculture and disaster
preparedness.

THE HUMAN PERSON FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

HUMAN FLOURISHING

defined as an effort to achieve self-actualization and fulfillment within the context of a larger
community of individuals, each with the right to pursue his or her own such efforts.

EUDAIMONIA

• Happiness

• well-being

• human flourishing

• good life

39
 • The human person, as both the bearer and beneficiary, flourishes and finds meaning in the
world that they builds.

• The progress of human civilization throughout history mirrors the development of S&T.

In our pursuit to good life:

• Acquire

• Consume

• Destroy

Jared Diamond  geographer, historian, anthropologist

 a menacing shadow of hatred has always darkened our human condition

 hatred and war are historically “normal”

 It is thus necessary to reflect on the things that truly matters.

 S&T must be taken as part of human life that merits reflective and meditative
thinking (Martin Heidegger)

 To be able to appreciate the fruits of S&T, we must examined not only their
function and instrumentality,

 BUT also their greater impact on humanity as a whole.

Technology
by Martin Heidegger

Instrumental

• a means to an end

(getting things done)

Ex. A graphic design student finishing project using paper, toner, printer and computer

Anthropological

• human activity

40
 ( causality)

• In the words of Heidegger, technology is an aletheia, poiesis and techne.

• Aletheia – means unhiddenness or disclosure.

• Poiesis – bringing forth (making or producing something for a purpose), sometimes

used to refer to poetry and composition.

• Techne – means skill, art, or craft. It means of bringing forth something.

• There is so much wealth of insights that can be gathered when people stop, think and
question. “Questioning is the piety of thought.”

• Piety here means obedience and submission. It is when we start questioning that we
submit ourselves to our thoughts.

• This will lead one to search for his/her place in the universe and in the grand scale of
things.

• Enframing: way of revealing in modern technology

The Four Revolutionary Developments in The Human Condition

1. Image & Symbols

2. Universal Order & Theory

3. Experiment & Plausibility

4. Praxis & Human Studies

MODULE 5
THE HUMAN PERSON FLOURISHING IN TERMS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Describe human flourishing in terms of science and technology
2. Identify the different conceptions of human flourishing
3. Discuss the revolutionary developments in the human condition
4. Explain what technology reveals
5. Examine modern technology and its role in human flourishing

Among the animals on earth, we, human, identify ourselves as the ones
who have higher intellectual capacity. We have learned that things around us

41
hold potential when combined with other things. Through time, passionate search
and experiment, a lot of things were discovered and produced.
This lesson explains briefly the attributes and capacity of man and
his role in relation to technology and to society. It also establishes some
philosophical considerations on how technology can be constructed as a tool for
higher purposes aside from the usual idea of it being the provider of more efficient
and comfortable ways of achieving and doing things. Technology as a product of
Human Reason and Freedom Man is rational and with this rationality comes also his
creativity. This creativity means man has the capacity to innovate whatever are
those available and “create” new things which other animals cannot.

Concept of Human Flourishing

Human flourishing is defined as an effort to achieve self-actualization and

fulfillment within the context of a larger community of individuals, each with the right to
pursue his or her own such efforts.
The term "eudaimonia" is a classical Greek word, commonly translated as
"happiness", but perhaps better described as "well-being" or "human flourishing" or
"good life". We will discuss more Aristotelian ethics for the next chapter. Unlike our
everyday concept of happiness, eudaimonia is not a state of mind, nor is it simply the
experience of joys and pleasures.
According to St. Augustine, “Human beings are endowed with a power that he
calls the will.” He emphasizes the will to being the center of freedom. Augustine, who
has a libertarian view, sees our will as free choice. So for whatever we may choose to
do, we become solely responsible for our actions which are caused by external factors
instead of internal ones. 

Technology as a Way of Revealing

Heidegger strongly opposes the view that technology is “a means to an end” or “a
human activity.” These two approaches, which Heidegger calls, respectively, the
“instrumental” and “anthropological” definitions, are indeed “correct”, but do not go deep
enough; as he says, they are not yet “true.” Unquestionably, Heidegger points out,
technological objects are means for ends, and are built and operated by human beings,
but the essence of technology is something else entirely. Just as the essence of a tree
is not itself a tree, Heidegger points out, so the essence of technology is not anything
technological.

Technology, according to Heidegger must be understood as “a way of revealing”

(Heidegger 1977, 12). “Revealing” is the translation of the Greek word “alètheuein”,
which means ‘to discover’ – to uncover what was covered over. Related to this verb is
the independent noun “alètheia”, which is usually translated as “truth,” though
Heidegger insists that a more adequate translation would be “un-concealment.”

“Reality” is not something absolute that human beings can ever know
once and for all; it is relative in the most literal sense of the word – it
exists only in relations. Reality ‘in itself’, therefore, is inaccessible for

42
 human beings. As soon as we perceive or try to understand it, it is not ‘in
itself’ anymore, but ‘reality for us.’(Heidegger, 1977,p.13)

This means that everything we perceive or think of or interact with “emerges out
of concealment into un-concealment”. By entering into a particular relation with reality,
reality is ‘revealed’ in a specific way. And this is where technology comes in, since
technology is the way of revealing that characterizes our time. Technology embodies a
specific way of revealing the world, a revealing in which humans take power over reality.
While the ancient Greeks experienced the ‘making’ of something as ‘helping something
to come into being as Heidegger explains by analysing classical texts and words
modern technology is rather a ‘forcing into being’. Technology reveals the world as raw
material, available for production and manipulation.
This technological understanding of ‘being’, according to Heidegger, is to be
seen as the ultimate danger. First of all, there is the danger that humans will also
interpret themselves as raw materials. Note that we are already speaking about “human
resources”. But most importantly, the technological will to power leaves no escape. If we
want to move towards a new interpretation of being, this would itself be a technological
intervention: we would manipulate our manipulation, exerting power over our way of
exerting power. And this would only reconfirm the technological interpretation of being.
Every attempt to climb out of technology throws us back in. The only way out for
Heidegger is “the will not to will”. We need to open up the possibility of relying on
technologies while not becoming enslaved to them and seeing them as manifestations
of an understanding of being.

Human Condition and technology

From the dawn of history, according to Jared Diamond, a menacing shadow of

hatred has always darkened our human condition. It is normal for tradition-based
societies living outside the controls of state governments to demonize neighboring
groups and regularly to engage in war and murder.
Ethnographical studies have shown that hatred and war are historically “normal”
between tribal societies. In the long view of history, he says, our modern state-governed
societies are the exception because we instead grow up learning a universal code of
morality, promulgated every week in our churches and codified in our laws. Yet today,
despite religious teachings and moral codes, national governments still portray other
nations as evil, sometimes because of past oppression and sometimes because of a
perceived threat of attack.
Technology has always played a role in wars by giving the victorious army an
advantage through things like steel armor, gunpowder, the airplane, poisonous gas, spy
equipment, decoding machines, and nuclear weapons. But it is nuclear technology that
presents the human condition with an unprecedented threat, both as a source of energy
and as a weapon of war of poisoning by radioactivity millions of civilians and millions of
acres of productive lands. This is not to say that technology has not benefitted our
human condition.
On the contrary, technology is improving life and improving it fast. For example, if
you were alive when my grandmother was born, you’d have no light bulbs, cars, or

43
planes; no telephones, radios, or recorded music; no steel or plastic or dynamite; no
pasteurized milk, sterilized surgical instruments, psychotherapies, rabies vaccination, or
vitamins. At the same time, while nuclear disasters have so far been localized,
technologies have already played a key role in damaging our human condition all over
the globe. We live with polluted air and water. Suburbs and parking lots are taking over
landscapes that provided drainage, shade, and oxygen-producing plants. Industries rely
on standardization and specialization, but this also standardizes persons, narrows their
skills, and raises their economic value far above the values of their companionship and
depth of character.

The Four Revolutionary Developments in The Human Condition

1. Image & Symbols
The pre-historic emergence of language, art, literature, and religion, thinking was
mainly through image and symbols.
In the fog of prehistoric times, the main developments were language, art,
literature and religion. From these developments, the thought processes of our
ancestors were mainly a combination of technique, myth, and magic. Technique
includes any practical know-how. Myth includes narratives about group origins and the
cosmos. Magic includes all the practices by which incantations and rituals were done to
produce physical changes.

2. Universal Order & Theory

The emergence of philosophy and monotheistic religions in 800- 200 BC.
Thinking now asks about the order of the entire universe, created and divine, and it
develops beliefs and theories that focus on truth.
The philosopher of history, Karl Jaspers (d. 1969), published a highly influential
account of the origins of how we worship and how we think about the world up to the
present time. In his Origin and Goal of History, he proposed that over what he calls an
“axial period” from about 800 to 200 BC, the leading cultures of the world underwent a
revolutionary awakening regarding what may be universal about both the physical world
and the individual person. He found that a number of different cultures, with no evidence
of mutual influences, became aware that humans everywhere have both a deeper inner
self and a loftier human destiny than had ever been imagined. In his words, “The new
element of this age is that man everywhere became aware of being as a whole, of
himself and his limits. He experienced the Absolute in the depth of selfhood and in the
clarity of transcendence.” By “transcendence” is meant not some other-worldly fantasy
but rather a very familiar experience: Each person can make the personal discovery of a
persistent desire to transcend his or her self by learning more, doing better, and loving
widely. For evidence, he points to such diverse cultures as Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist,
Greek, Hebrew, and Persian. As it happens, each of these cultures included many small
states or groups regularly engaged in civil and inter-state warfare. The question of how
to rise above wars and vengeance found answers in the idea that the entire world is one
place, and every person in it has a self-transcending core in common with every other.
This idea of a single universe and a single core to each person’s calling was expressed
in two quite different forms. The Hebrews represent a prominent example in religion.
Around 1000- 800 BC, they moved from believing that their god was simply the one who

44
is highest of all the gods (henotheism) to believing that there really is only one God who
created everything and whose will about right and wrong falls equally on humans
everywhere (monotheism). The belief that one God reigns over all creation implies that
there is a universal standard of behaviors to be found in the transcendent wisdom and
will of God.
Socrates (d. 399 BC) represents a prominent example in philosophy. As
recorded for us by Plato (d. 347), Socrates raised the question whether right and wrong
depended exclusively on the customs of local groups or might there be a right and
wrong that belong to all humans “by nature.” To put this another way, is morality a
matter of social convention or are there notions of “right” that are universal. If morality is
something universal—something that transcends group customs—then one culture can
and should criticize other cultures where they see behaviors that violate these “natural
rights.”
3. Experiment & Plausibility
The emergence of modern science in the 1600s. Thinking now includes views
that focus on the most plausible explanations of data.
We jump now to the scientific revolution that began in the 1600s. Herbert
Butterfield (d. 1979), in his The Origins of Modern Science, asserts that from the
perspective of world history, the scientific revolution, “outshines everything since the
rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere
episodes, mere internal displacements, within the system of medieval Christendom.” 13
This revolution was carried out by thinkers who sought knowledge more in
experimentation and in a reaction against an unquestioning acceptance of authorities
like Aristotle and the Church. Francis Bacon (d. 1626) led the charge. Compare, for
example, Aristotle’s “deductive” thinking that we cited above to Bacon’s proposal about
“inductive” thinking: all true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale or ladder,
ascendant and descendent; ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and
descending from causes to the invention of new experiments… 14; Those who have
handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of
experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use. The reasoners resemble spiders,
who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes a middle course: it
gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and
digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy; for it
neither relies solely or chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter
which it gathers from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay it up in the
memory whole, as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested.
Therefore from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the experimental
and the rational (such as has never yet been made), much may be hoped.
The experimental ideal of thinking was taking over, an ideal that represents what
we now call “modern science.” Where Aristotle’s views aimed at truth and certitude,
modern science aims at the most plausible explanations of experimental data.
Currently, for example, we have theories about gravitation and evolution that are widely
accepted, not as “true” but as “bestavailable explanations” of data. As “best available,”
they remain open to more comprehensive explanations that may arise.

4. Praxis & Human Studies

45
 The emergence in the late 1900s of a “praxis” take a critical standpoint toward
any developments and corresponding changes in human studies. Thinking now includes
views that focus on the best available critiques of error and standards for better living.
Today, we can find all four ways of thinking, although not equally prevalent.
We saw that the emergence of inductive thinking had revolutionary effects on
science, technology, the economy, and politics. We might label these our “social”
institutions, because they gather people into collaborative groups for these ends. What
these institutions have in common is a single goal: To produce goods and services
more efficiently and effectively. We also saw that these social institutions are worsening
the human condition for millions of people, and, left without any regulatory controls, will
continue to make life worse for most people across the globe. But we have another set
of institutions that are often labeled “cultural.” Some of the main ones are the arts, a
judiciary, religion, and humanities
These cultural institutions share a single goal of their own: To improve the human
condition. So where science and technology tell us what we can do, and political
economies tell us what we will do, our cultural institutions tell us what we should do. The
role of our cultural institutions regarding technology and its associated social institutions
is obvious: Align their goals toward improving the human condition. What we can do
regarding industry, chemistry, space exploration, medicine, war, and so on, is not
always what we ought to do. Besides producing goods and services efficiently and
effectively, we need to produce them ethically. So we look to our cultural institutions to
give guidance to our social institutions.
In the last 50 years, various philosophers looked to what we may call “praxis” as
this new way of thinking. Praxis is a method that attends to what happens in our minds
that makes us seek beauty, creativity, and love, while we often behave in ways that are
ugly, stupid, and hateful. The “method” has three phases: It highlights the fact that
human wonder and the search for meaning, harmony, and companionship is exactly
what it means to be transcendent. At the same time, it expects to find that our wonder is
wounded by bias, hatred, and willfulness. Finally, it proposes ways to heal these
wounds and to recover what represents genuine transcendence.

Then and Now: How Technology Has Changed Our Lives

We have become a generation almost entirely dependent on technology, and it
goes without saying that things were done very differently decades ago than they are
now. But as much as some people like to say our reliance on technology hinders us, we
can’t deny that it’s made life a lot simpler!
Here are a few things technology has made so much easier for us!

TECHNOLOGY NOW THEN

46
Communication

Image courtesy of http://wcpo.com

Snail mail

Transportation

Image courtesy of http://oregonlive.com

Image courtesy of http://topspeed.com

Covered wagons car

Image courtesy of http://techhive.com

Flat screen TV

Image courtesy of http://luminarium.org

Play

MODULE 6
GOOD LIFE

47
 “Everyone wants happiness. Nobody wants suffering.”
In psychology, happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being which can
be defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. To
behaviorists, happiness is a cocktail of emotions we experience when we do something
good or positive. To neurologists, happiness is the experience of a flood of hormones
released in the brain as a reward for behavior that prolongs survival.
The hedonistic view of well-being is that happiness is the polar opposite of
suffering; the presence of happiness indicates the absence of pain. Because of this,
hedonists believe that the purpose of life is to maximize happiness, which minimizes
misery. Eudemonia, a term that combines the Greek words for "good" and "spirit" to
describe the ideology. Eudaimonia defines happiness as the pursuit of becoming a
better person. Eudaemonists do this by challenging themselves intellectually or by
engaging in activities that make them spiritually richer people.
Living the good life is all about the exploration of that which gives you joy and
satisfaction. It's about finding purpose and meaning in your life and drawing happiness
from that which you do. Every human being aspires to live, but we all define the phrase
“good life” differently. Some are looking to live an honest life, full of integrity, joy and
happiness. Others seek wealth, social status and fame, as they hope these aspects will
help them to live the good life. In fact, they directly associate the good life with money
and material belongings
The good life is a term that refers to a state that is primarily characterized by a
high standard of living or the adherence to ethical and moral laws. In its two different
expressions, living the good life can be either expressed through an abundant/luxurious
lifestyle full of material belongings or the attempt to live life in accordance with the
ethical, moral, legal and religious laws of one’s country or culture. As such, the term can
both be understood as the quest for wealth, material possessions or luxuries and the
quest to create a worthwhile, honest and meaningful existence.
When it comes to living the good life, we almost all have a certain idea how such
a life should look like. For some, the good life is all about spending time playing video
games or watching television, while eating and drinking as much as they please. Others
associate the good life with days spent in nature, pondering and philosophizing about
life. Some simply want to spend their time in a worthwhile and productive manner, for
example by trying to make this world a better place.
We then have to ask ourselves the question, if the good life could really be
characterized by a high standard of living alone. If this were the case, living the good life
would primarily consist of the never-ending attempt to fulfil one’s desires and material
wishes. As we all know, human desires can be boundless, while the earth’s resources
are quite limited. As such, the (excessive) good life of one group of people might
prevent others from living the “high-standard-of-living good life.” Or it might hinder future
generations from ever living the good life.

THE GOOD LIFE ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHY

Plato About The Good Life

Plato believed that any object, animal or man has a natural function. Discovering
that function is the first step in living the good life, and it is followed by acting on that

48
function.
Since Plato's philosophy of the good life applies to all things, some functions are
easier to discover and act upon than others. For example, a chair has a natural function
to be sat upon. When it comes to mankind however, Plato felt that the natural function
was more complicated, requiring that man live justly and achieve unity and harmony.
Plato felt that the soul of man had three parts, consisting of intellect, spirit and
courage, and physical desires. Each part has its own need. However, to live the good
life, the needs of each of the three parts of the soul must be met without interfering with
the needs of the other two parts. These needs are basic ones. For example, the
physical desires of the soul are fulfilled by good health and survival.
Reaching a level of balance is only the first step in living the good life. Plato felt that
mankind's nature required more than simply existing in balance. Nature requires that an
individual use intellect and reason to search for the truth pursue further knowledge and
seek ultimate reality.

Aristotle About The Good Life

In Aristotle’s best-known work, Nicomachean Ethics, the philosopher adds
important insights about the good life. Aristotle seeks to construct a framework by
developing an understanding about the highest good for human beings. He points out
that to most people; the highest good consists either in the acquisition of wealth, the
pursuit of honor or the satisfying of bodily pleasures. As a result, most people act
accordingly. They seek wealth, honor or satisfaction and thereby hope to ultimately
attain happiness. Aristotle, however, points out that none of these aspects can ever
serve as the highest good. Firstly, he argues that wealth is primarily used to acquire
other things. In itself, wealth cannot make happy. Secondly, honor might not necessarily
contribute to a person’s happiness. Instead, honor is primarily sought to change how
people think of us. Thirdly, the desire to fulfill one’s desires is not something limited to
human beings alone. Animals are seeking pleasure, too. Even more so, by orientating
one’s life primarily to the satisfaction of bodily pleasures, a human being behaves no
differently than an animal. According to Aristotle, such a life is neither fit nor meant for
human beings.
From this Aristotle concludes that the highest good cannot consist primarily out of
these three aspects. Instead, the highest good should be something that aims to
maximize the inherent faculties of man. It helps human beings to develop that which
separates them from animals. In line with this arguing, the capacity for reason is that
which separates man from cattle.
Based on his reflections, Aristotle highlights the essential qualities of the good
life. These qualities primarily consist of contemplation and learning. It is through the
process of contemplating and learning that intellectual virtues are steadily acquired.
These virtues can for instance stem from the acquisition of knowledge about the
fundamental principles of nature. Furthermore, this knowledge can be expanded by
applying the principles of nature.
However, contemplation and acquiring knowledge is not enough to live the good
life. Solely understanding nature’s principles and contemplating on these does not
contribute the highest good. It is only through right action that knowledge can be put to
its proper use. Hence, the development of a strong and virtuous character is necessary

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to perform right actions. Aristotle therefore concludes that the highest good consists of
the acquisition of both intellectual and personal virtues. And, by living in accordance to
the highest good, happiness can be attained. Consequently, a person achieves
happiness by contemplation, learning and the mental strength to perform right actions.
Such a person does not only know what is right, but also acts accordingly and derives
happiness, fulfillment and purpose from it.

Socrates About Good Life

According to Socrates the unexamined life is not worth living. Living life without
ever reflecting upon it is not worth living. The person, who unquestioningly and
continuously repeats the cycle of waking up, working and going back to sleep, is not
living the good life. Even further, people that do not reflect on the nature of things are
not living a worthwhile life. If a person is not examining what they value and why, the
chances of them being able to live a good life are reduced.
Examining, reflecting and questioning the nature of things, however, is not
enough. Similarly, it’s not enough to reflect on your personal values. Living the good life
requires you to become a Master of yourself. Socrates compared this process to a
charioteer directing two horses. Socrates argued that each and every one of us is such
a charioteer. We all have to handle two horses. The first horse is stubborn. It is a direct
reflection of our animal instincts with a boundless appetite for lust and pleasure. The
first horse goes in whatever direction it pleases, if not tightly controlled. It is egotistical
and does not reflect what it does. It simply does. The second horse is of a much nobler
and more sensible spirit. It resembles reason and man’s capability to reflect upon that
which he does.

The Three Central Aspects of the Good Life

By integrating these fundamental aspects into life, the

good life that creates happiness, fulfillment and gives
you a sense of purpose and meaning in life can be
attained. Therefore, the ideal of the good life does not
set you on a pursuit of wealth, status and pleasure,
but creates happiness, fulfillment and joy through
understanding the world you live in, mastering
yourself and helping your community to thrive.

SEVERAL IDEAS TO LIVE THE GOOD LIFE

1. Examine life, seek knowledge

Examine life, explore its concepts and principles and seek to learn new things
each day. Be open for new ideas and never cease to go through life with open eyes.
Aristotle stated for a good reason that the unexamined life is not worth living. Living
without questioning and reflecting your behavior, beliefs and values, can result in
spending your time with activities that are not worthwhile. Even more so, it might even
make it all the more difficult to live the good life. On the other hand however, by
applying reason to the examination of (your own) life, a continuous stream of knowledge

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and virtues can be acquired. It is our capacity for reason that differentiates human
beings from (instinct-driven and pleasure-seeking) animals. If we explore the world and
contemplate on our discoveries, new sources of pleasure, happiness and well-being can
be tapped into.
2. Slow down and enjoy simplicity
A great number of people assume that the good life can only be attained by
adding more to their life. As a consequence, they seek to add material belongings,
wealth, social status, fame or something entirely different to their lives. This, however, is
the wrong approach. You don’t necessarily have to add something new to your life to
enjoy the good life. Quite the contrary is the case. The good life does not consist of
continuously chasing evermore. Instead, simplicity and the ability to draw happiness
from what you already have can be integral aspects of a good life. This shift in
perception can help you to start living the good life in this present moment, without
being dependent upon external influences.
3. Seek to attain self-mastery
Living the good life is all about mastering yourself. But interestingly, most people
do not consider self-mastery when it comes to the pursuit of a good life. Instead of
seeking discipline and mastery over themselves, they prefer to chase wealth, material
possessions, status or the fulfillment of desires. However, without self-discipline one’s
actions are primarily centered on the wish to fulfill desires. As a result, we waste
important time and energy on feeding desires that can never be fully satisfied.
Consequently, our actions are egotistical, self-centered and un-reflected. Instead of
living the good life, we succumb to the instinct-driven and unreasoned qualities we
share with animals.
It is only through self-mastery that we can replace our boundless appetite for pleasure
with a nobler and more reasonable thinking. Instead of being instinct-driven, it allows us
to reflect and to think about what we do.
4. Drawing joy and happiness from life’s simple pleasures
In their quest to live the good life, the vast majority of people shift their attention
from the present moment to a desirable state in the future. They think that the good life
can only be attained through the acquisition of wealth, status and a variety of other
things. Therefore, these people will never truly be able to live the good life, because
there will always be something missing. They either do not have enough material
possessions to satisfy all their desires. Or they are no longer able to enjoy these
possessions after a certain period of time.
For this reason, the ability to draw happiness from life’s simple pleasures is
essential. It’s a person’s ability to take pleasure from even the most simplistic things in
life that will help in understanding how worthwhile this present moment is.
5. Help in making this world a better place
Almost all philosophers that pondered about the good life highlighted the
importance of civic engagement. It is an integral aspect of a good life. Even more so, all
the other aspects of the good life can only be committed in a worthwhile manner by
utilizing them for the greater cause. Therefore, the life that is solely lived for the purpose
of fulfilling one’s own desires can never be fully considered a truly meaningful and
worthwhile existence.

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6. Be grateful for what you have
Gratitude is an important aspect of the good life. It helps us to overcome the
feeling of not having enough. By being grateful we can also overcome the never-ending
pursuit of boundless desires.
7. Don’t worry about things you can’t control
Life presents us with two different aspects. Firstly, those aspects of our life that
can be influenced or changed. Secondly, there are those aspects or events that are
beyond our ability to influence or alter. We are simply incapable of exerting even the
slightest influence over these events. We therefore feel extremely intimidated and
helpless. Feelings that even further contribute to our fear about things we cannot
control.
However, the principal key to withstanding life’s hardship, lies in the way we
allow these happenings to influence us. While we’re not able to control a great variety of
events in life, we still have the capacity to control our responses to these events. We
therefore have the choice to allow these happenings to break us and to incite fear within
us, or to get back up from the ground and to recover from it.
8. Value and nurture relationships
Imagine you’re living the good life but no one is around you can share your joy
with. The concept of living the good life includes the relationship dimension as well.
Without it, it would not fully contribute to your happiness and fulfillment. Even more so,
relationships are an integral part of a worthwhile life. Neither wealth nor social status
can grant access to true friendship. Therefore, living the good life also consists of
spending a significant amounts of your time with those that you love and enjoy being
around. The good life is all about growing, developing and becoming stronger together,
not alone.
9. Live your passions
Living the good life is all about discovering your true passions and having the
courage to pursue these activities. By doing what you’re passionate about, a sense of
fulfillment, accomplishment and true satisfaction can be added to your life.
10. Live in the moment
While it is certainly true that the good life means a great variety of different things
to different people, we can all agree that being haunted by the past or having fear of the
future is certainly not part of it. Instead of being trapped in the past or fearful about the
future, try to enjoy this present moment. There’s nothing you can do to change what
happened. Also, the future can be greatly impacted in this very moment. Be here right
now, this is exactly where you need to be.

Pre- Spanish Period

 Baybayin- an indigenous Indic script that has been widely used in traditional Tagalog domains.

 Number system, weighing and measuring system and a calendar

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  Engaged in farming, shipbuilding, mining and weaving

 Banaue Rice Terraces

Spanish Colonial Period

 Provide modern means of construction to the field of engineering: government buildings,

churches, roads, bridges and forts.

 Parish schools were established: religion, writing, music was taught

 Study of medicine in the Phil. were given priority in the Spanish era

 University of Santo Tomas

American Period

Philippine Commission

July 1, 1901

Bureau of Government Laboratories

October 26, 1905

Bureau of Science

Focuses on agriculture, food processing, medicine and pharmacy

December 8, 1933

National Research Council of the Philippines was established

1946

Bureau of Science was replaced by the Institute of Science

President Ferdinand Marcos

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  Many agencies in Science and Technology was established

 He declared that the “advancement of science and technology is the key for national
development”

 DepEd with the National Science Development Board, organized Philippine Science High School
System to provide scientifically and research-oriented student

 Government conducted seminars for public and private high school and college science
teachers, training programs and scholarships for graduate and undergraduate science scholars,
and workshops on fisheries

 1970, he established the Philippine Coconut Research Institute to modernize the coconut
industry

 Philippine Atomic Energy Commission, he assisted 107 institution in undertaking nuclear energy
work

 1972, he created the National Grains Authority to provide for the development of the rice and
corn industry for the economy of the country.

 He established the Philippine Council for Agricultural Research to support the progressive
development of agriculture, forestry and fisheries for nation

 He established the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services

Administration (PAGASA) to provide environmental protection

 1973, he created the Philippine National Oil Company to promote industrial economic
development through effective use of energy sources

Task Force:

 Philippine Council for Agricultural Research and Resources of Plant Industry

 Bureau of Forest Products

 Health Sciences Center

 National Science and Technology Authority

 National Agriculture

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Fifth Republic

CORAZON AQUINO

• National Science and Technology Authority were replaced by the Department of Science and
Technology

• Created a Presidential task force -:Science and Technology Master Plan or STMP – goal was for
the Philippines to achieve newly industrialize country. It was formulated to modernize
production sector, upgrade research activities, and develop infrastructure for science and
technology

• Free Public Secondary Education Act of 1988- “Science for the Masses Program”-opened doors
to free education up to the secondary level, which aimed at scientific and technological
literacy among Filipinos

• Research and Development Plan- formulated to examine and determine which areas of
research needed attention

Fidel Ramos

 His administration was a significant increase in personnel specializing in the science and
technology field.

 Schools were becoming more modernized and updated with the addition of high-tech
equipment for student and teachers improvement

 He believes that science and technology was one of the means wherein the Philippines could
attain the status of new industrialized country

Congress, during his term, was able to enact laws that were significant for the field. Among were:

 Magna Carta for Science and Technology Personnel (Republic Act No. 8439);

 Science and Technology Scholarship Law of 1994 (Republic Act No. 7687) and

 Inventors and Inventions Incentives Act (Republic Act No. 7459).

 The Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 8293)

Joseph Estrada

 Two legislations that he signed were: Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999 and Electronic
Commerce Act of 2000, was designed to protect and preserve the environment and ensure the
sustainable development of its natural resources

 He launched a full-scale program based on cost-effective irrigation technologies

55
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

 Administration was dubbed as the “golden age” of science and technology.

 R.A 9367 or the “Biofuels” act- promotes the development and usage of biofuels throughout
the country.

 Biofuels- cheaper alternative to gasoline as a medium in producing energy that is eco-friendly

 Republic Act 10601 – improves the Agriculture and Fisheries Sector

Benigno Aquino III

 Proposed 10 ways to fix basic education in the country – Kindergarten to grade 12

 K-12 is an education system under the DepEd that aims to enhance learners’ basic skills,
produce more competent citizens, and prepare graduates for lifelong learning and
employment

We live in a time when robots clean our houses, drive our vehicles, disable
bombs, provide prosthetic limbs, support surgical procedures, manufacture products,
entertain, teach and surprise us. Just as smartphones and social media are offering a
connectivity beyond anything we imagined, robots are beginning to offer physical
capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive abilities beyond our expectations.
Together, these technologies could be harnessed to help solve important challenges,
such as ageing societies, environmental threats and global conflict.
However, through smart “tricks”, a robot can seem more intelligent and capable
of decision making. Watch this video to understand singularity.
 
From an engineering perspective, these advanced capabilities are still very far away. A
number of hurdles need to be overcome. For now, robots and computers are completely
dependent on a power source – they require a lot of electricity, and this complicates
integrating robotic elements with human organic tissue.
However, in order to sustain a meaningful relationship with conversations and
rituals, which deepen and evolve over time in the rich context of everyday life, an
extensive artificial inner life will need to be created. As long as we replicate or surpass

56
 certain functions of human intelligence rather than the holistic whole of human
intelligence placed in the rich context of our everyday lives, it is unlikely that artificial
agents and people can be totally integrated.
For now, let us explore and use robotics to our advantages in protecting the
environment.
1. Robots Plant Trees.  Mark Stewart, CEO of SkyGrow developed his company to plant more
trees in remote forests like the Amazon. The team at SkyGrow developed the Growbot, an
unmanned vehicle that plants trees 10 times faster than a human can, at about half the cost.

2. Robots Help Farmers Survive Droughts .  Using AI sensors and monitors, robots can track
the growth of plants and learn which species survive  and thrive in harsh conditions. With the
help of this data analysis, farmers can choose plants that have a greater chance of success,
saving their income while they feed the people around them.

3. Robots Can Grow Like Plant. Researchers at The Plantoid Project are working to recreate the
behavior and functions of plants to study the natural environment.

4. Humanoid Robots Dive to the Bottom of the Ocean. The team at Evolving Science recently
profiled Ocean One, a humanoid robot developed by the Stanford Robotics Lab to explore the
ocean and collect samples as effectively.  Aquabotixis a technology development company that
creates vehicles for underwater inspection. It specializes in swarm robots, or multiple small
robots that can be controlled by one operator. As a whole, there are multiple benefits to swarm
robot submersibles. Swarm robots cover more territory than one robot can. If there is damage to
individual units, the entire research plan isn’t affected. It’s more affordable to deploy a dozen
swarm bots than one main robot platform. In the field of marine biology, swarm robots can
collect more data and more diverse data than a single robot (or even a varied team of
researchers) could. This makes the data more reliable and helps scientists learn more about the
ocean and how to protect it.      

5. Robots Harvest Wave and Solar Energy. Wave Glider’s applications include collecting high-
resolution carbon dioxide samples in difficult locations for a complete picture of global climate
change. If we’re going to fight climate change, then we will need to reduce our dependence on
fossil fuels like oil. Developers are turning to robots to help collect energy sustainably and use it
across industries and environments.

6. Robots Eat Water Pollution. The Permaculture Research Institute in Australia recently

covered the development of a “Row-bot” developed by the University of Bristol that digests
pollution in the water and turns it into energy. The robot swims around, ingesting microbes
which then power the boat’s motor. It’s really no different than a whale shark filter feeding krill
and using that food energy to travel around the ocean.

7. Robots Kill Invasive species. One example of this is the Crown-of-Thorns starfish on the
Great Barrier Reef in Australia. These coral-eating starfish can kill off large swaths of reef,
destroying the homes of thousands of delicate species. Experts say this starfish is a threat
equal to climate change to the reef.The team at BiopixelTV recently shared a solution to these
pests: the RangerBot. This robot finds and kills the starfish with an eco-friendly injection,
preventing the starfish from doing further damage. The results are staggering. Six human divers
could only cover half of the reef in a year, but six RangerBots can cover the reef 14 times over
the same period.

8. Robots Also Pick Up River Trash. One company, Urban Rivers, developed a trash robot for
the Chicago River. It floats along collecting garbage to keep the waterway clean.

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9. Robots Make Recycling Easier. AMP Robotics hopes to make recycling easier. Its robots use
AI to “see” items on a conveyor belt and record what they are. The robot can then sort the
materials and place them into designated bins.

10. Robots Climb. Into the SewersTech writer Luke Dormehl at Digital Trends showcases Luigi, a
sewer robot developed by MIT’s Underworlds project is operated with an iPhone app, the robot
studies bacteria and chemicals in manholes. It is the first of a team of future sewer samplers
that will collect and analyze raw sewage and send the data back to the lab. It has a massive
impact on climate change and public health.

11. Robots Reduce Personal Transportation Emission. Transportation has a significant impact

on climate change and carbon emissions. Alexandra Gray at World Economic Forum reports
that 23 percent of global energy-related CO2 emissions are caused by transportation.

12. Robots Send Environmental Alerts on Social Media. The developers at Climate

Reality recently wrote a “Rapid Response Team” program which sends messages to their
Facebook fans whenever there is news related to the fight against climate change. Fans can opt
in and then take action based on the message. This might mean calling their local
representatives or donating to a cause to help clean up after a disaster. Thousands of people
can come together with the help of a bot coded on Facebook sending out alerts.

 
MODULE 7
WHEN HUMANITY AND TECHNOLOGY CROSS

OBJECTIVES
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Describe the different technological advancement in Philippine society
2. Discuss the development of science and technology in the Philippines
3. Reflect on how artificial intelligence and robotics influence the ways we live
nowadays
Today, technology saturates our lives. Throughout human history, many creative
people have made possible an incredible array of technological advances – from
chemicals and medicines, to machines and tools that make our lives more interesting,
convenient, and healthy. Think of how immensely different our lives are today compared
with our earliest ancestors. Consider their scientific knowledge, medical care, household
conveniences, modes of transportation, sources of energy, forms of entertainment, and
methods of growing, harvesting, storing, processing, and distributing food. Not many of
us would want to live the way our ancestors did 2000, 200, or even 2 years ago. At the
same time, our ancestors did not have to worry about many of the vast problems that
concern us today.
Yes, technology has given us the ability to live longer, healthier, easier, and more
enjoyable lives, but it has also created new perils that our ancestors could hardly
fathom. For instance, many thousands of chemicals created by humans are circulating
in our world today that did not exist in ancient times. Today, they are practically
inescapable in our air, water, soil, and bodies. Many of them are known to cause harm
to, or even kill, living organisms including humans. Many others are suspected of

58
insidiously threatening us and the environment over the long-term, often in ways still
largely unknown to scientists and the general public.
Technology has also managed to harness enormous amounts of energy to power
our lifestyles, providing us with transportation, heating, and power. But this energy
comes at a great cost, producing such calamities as: oil spills, landscapes devastated
by resource extraction, foul-smelling smog in our cities, or free-flowing rivers clogged by
dams. In learning how to capture the formidable energy inside the atomic nucleus, we
have also created great quantities of dangerous nuclear waste that we still have no
proper form of disposal. This same technology has the means – for the first time in
human history – of destroying our species and the planet itself. Our ancestors never
had to worry about such perils.
Now, it is clear that our thirst for energy is even changing the climate of the
planet. Specifically, the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) is raising the
Earth’s global temperature and creating a host of associated problems, ranging from
prolonged droughts in the Southwestern United States to melting glaciers in the Arctic
and Antarctic and rising sea levels worldwide.
In recent years, we have begun to suspect that we are confronting yet another
new technological risk, namely the impact that electronics are having on our lives. Some
have become concerned that the huge amounts of time people (especially children) are
spending in front of computer, television, video, and phone screens are having
unintended consequences: the removal of people from nature and the natural world, the
reduction of time youth spend interacting with each other and engaging in free play, and
even the physical alteration of our brains.8 We are, in effect, carrying out a gigantic,
inadvertent experiment on ourselves. It remains to be seen what the full effect of
modern electronics will be on our society, environment, and physical and mental health.

Technological Advancements in the Philippines

Many Filipino people especially the younger ones know what is the effect of
modern technology. However, not all Filipino people have known about the effect and
advantage of modern technology because most older Filipino especially who live in the
province still use the old technology that they using. They don’t change easily about
what are the advanced technology is in here in the City.
Sometimes technology change people like, appearance, health, work, education,
and especially the attitude of people. Modern technology has a big part of the life of
people it helps to improve the way of living of each and every one of us. It has a big
influence on people because of the advanced technology in it.
Modern technology is now one of the most things that every people want to use or have
when it comes to gadgets. People who use modern gadgets always want the new and
advance technology.
Before the use of technology is not that much in demand but now most people
have gadgets even the kids one. They now use that technology for their everyday life
and the means of communication.
Modern technology is the best thing that can help people to lessen their time to
anything that they can do. Like example for cooking, before especially in the province
they use wood fire for cooking, only a few Filipino people have a gas stove when
cooking. But nowadays almost all Filipino people use a gas stove and electric stove.

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Now in this modern days, there are a lot of cooking appliances. There are oven toaster,
microwave oven, heavy-duty electric range, heavy duty gas range, hot plates, high-
speed oven, electric kettle, and much more.
For transportation Filipino people before usually use a tricycle, horse carriages
(kalesa), old bus, and jeepney. But now there are a lots of modern public transportation
we can use for us to be more comfortable when traveling like taxi, LRT train, MRT train,
FX, UV Express, Buses air con and not air con you can choose, and still the jeepney
who are the cheapest means of transportation and one of the most popular public
transportation in the Philippines.
However, the newest and most modern means of transportation now in the
Philippines is GRAB and UBER. These two public transportation must require an
android cell phone with internet so that people can be a part of it. This kind of
transportation is the advance information technology that most Filipino people use
especially who live in Metro Manila. It is very safe, comfortable and efficient but a little
bit expensive compared to other public transportation. Because they use car who is a
new one and most drivers are the owner of the car.
In this modern day of living in the City, the use of technology is very important
and you can see all people using the advanced technology. Before we only wash
clothes through the hands but now using modern technology like washing machine you
can wash clothes even if you do another thing.
In communication terms, the advanced technology is very in-demand most of it
very useful. We can talk and see our family who leaves in abroad by using video call in
every time we want. It is one of the most useful and most popular kinds of technology
that everyone uses. By the use of this kind of technology our communication become a
necessity and become part of our daily life. We can use mobile phones through texting,
call, pictures, and video. It can also use through emails, faxes, chats and for social
media.
Communication through business is also most needed. We can do business
through emails, talking to those supplies or business associate through video call, using
a digital network for the weather updates, and using social media interaction by
Facebook, Twitter, Email, and other Google accounts. You can order so many things
using a computer with the internet of course.
However when it comes to medical technology there also big changes it
becomes more advanced. It becomes more advanced in terms of pharmaceutical and
medical field. There’s a lot of new invention and treatment for the different kinds of
disease and cancer types. We all know that this kind of treatment may help those
people who suffer from illness without pain. Medical technology also helps people
appearance, they can change someone to become better and look better.
Modern technology also best use in education. It is very easy now to study
because everything is in the Library App. In just one click you can choose whatever you
want to research about your school assignments. You don’t need to go outside to go to
store to buy books for your research. Technology for today can use in teaching and
learning. There are new model or ways in teaching with the use of modern technology.
Some young people that can not go to school in a regular basis can enroll in online
learning or online program. In this modern days the technology we use can help us to
improve our education more easy and efficient. Even in correcting grammar or spelling

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is one click away to know it you don’t need to open a book to search what you want to
its a waste of time. Now it easy, fast, and you can save more time in learning.

Of Robots and Humans

We live in a time when robots clean our houses, drive our vehicles, disable
bombs, provide prosthetic limbs, support surgical procedures, manufacture products,
entertain, teach and surprise us. Just as smartphones and social media are offering a
connectivity beyond anything we imagined, robots are beginning to offer physical
capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive abilities beyond our expectations.
Together, these technologies could be harnessed to help solve important challenges,
such as ageing societies, environmental threats and global conflict.
What will a day in our lives look like, in this not-so-distant future? Science fiction
has explored these possibilities for centuries. Our lives will likely be longer: with
synthetic organs to replace defective parts of our bodies, nanosized medical
interventions allowing the precise targeting of diseases and genetics, and autonomous
vehicles reducing fatalities in traffic. Our jobs will change dramatically. Certain jobs will
not exist anymore and new jobs will emerge – in the development of robot service apps,
for instance, that could run on available robot platforms in our homes. The way we
are educated will also change radically – our senses and brains may be artificially
enhanced, and our ability to reflect on new insights gained from the automated analysis
of vast amounts of data will require a different treatment of information in schools.
But how will we relate to each other in a civilization that includes robots? In what way
will we meet each other, have relationships and raise our children? To what extent will
robots and humans merge?
Many of us wonder whether AI will become so intelligent and capable in human
communication that the boundaries between human and artificial beings will blur. If it is
possible to communicate in a natural way and build a meaningful interaction over time
with an artificial agent, will there still be a divide in the relationships we have with people
and technology? Also, once our human bodies and minds are enhanced with AI and
robotics, what will it mean to be “human”?

Smart Tricks
From an engineering perspective, these advanced capabilities are still very far
away. A number of hurdles need to be overcome. For now, robots and computers are
completely dependent on a power source – they require a lot of electricity, and this
complicates integrating robotic elements with human organic tissue. Another hurdle is
the intricacy of human communication. While a one-off natural language conversation in
a specific context with a robot can feel realistic, engaging people verbally and non-
verbally over many conversations and contexts is quite another matter.
For example, when you call an artificial lost-and-found agent at an airport, a
satisfying conversation is possible because there are only a limited number of goals the
caller has. However, in creating a more extended relationship, for example, with a
robotic pet, a much more complicated model must be developed. The robot needs to
have internal goals, an extensive memory that relates experiences to various contexts,
and it needs to develop these capabilities over time.

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 Through smart “tricks”, a robot can seem more intelligent and capable than it is –
by introducing random behaviours which make the robotic pet interesting for longer, for
instance. Humans have the tendency to “make sense” of the robot’s behaviours in a
human way (we do this with animals too). However, in order to sustain a meaningful
relationship which deepens and evolves over time, an extensive artificial inner life will
need to be created.

How Machines Learn

A major hurdle in creating this rich artificial inner life is the way machines
learn. Machine learning is example-based. We feed the computer examples of the
phenomenon we want it to understand – for instance, when people feel comfortable. In
teaching a machine to recognize this, data of people being comfortable is provided –
this could be in the form of images, videos, their speech, heartbeat, social media
entries, etc. When we feed videos to a computer, these are labelled with information on
whether the people in it are comfortable or not – this may be done by experts in
psychology, or in the local culture.
The computer uses machine learning to “reason” from these labelled videos to
identify important features that correlate with feeling comfortable. This could be the
body pose of a person, the pitch of their voice, etc.
Once the machine has identified the features predicting “comfort”, the resulting
algorithm can be trained and improved, using different sets of videos. Eventually, the
algorithm is robust and a computer with a camera can recognize how people feel with
high, if not 100 per cent, accuracy.

Towards A Complex Synthetic Profile

In order to develop an artificial agent that can have a sustained relationship, over
a long period of time, with a person, we need the agent to have a compelling personality
and behaviours, understand the person, the situation in which they are both in, and the
history of their communication. More importantly, the agent would have to keep the
communication going across a variety of topics and situations. It is possible to make a
compelling agent, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri, that you can speak to in
natural language and have a meaningful interaction with, within the specific context of
its use – set the alarm clock, make a note, turn down the heating, etc.
However, beyond that context of use, the communication quickly breaks down.
The agent  will find acceptable responses for a large variety of questions and
comments, but will not be able to sustain an hour-long discussion about a complex
issue. For instance, when parents discuss  how to respond to their child not working
hard at school, the conversation is very rich – they bring to it their understanding of the
child, and their own personalities, emotions, history, socio-economic and cultural
backgrounds, psychology, genetic make-up, behavioural habits and understanding of
the world.
In order for an artificial agent to take on such a meaningful social role and
develop a real relationship with a person, it would need to have a synthetic
psychological, cultural, social and emotional profile. Also, the agent would need to learn
over time how it “feels” and respond to situations in relation to this synthetic internal
make-up.

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 This requires a fundamentally different approach to current machine learning. An
artificially intelligent system that develops much like how the human brain develops, and
that can internalize the richness of human experiences, is needed. The intricate ways
people communicate with each other and understand the world is an unimaginably
complex process to synthesize. The envisioned and currently available models of AI are
inspired by the human brain or have elements of how the brain works, but are not yet
plausible models of the human brain.
We already see AI achieving amazing feats – like reading the entire internet,
winning at Go, the ancient Chinese board game, or running a fully automated factory.
However, just like the English physicist Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) said he had only
scratched the surface of understanding the universe, we are still merely scratching the
surface of understanding human intelligence.

It Won’t Happen Tomorrow

Robots and artificially intelligent systems will be able to offer us unique abilities to
support and enhance our decision-making, understanding of situations and ways to act.
Robots will be able to contribute to or autonomously carry out labour. Perhaps robotics
will be fully physically integrated in our human bodies once a number of challenges are
overcome. Also, we will relate to artificial agents as we do to humans – by
communicating with them in natural language, observing their behaviours and
understanding their intentions. However, in order to sustain a meaningful relationship
with conversations and rituals, which deepen and evolve over time in the rich context of
everyday life, as is the case between people, an extensive artificial inner life will need to
be created. As long as we replicate or surpass certain functions of human intelligence
rather than the holistic whole of human intelligence placed in the rich context of our
everyday lives, it is unlikely that artificial agents and people can be totally integrated.

Robots in Protecting Environment

1. Robots Plant Trees
Climate change startups tend to pick a specific element of environmental harm
and solve a problem for it. For Mark Stewart, CEO of SkyGrow, it’s planting trees. He
developed his company to plant more trees than we are cutting down — and not just in
remote forests like the Amazon. The team at SkyGrow developed the Growbot, an
unmanned vehicle that plants trees 10 times faster than a human can, at about half the
cost.
Growbot plants established trees instead of seeds, because established trees
have a greater chance of succeeding in their new location. Stewart and his team plan to
manufacture 4,500 Growbots, helping forests recover everywhere.

2. Robots Help Farmers Survive Droughts

As our climate continues to change, it affects our food sources. This is
particularly true in poorer countries and rural areas that can’t easily import food from
other regions. Using AI sensors and monitors, robots can track the growth of plants and
learn which species survive  and thrive in harsh conditions. With the help of this data

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analysis, farmers can choose plants that have a greater chance of success, saving their
income while they feed the people around them.

3. Robots Can Grow Like Plants

Researchers at The Plantoid Project are working to recreate the behavior and
functions of plants to study the natural environment.
They have realized the best way to study the environment is to use the same methods
plants use to filter air, water, and other chemicals that they’re exposed to. The robot
plant they have developed even has a mini 3D printer that helps the roots “grow,”
allowing researchers to explore the soil that plants are exposed to.

4. Humanoid Robots Dive to the Bottom of the Ocean

The team at Evolving Science recently profiled Ocean One, a humanoid robot
developed by the Stanford Robotics Lab to explore the ocean and collect samples as
effectively as a diver.
Ocean One was originally developed to monitor deep coral reefs in the Red Sea.
These corals are essential for a healthy ocean, but live far beyond human range.
Researchers needed a robot that could collect samples without damaging the reef and
observe deep-sea specimens in their natural habitat. Ocean One mimics a human
SCUBA diver, complete with arms, depth perception, and touch feedback, plus it can
survive significant depths. Since exploring the Red Sea, the robot has traveled across
the world, helping us learn about the ocean without disrupting it.

5. Swarm Robots Collect Data

Interestingly, not all underwater robots are humanoid, or even human-
sized. Aquabotixis a technology development company that creates vehicles for
underwater inspection. It specializes in swarm robots, or multiple small robots that can
be controlled by one operator. As a whole, there are multiple benefits to swarm robot
submersibles. Swarm robots cover more territory than one robot can. If there is damage
to individual units, the entire research plan isn’t affected.It’s more affordable to deploy a
dozen swarm bots than one main robot platform. In the field of marine biology, swarm
robots can collect more data and more diverse data than a single robot (or even a
varied team of researchers) could. This makes the data more reliable and helps
scientists learn more about the ocean and how to protect it.      

6. Robots Harvest Wave and Solar Energy

If we’re going to fight climate change, then we will need to reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels like oil. Developers are turning to robots to help collect
energy sustainably and use it across industries and environments.
A great example is the Wave Glider by Liquid Robotics. It looks like a surfboard and has
built-in solar panels, collecting solar energy as it moves along the ocean surface. It uses
the stored energy for propulsion and to recharge the batteries needed for its sensors.
Wave Glider’s applications include collecting high-resolution carbon dioxide samples in
difficult locations for a complete picture of global climate change.

7. Robots Eat Water Pollution

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 The Permaculture Research Institute in Australia recently covered the
development of a “Row-bot” developed by the University of Bristol that digests pollution
in the water and turns it into energy. The robot swims around, ingesting microbes which
then power the boat’s motor. It’s really no different than a whale shark filter feeding krill
and using that food energy to travel around the ocean.
According to Jonathan Rossiter, who hosted a TED talk about these robots, this
technology could help reduce the impact of tankers that flush their oil tanks into the sea
and of chemicals that are washed into rivers and wind up in the oceans. 

8. Robots Kill Invasive Species

Sometimes protecting the environment means hunting invasive species that take
over and harm endangered plants and animals. One example of this is the Crown-of-
Thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. These coral-eating starfish can
kill off large swaths of reef, destroying the homes of thousands of delicate species.
Experts say this starfish is a threat equal to climate change to the reef.The team at
BiopixelTV recently shared a solution to these pests: the RangerBot. This robot finds
and kills the starfish with an eco-friendly injection, preventing the starfish from doing
further damage. The results are staggering. Six human divers could only cover half of
the reef in a year, but six RangerBots can cover the reef 14 times over the same period.
RangerBots also cost half the price of a human expedition, operate day and night, and
can collect other measurements like temperature and salinity while they work.

9. Robots Also Pick Up River Trash

Pollution comes in all forms, from oils and other chemicals to plastic bags and
straws. One company, Urban Rivers, developed a trash robot for the Chicago River. It
floats along collecting garbage to keep the waterway clean.
The robot came to be after Urban Rivers installed 1,500 square feet of floating wetland
and urban garden. They noticed trash kept getting caught in the plants and sent
someone out each day to pick it up. The team realized the trash was only going to build,
and started developing a robot to help them clean up the waterways. This robot keeps
the plants trash-free and prevents animals from accidentally ingesting the waste.

10. Robots Make Recycling Easier

As more people recycle, there is added pressure on humans to sort the materials
and determine what can be reused. This is highly manual work, with people hunched
over conveyor belts grabbing items as fast as they can.
AMP Robotics hopes to make recycling easier. Its robots use AI to “see” items on a
conveyor belt and record what they are. The robot can then sort the materials and place
them into designated bins.
This solution increases efficiency with higher throughput and better bale quality. It also
allows users, whether cities or construction companies, to budget more accurately with
fixed labor rates.

11. Robots Climb Into the Sewers

Our sewer systems have a massive impact on climate change, especially when
you consider what and where we dump our waste. They can also impact public health.

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Tech writer Luke Dormehl at Digital Trends showcases Luigi, a sewer robot developed
by MIT’s Underworlds project is operated with an iPhone app, the robot studies bacteria
and chemicals in manholes. It is the first of a team of future sewer samplers that will
collect and analyze raw sewage and send the data back to the lab. The robots, using
sampling instruments that upload data remotely (and with plans for a real-time
biochemical detection platform in the works) will be able to collect more samples much
faster than their human counterparts, who were limited to manually hauling liters of
muck at a time back to the lab.

12. Robots Reduce Carbon Emissions

Senior environment reporter Emily Guerin at KPCC Southern California Public
Radiorecently discussed the rise of automated equipment in the Port of Long Beach.
While it is adversely affecting union workers there, the impact on climate change is
good.This is because the new equipment releases no emissions and greatly reduces
the pollution-causing tools and trucks needed to operate the port. Guerin explains that
heavy duty diesel trucks are responsible for 150 tons of smog emissions per day
(compared to 80 tons for cars and SUVs). If automation can reduce this number, the air
in Southern California has a chance of clearing up.  

13. Robots Reduce Personal Transportation Emissions

Transportation has a significant impact on climate change and carbon
emissions. Alexandra Gray at World Economic Forum reports that 23 percent of global
energy-related CO2 emissions are caused by transportation.
Today’s innovators are not only developing electric cars, but also better batteries that
reduce the environmental impact of all vehicles. In fact, researchers at the University of
Surrey are developing an alternative to traditional battery power that is 1,000-10,000
times stronger than that used today, allowing electric cars to travel similar distances to
those that use gas and to recharge in the time it takes to fill up the tank.

14. Robots Send Environmental Alerts on Social Media

Robots alone can’t save the planet. These robots need humans who want to
protect the natural environment and the plants and animals that live in it. The
developers at Climate Reality recently wrote a “Rapid Response Team” program which
sends messages to their Facebook fans whenever there is news related to the fight
against climate change. Fans can opt in and then take action based on the message.
This might mean calling their local representatives or donating to a cause to help clean
up after a disaster. Thousands of people can come together with the help of a bot coded
on Facebook sending out alerts.

Activity 7

A. Essay
Answer the following questions.
1. Do you believe that children should have completely free access to any TV
program or Web site on the Internet, or do you think that parents, teachers,

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 and/or librarians should be permitted to prevent children from accessing
programs and sites adults think are inappropriate or harmful? Give reasons for
your opinions.
2. In general, would you say that modern technology developed over the past fifty
years has made the world is a better or worse place in which to live? Are
people’s lives happier or unhappier as a result of modern technology?

B. Read and make reflection paper about the article “This Is What The Future Of Robots
Might Do To Humanity.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lelalondon/2018/11/28/this-is-what-the-future-of-robots-might-do-to-
humanity/#c98910f72aea

C. Create a poster that shows the advantages and disadvantages of robots and modern
technology in the Philippine society and biodiversity.

MODULE 8
THE INFORMATION AGE

Objectives
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Trace the development of the information age from the premechanical age up to
the evolution of social media
2. Describe the main generations of digital computing from use of vacuum tubes up
to artificial intelligence
3. Determine the impacts of the information age to society
4. Analyze the ways in which the people can develop and sustain a civilized online
environment or personal relationship.

People are now living in a society where the internet, computers and
smartphones have become essential parts of their everyday lives for immediate
accessing and sharing of information. People are now in the Information Age, also
known as Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age. According to Merriam-
Webster Online Dictionary, Information Age is the modern age regarded as a time in
which information has become a commodity that is quickly and widely disseminated
and easily available especially through the use of computer technology.
Information Age is the period where people can best be characterized as highly
technologically advanced, and internet and data communication minded. The people’s
way of living changed greatly from Renaissance period when they began to write
realistic books and not just religious stories to Industrial Revolution period, when major
changes happened in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and
technology. This is the period when digital technologies have changed every aspect of
people’s lives; from the way they work and learn to the way they play and socialize.

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People now can access information with the touch of a button. They can do almost
everything online; communicating, shopping, paying, working, educating or learning,
watching entertainment, booking, or even ordering food. These technological
advancements have profoundly impacted the society and its environment; the social,
economic, and cultural conditions, science, research, and industries including but not
limited to healthcare, education, finance, entertainment, transportation, and media and
communications.

History

Information Age is tightly attached to the advent of personal computers but many
computer historians tracked its beginnings to the research, A Mathematical Theory of
Communication conducted by Claude E. Shannon, a researcher and mathematician,
and also know as the "Father of Information Theory." This study proposed that
information can be digitized or quantitatively encoded as a series of ones and zeroes. It
showed how all information media, from telephone signals to radio waves to television,
could be transmitted without error using this single framework.

The digitization of information gave way for rapid development of modernized

equipment, fiber optic cables and faster microprocessors, accelerated communication
and information processing, World Wide Web, email and mobile technology. As
information is increasingly described in digital form, businesses across many industries
have sharpened their focus on how to capitalize on the Information Age.

Information Technology

Information technology (IT) has always been around from the beginning of time.
People needed to communicate and socialize with each other to grow. The system of
information - the storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information has
been in place since the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing in 3000 BC.
Information technology, in the modern sense is defined as the use of any computers,
storage, networking and other physical devices, infrastructure and processes to create,
process, store, secure and exchange all forms of electronic data. Typically, IT is used in
the context of enterprise operations as opposed to personal or entertainment
technologies.
The term information technology was coined by the Harvard Business Review in
order to make a distinction between purpose-built machines designed to perform a
limited scope of functions and general-purpose computing machines that could be
programmed for various tasks. As the IT industry evolved from the mid-
20thcentury, computing capability advanced while device cost and energy consumption
fell lower, a cycle that continues today when new technologies emerge.

Evolution of Information Technology:

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 1) Premechanical Age (between 3000BC and 1450AD)
The premechanical age is the earliest age characterized by using of
language or simple picture drawings known as petroglyths usually carved in rock.
Early alphabets were developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.

Courtesy of https://www.williamhortonphotography.com

Petroglyph

The popularity of alphabets led the way for development of pens and
paper. It started off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper was created out of
papyrus plant. As information grew, people realized the importance of organizing
and storing them in permanent storage. First books were written and kept in
libraries. Egyptian scrolls and book-like binding of paper were popular ways of
writing down information to save.
This period was also marked by the development of the first numbering systems.
The first 1 – 9 system was created in 100AD; and the number 0 was invented
and added in 875AD. This was followed by the invention of calculator, then
known as abacus. This was the very first sign of information processor.
.
2) Mechanical (between 1450 and 1840)
Development of new technologies emerged and invented like the slide
rule, an analog computer used for multiplying and dividing. Blaise Pascal
invented the Pascaline, a very popular mechanical computer. Charles Babbage
developed the difference engine which tabulated polynomial equations using the
method of finite differences.

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 Courtesy of https://www.britannica.com

Difference Engine

3) Electromechanical (1840 -1940)

The period marked the beginning of telecommunication. Inventions and
innovations continued. The telegraph was created in the early 1800s. Morse
code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. The telephone was created by
Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The first radio was developed by Guglielmo
Marconi in 1894. These emerging technologies led to bigger advances in the
information technology field.

Courtesy of sites.harvard.edu

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 Harvard Mark 1

The first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States was
the Mark 1 created by Harvard University around 1940. This computer was 8ft
high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and weighed 5 tons. It was programmed using punch
cards.

4) Electronic (1940 – present)

The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first
high-speed, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range
of computing problems. This computer was designed to be used by the U.S. Army
for artillery firing tables. This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1 taking up
680 square feet and weighing 30 tons. It mainly used vacuum tubes to do its
calculations.

Courtesy of pinterest.com

ENIAC

There are five main generations of digital computing.

1. The first generation (1942 -1955)used vacuum tubes. This period marked the
beginning of commercial computer age via UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer), the first commercially available computer. It was developed by two
scientists Mauchly and Echert at the Census Department of United States in 1947. 
Examples of first generation computers are ENIVAC and UNIVAC-1.
2. The second generation (1955 -1964) used transistors. The scientists at Bell
laboratories developed transistor in 1947. These scientists include John Barden,
William Brattain and William Shockley. The size of the computers was decreased
by replacing vacuum tubes with transistors. The examples of second generation
computers are IBM 7094 series, IBM 1400 series and CDC 164 etc.
3. The third generation (1964 – 1975) used the integrated circuits (IC). Jack Kilby
developed the concept of integrated circuit in 1958. It was an important invention in

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 the computer field. The first IC was invented and used in 1961. The size of an IC is
about ¼ square inch. A single IC chip may contain thousands of transistors. The
computer became smaller in size, faster, more reliable and less expensive. The
examples of third generation computers are IBM 370, IBM System/360, UNIVAC
1108 and UNIVAC AC 9000.
4. The fourth generation (1975 – present) computers started with the invention of
Microprocessor. The Microprocessor contains thousands of ICs. Ted
Hoff produced the first microprocessor in 1971 for Intel. It was known as Intel
4004. The technology of integrated circuits improved rapidly. The LSI (Large Scale
Integration) circuit and VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) circuit was designed. It
greatly reduced the size of computer. The size of modern Microprocessors is
usually one square inch. It can contain millions of electronic circuits. The examples
of fourth generation computers are Apple Macintosh &IBM PC.

Courtesy of oldcomputers.net

Apple 2

5. The fifth generation (Present and beyond) computers are based on the
technique of Artificial Intelligence (AI). They can understand spoken words and
imitate human reasoning. They can respond to its surroundings using different
types of sensors. Scientists are constantly working to increase the processing
power of computers. They are trying to create a computer with real IQ with the
help of advanced programming and technologies. IBM Watson supercomputer
is an example of fifth generation computer. It combines artificial intelligence
(AI) and sophisticated analytical software for optimal performance as a "question
answering" machine. The supercomputer is named after IBM's founder, Thomas
J. Watson. The Watson supercomputer processes at a rate of 80 teraflops (trillion
floating point operations per second). To replicate (or surpass) a high-functioning
human's ability to answer questions, Watson accesses 90 servers with a
combined data store of over 200 million pages of information, which it processes
against six million logic rules. The system and its data are self-contained in a
space that could accommodate 10 refrigerators.

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Inventions do not generally happen by accident or in a random order. Chris Woodford, a
British Science writer and consultant explained that science and technology progress in
a very logical way, with each new discovery leading on from the last.

Computer

If there is one important development in the Information Age, it is the invention of

computer. A computer is a machine or device that performs processes, calculations and
operations based on instructions provided by a software or hardware program. It is
designed to execute applications and provides a variety of solutions by combining
integrated hardware and software components.

Types of Computer

Since the advent of the first computer different types and sizes of computers are
offering different services. Computers can be as big as occupying a large building and
as small as a laptop or a microcontroller in mobile and embedded systems.The byte-
notes.com enumerates the four basic types of computers:

1) Supercomputer -
The most powerful computers in terms of performance and data processing are the
Supercomputers. These are specialized and task specific computers used by large
organizations. These computers are used for research and exploration purposes,
like NASA uses supercomputers for launching space shuttles, controlling them and
for space exploration purpose. The supercomputers are very expensive and very
large in size. It can be accommodated in large air-conditioned rooms; some super
computers can span an entire building.

Uses of Supercomputers:

 Space Exploration
o Supercomputers are used to study the origin of the universe, the dark-
matters. For these studies scientist use IBM’s powerful supercomputer
“Roadrunner” at National Laboratory Los Alamos.

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  Earthquake Studies
o Supercomputers are used to study the Earthquakes phenomenon.
Besides that supercomputers are used for natural resources
exploration, like natural gas, petroleum, coal, etc.
 Weather Forecasting
o Supercomputers are used for weather forecasting, and to study the
nature and extent of Hurricanes, Rainfalls, windstorms, etc.
 Nuclear Weapons Testing
o Supercomputers are used to run weapon simulation that can test the
Range, accuracy & impact of Nuclear weapons.   

2) Mainframe Computer-
Mainframes are not as powerful as supercomputers, but many large firms &
government organizations use this type of computer to run their business operations.
Because of size, the mainfram computers can be accommodated in large air-
conditioned rooms. They can process and store large amount of data. Banks, big
educational institutions and insurance companies use mainframe computers to store
data about their customers, students & insurance policy holders.
3) Minicomputer –
Minicomputers are used by small businesses & firms. They are also called
“Midrange Computers”. These are small machines and can be accommodated on a
disk with not as processing and data storage capabilities as super-computers &
Mainframes. These computers are not designed for a single user. Individual
departments of a large company or organizations use Mini-computers for specific
purposes. For example, a production department can use Mini-computers for
monitoring certain production process.
4) Microcomputer –
Desktop computers, personal computers (PCs), laptops, personal digital assistant
(PDA), tablets, and smartphones are all types of microcomputers. They are widely
used and the fastest growing computers. These computers are the cheapest among
the other three types of computers. They are specially designed for general usage
like entertainment, education and work purposes. Well known manufacturers of
Micro-computer are Dell, Apple, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba.

Influences of the Past on Information Age:

The past has greatly influenced the Information Age. The Renaissance Age
created the idea inventions, while too advanced for the time, the basic idea was used to
develop modern inventions. The Renaissance also changed literature. At first, only
books that told stories of religion and religious heroes were written. During the
Renaissance, people began to write realistic books and not just religious stories.
People’s mindset about themselves changed. It was no longer about what humans
could do for God, but what humans could do for themselves. This way of thinking is
called humanism.

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 The Scientific Revolution changed the modern era by introducing important
scientists such as Galileo, Copernicus, and Sir Isaac Newton. Their discoveries paved
the way for modern tools, inventions, and innovations.
The Industrial Revolution brought about major changes in agriculture,
manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology. This era has profound effect on
the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the world.

Information Age Timeline

The following is a part of Woodford table of chronology of inventions, advancements,

and innovations from 1970s, which most computer historians claimed Information Age
began:
Date Invention or discovery
1971 Electronic ink is pioneered by Nick Sheridon at Xerox PARC.
1971 Ted Hoff builds the first single-chip computer or microprocessor.
1973 Martin Cooper develops the first handheld cellphone (mobile phone).
1973 Robert Metcalfe figures out a simple way of linking computers together that
he names Ethernet. Most computers hooked up to the Internet now use it.
1974 First grocery-store purchase of an item coded with a barcode.
1975 Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman invent public-key cryptography.
1975 Pico Electronics develops X-10 home automation system.
1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs launch the Apple I: one of the world's first
personal home computers
1970s– James Dyson invents the bagless, cyclonic vacuum cleaner.
1980s
1970s– Scientists including Charles Bennett, Paul Benioff, Richard Feynman, and
1980s David Deutsch sketch out how quantum computers might work.
1980s Japanese electrical pioneer Akio Morita develops the Sony Walkman, the first
truly portable player for recorded music.
1981 Stung by Apple's success, IBM releases its own affordable personal
computer (PC).
1981 The Space Shuttle makes its maiden voyage.
1981 Patricia Bath develops laser eye surgery for removing cataracts.
1981 Fujio Masuoka files a patent for flash memory—a type of reusable computer
memory that can store information even when the power is off.
1981– Alexei Ekimov and Louis E. Brus (independently) discover quantum dots.
1982
1983 Compact discs (CDs) are launched as a new way to store music by the Sony
and Philips corporations.
1987 Larry Hornbeck, working at Texas Instruments, develops DLP® projection—
now used in many projection TV systems.
1989 Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web.
1990 German watchmaking company Junghans introduces the MEGA 1, believed

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 to be the world's first radio-controlled wristwatch.
1991 Linus Torvalds creates the first version of Linux, a collaboratively written
computer operating system.
1994 American-born mathematician John Daugman perfects the mathematics that
make iris scanning systems possible.
1994 Israeli computer scientists Alon Cohen and LiorHaramaty invent VoIP for
sending telephone calls over the Internet.
1995 Broadcast.com becomes one of the world's first online radio stations.
1995 Pierre Omidyar launches the eBay auction website.
1996 WRAL-HD broadcasts the first high-definition television (HDTV) signal in the
United States.
1997 Electronics companies agree to make Wi-Fi a worldwide standard for wireless
Internet.
21st
century
2001 Apple revolutionizes music listening by unveiling its iPod MP3 music player.
2001 Richard Palmer develops energy-absorbing D3O plastic.
2001 The Wikipedia online encyclopedia is founded by Larry Sanger and Jimmy
Wales.
2001 Bram Cohen develops BitTorrent file-sharing.
2001 Scott White, Nancy Sottos, and colleagues develop self-healing materials.
2002 iRobot Corporation releases the first version of its Roomba® vacuum
cleaning robot.
2004 Electronic voting plays a major part in a controversial US Presidential
Election.
2004 Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov discover graphene.
2005 A pioneering low-cost laptop for developing countries called OLPC is
announced by MIT computing pioneer Nicholas Negroponte.
2007 Amazon.com launches its Kindle electronic book (e-book) reader.
2007 Apple introduces a touchscreen cellphone called the iPhone.
2010 Apple releases its touchscreen tablet computer, the iPad.
2010 3D TV starts to become more widely available.
2013 Elon Musk announces "hyperloop"—a giant, pneumatic tube transport
system.
2015 Supercomputers (the world's fastest computers) are now a mere 30 times
less powerful than human brains.
2016 Three nanotechnologists win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for building
miniature machines out of molecules.
2017 Quantum computing shows signs of becoming a practical technology.

Internet Technology

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 In 1960, the first practical prototype of the Internet came about through the
creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Originally
funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow
multiple computers to communicate on a single network. The technology continued to
grow in the 1970s after scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf developed Transmission
Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, or TCP/IP, a communications model that set
standards for how data could be transmitted between multiple networks. In 1971, Ray
Tomlinson invented and developed what is called electronic mail or email today, by
creating ARPANET’s networked email system. The concept of nearly instantaneous
communication between machines within an organization proved to be so beneficial and
practical that the concept soon began to spread. In 1983, ARPANET adopted TCP/IP,
through which researchers assembled the “network of networks” that became the
modern Internet. Over the next few years, America Online (AOL), Echomail, Hotmail
and Yahoo shaped the Internet and email landscape. The online world then took on a
more recognizable form in 1990, when computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the
World Wide Web. While it’s often confused with the Internet itself, the web is actually
just the most common means of accessing data online in the form of websites and
hyperlinks. The web helped popularize the Internet among the public, and served as a
crucial step in developing the vast trove of information that most of us now access on a
daily basis.

Social Media

Since the birth of Internet and WWW, social media platforms continuously evolve
(i.e., AOL, Yahoo messenger, bulletin board forum systems, game-based social
networking sites, FaceBook, Myspace, Viber, Skype, etc.) Social media is understood
as the different forms of online communication used by people to create networks,
communities, and collectives to share information, ideas, messages, and other content,
such as videos. It has become an integral part of people’s lives. They use it to connect
with friends and family, to catch up on current events, and, perhaps most importantly, to
entertain themselves.

Email, Social Media, and Texting Guidelines

To develop and maintain a conducive online experience, Internet etiquette, also known
as Netiquette, must be observed. Thesupruce.com enumerates the following
Netiquettes:

1. Be mice.
The first rule of internet etiquette is to be kind and courteous. Remember
that whatever you send from your keyboard or your phone is still an extension of
you, even though you're not with others in person. Never flame or rant in public
forum. Avoid gossiping and cyber bullying.
2. Learn Internet acronyms.

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 As communication on the Internet explodes, so does the use of acronyms
(i.e. BTW, TTYL, LOL, ROTFL, POV, B4N, … etc.) Learn what they mean so you
won’t misunderstand messages and comments.
3. Keep messages and posts brief.
Most people use the Internet to save time, so honor that and keep all
messages as brief as possible
4. Don’t shout.
Avoid using all caps in any email or post. It comes across as shouting,
which is rude.
5. Use discretion.
Whether you are sending email, instant messaging, commenting on
Facebook, adding images to Snapchat, or posting a message to your blog, you
need to remember that anything you put on the Internet can be there forever. Even
if you remove the material, someone may have made a screen shot, copied, or
saved it. One rule of thumb many people use is to never post anything you
wouldn’t want your parents or boss to see.
6. Protect personal information.
Since anything you post on the Internet is out there for all to see, avoid
adding anything personal. This includes your address, phone number, social
security number, and driver’s license information. You don’t want to make things
easy for identity thieves, burglars, and predators.
7. Obey copyright laws.
Never copy someone else’s work and post it as your own. It is against
copyright law because it is considered stealing. It is always a good idea to ask
permission before quoting anyone, but that isn’t always possible. To quote
someone, keep the quote short, cite the source, and put a link to the complete
written work.
8. Protect children
If you allow children to access the Internet, make sure you know what sites
they visit and who their “friends” are.
9. Before you click “Send”,
It is always a good idea to reread anything you type before clicking the
“send” button. If you have time, step away for a few minutes and come back to it
with fresh eyes. For those times when you need to post quickly, at least check
your spelling, grammar, and tone of the message. If it is late at night, and you are
extremely tired, it’s probably best to wait until the next morning. You can save most
messages and posts in draft mode.
10. Help others
If someone appears to be new to the internet, offer your assistance. Share
information on proper etiquette, send them a link to a list of the most common
acronyms and emoticons, and offer to answer any questions until they get the
hang of it. After you see that someone has posted something inappropriate, let him
or her know privately. Never do anything to publicly embarrass anyone you know
online.

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 11. Internet trolls
Keep in mind that there are internet trolls out there, looking for their next
victim. If you become the subject of their bad behaviour, don't respond. Most of the
time, these people like to stir things up while hiding behind their keyboards. When
they don't get a reaction, they move on to someone else.
However, if it continues and you feel as though you are being threatened,
contact the authorities. You need to make sure you protect yourself and your
family.

First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing

intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In
that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of
machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur. The
machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human
oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.
If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make
any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines
might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the
mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish
enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that
the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the
machines would will fully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race
might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines
that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. As
society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines
become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their
decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results
than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions
necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be
incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective
control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so
dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be
retained. In that case the average man may have control over certain private machines
of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of
machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite—just as it is today, but with two

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differences. Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the
masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be
superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply
decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use
propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate
until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite. Or, if the
elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good
shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone's physical
needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic
conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone
who may become dissatisfied undergoes "treatment" to cure his "problem." Of course,
life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically
engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them
"sublimate" their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human
beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They
will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.
Our overuse of antibiotics has led to what may be the biggest such problem so
far: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant and much more dangerous bacteria. Similar
things happened when attempts to eliminate malarial mosquitoes using DDT caused
them to acquire DDT resistance; malarial parasites likewise acquired multi-drug-
resistant genes.
There is probably some breathing room, because we do not live in a completely
free marketplace. Government coerces nonmarket behavior, especially by collecting
taxes. Judiciously applied, governmental coercion could support human populations in
high style on the fruits of robot labor, perhaps for a long while.
A textbook dystopia—and Moravec is just getting wound up. He goes on to
discuss how our main job in the 21st century will be "ensuring continued cooperation
from the robot industries" by passing laws decreeing that they be "nice," and to
describe how seriously dangerous a human can be "once transformed into an
unbounded superintelligent robot."3 Moravec's view is that the robots will eventually
succeed us—that humans clearly face extinction.
Borg-like disasters are a staple of science fiction, so why hadn't I been more
concerned about such robotic dystopias earlier? Why weren't other people more
concerned about these nightmarish scenarios?
Part of the answer certainly lies in our attitude toward the new—in our bias
toward instant familiarity and unquestioning acceptance. Accustomed to living with
almost routine scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to come to terms with the fact
that the most compelling 21st-century technologies—robotics, genetic engineering,
and nanotechnology—pose a different threat than the technologies that have come
before. Specifically, robots, engineered organisms, and nanobots share a dangerous

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amplifying factor: They can self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once—but one
bot can become many, and quickly get out of control.
Much of my work over the past 25 years has been on computer networking,
where the sending and receiving of messages creates the opportunity for out-of-
control replication. But while replication in a computer or a computer network can be
a nuisance, at worst it disables a machine or takes down a network or network service.
Uncontrolled self-replication in these newer technologies runs a much greater risk: a
risk of substantial damage in the physical world.
Each of these technologies also offers untold promise: The vision of near
immortality that Kurzweil sees in his robot dreams drives us forward; genetic
engineering may soon provide treatments, if not outright cures, for most diseases; and
nanotechnology and nanomedicine can address yet more ills. Together they could
significantly extend our average life span and improve the quality of our lives. Yet,
with each of these technologies, a sequence of small, individually sensible advances
leads to an accumulation of great power and, concomitantly, great danger.
What was different in the 20th century? Certainly, the technologies underlying
the weapons of mass destruction (WMD)—nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC)
—were powerful, and the weapons an enormous threat. But building nuclear weapons
required, at least for a time, access to both rare—indeed, effectively unavailable—raw
materials and highly protected information; biological and chemical weapons
programs also tended to require large-scale activities.
The 21st-century technologies—genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR)
—are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses.
Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely within the
reach of individuals or small groups. They will not require large facilities or rare raw
materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of them.
Thus we have the possibility not just of weapons of mass destruction but of
knowledge-enabled mass destruction (KMD), this destructiveness hugely amplified by
the power of self-replication.
I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection
of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of
mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible
empowerment of extreme individuals.
Perhaps it is always hard to see the bigger impact while you are in the vortex of
a change. Failing to understand the consequences of our inventions while we are in
the rapture of discovery and innovation seems to be a common fault of scientists and

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technologists; we have long been driven by the overarching desire to know that is the
nature of science's quest, not stopping to notice that the progress to newer and more
powerful technologies can take on a life of its own.
I have long realized that the big advances in information technology come not
from the work of computer scientists, computer architects, or electrical engineers, but
from that of physical scientists. The physicists Stephen Wolfram and Brosl Hasslacher
introduced me, in the early 1980s, to chaos theory and nonlinear systems. In the
1990s, I learned about complex systems from conversations with Danny Hillis, the
biologist Stuart Kauffman, the Nobel-laureate physicist Murray Gell-Mann, and
others. Most recently, Hasslacher and the electrical engineer and device physicist
Mark Reed have been giving me insight into the incredible possibilities of molecular
electronics.
In my own work, as codesigner of three microprocessor architectures—
SPARC, picoJava, and MAJC—and as the designer of several implementations
thereof, I've been afforded a deep and firsthand acquaintance with Moore's law. For
decades, Moore's law has correctly predicted the exponential rate of improvement of
semiconductor technology. Until last year I believed that the rate of advances
predicted by Moore's law might continue only until roughly 2010, when some
physical limits would begin to be reached. It was not obvious to me that a new
technology would arrive in time to keep performance advancing smoothly.
But because of the recent rapid and radical progress in molecular electronics—
where individual atoms and molecules replace lithographically drawn transistors—and
related nanoscale technologies, we should be able to meet or exceed the Moore's law
rate of progress for another 30 years. By 2030, we are likely to be able to build
machines, in quantity, a million times as powerful as the personal computers of today
—sufficient to implement the dreams of Kurzweil and Moravec.
As this enormous computing power is combined with the manipulative
advances of the physical sciences and the new, deep understandings in genetics,
enormous transformative power is being unleashed. These combinations open up the
opportunity to completely redesign the world, for better or worse: The replicating and
evolving processes that have been confined to the natural world are about to become
realms of human endeavor.
In designing software and microprocessors, I have never had the feeling that I
was designing an intelligent machine. The software and hardware is so fragile and the
capabilities of the machine to "think" so clearly absent that, even as a possibility, this
has always seemed very far in the future.

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 But now, with the prospect of human-level computing power in about 30 years,
a new idea suggests itself: that I may be working to create tools which will enable the
construction of the technology that may replace our species. How do I feel about this?
Very uncomfortable. Having struggled my entire career to build reliable software
systems, it seems to me more than likely that this future will not work out as well as
some people may imagine. My personal experience suggests we tend to overestimate
our design abilities.
Given the incredible power of these new technologies, shouldn't we be asking
how we can best coexist with them? And if our own extinction is a likely, or even
possible, outcome of our technological development, shouldn't we proceed with great
caution?
The dream of robotics is, first, that intelligent machines can do our work for us,
allowing us lives of leisure, restoring us to Eden. Yet in his history of such
ideas, Darwin Among the Machines, George Dyson warns: "In the game of life and
evolution there are three players at the table: human beings, nature, and machines. I
am firmly on the side of nature. But nature, I suspect, is on the side of the machines."
As we have seen, Moravec agrees, believing we may well not survive the encounter
with the superior robot species.
How soon could such an intelligent robot be built? The coming advances in
computing power seem to make it possible by 2030. And once an intelligent robot
exists, it is only a small step to a robot species—to an intelligent robot that can make
evolved copies of itself.
A second dream of robotics is that we will gradually replace ourselves with our
robotic technology, achieving near immortality by downloading our consciousnesses;
it is this process that Danny Hillis thinks we will gradually get used to and that Ray
Kurzweil elegantly details in The Age of Spiritual Machines. 
But if we are downloaded into our technology, what are the chances that we
will thereafter be ourselves or even human? It seems to me far more likely that a
robotic existence would not be like a human one in any sense that we understand, that
the robots would in no sense be our children, that on this path our humanity may well
be lost.
Genetic engineering promises to revolutionize agriculture by increasing crop
yields while reducing the use of pesticides; to create tens of thousands of novel
species of bacteria, plants, viruses, and animals; to replace reproduction, or
supplement it, with cloning; to create cures for many diseases, increasing our life span
and our quality of life; and much, much more. We now know with certainty that these
profound changes in the biological sciences are imminent and will challenge all our
notions of what life is.

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 Technologies such as human cloning have in particular raised our awareness of
the profound ethical and moral issues we face. If, for example, we were to reengineer
ourselves into several separate and unequal species using the power of genetic
engineering, then we would threaten the notion of equality that is the very cornerstone
of our democracy.
Given the incredible power of genetic engineering, it's no surprise that there are
significant safety issues in its use. My friend Amory Lovins recently cowrote, along
with Hunter Lovins, an editorial that provides an ecological view of some of these
dangers. Among their concerns: that "the new botany aligns the development of plants
with their economic, not evolutionary, success." Amory's long career has been
focused on energy and resource efficiency by taking a whole-system view of human-
made systems; such a whole-system view often finds simple, smart solutions to
otherwise seemingly difficult problems, and is usefully applied here as well.
Are Amory and Hunter Lovins Luddites? Certainly not. I believe we all would
agree that golden rice, with its built-in vitamin A, is probably a good thing, if
developed with proper care and respect for the likely dangers in moving genes across
species boundaries.
Awareness of the dangers inherent in genetic engineering is beginning to grow,
as reflected in the Lovins' editorial. The general public is aware of, and uneasy about,
genetically modified foods, and seems to be rejecting the notion that such foods
should be permitted to be unlabeled.
But genetic engineering technology is already very far along. As the Lovins
note, the USDA has already approved about 50 genetically engineered crops for
unlimited release; more than half of the world's soybeans and a third of its corn now
contain genes spliced in from other forms of life.
While there are many important issues here, my own major concern with
genetic engineering is narrower: that it gives the power—whether militarily,
accidentally, or in a deliberate terrorist act—to create a White Plague.
The many wonders of nanotechnology were first imagined by the Nobel-
laureate physicist Richard Feynman in a speech he gave in 1959, subsequently
published under the title "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom." The book that made
a big impression on me, in the mid-'80s, was Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation, in
which he described beautifully how manipulation of matter at the atomic level could
create a utopian future of abundance, where just about everything could be made
cheaply, and almost any imaginable disease or physical problem could be solved
using nanotechnology and artificial intelligences.
A subsequent book, Unbounding the Future: The Nanotechnology
Revolution, which Drexler cowrote, imagines some of the changes that might take

84
place in a world where we had molecular-level "assemblers." Assemblers could make
possible incredibly low-cost solar power, cures for cancer and the common cold by
augmentation of the human immune system, essentially complete cleanup of the
environment, incredibly inexpensive pocket supercomputers—in fact, any product
would be manufacturable by assemblers at a cost no greater than that of wood—
spaceflight more accessible than transoceanic travel today, and restoration of extinct
species.
I remember feeling good about nanotechnology after reading Engines of
Creation. As a technologist, it gave me a sense of calm—that is, nanotechnology
showed us that incredible progress was possible, and indeed perhaps inevitable. If
nanotechnology was our future, then I didn't feel pressed to solve so many problems
in the present. I would get to Drexler's utopian future in due time; I might as well
enjoy life more in the here and now. It didn't make sense, given his vision, to stay up
all night, all the time.
With these wonders came clear dangers, of which I was acutely aware. As I
said at a nanotechnology conference in 1989, "We can't simply do our science and not
worry about these ethical issues."5 But my subsequent conversations with physicists
convinced me that nanotechnology might not even work—or, at least, it wouldn't
work anytime soon. Shortly thereafter I moved to Colorado, to a skunk works I had
set up, and the focus of my work shifted to software for the Internet, specifically on
ideas that became Java and Jini.
Then, last summer, Brosl Hasslacher told me that nanoscale molecular
electronics was now practical. This was new news, at least to me, and I think to many
people—and it radically changed my opinion about nanotechnology. It sent me back
to Engines of Creation. Rereading Drexler's work after more than 10 years, I was
dismayed to realize how little I had remembered of its lengthy section called "Dangers
and Hopes," including a discussion of how nanotechnologies can become "engines of
destruction." Indeed, in my rereading of this cautionary material today, I am struck by
how naive some of Drexler's safeguard proposals seem, and how much greater I judge
the dangers to be now than even he seemed to then. (Having anticipated and described
many technical and political problems with nanotechnology, Drexler started the
Foresight Institute in the late 1980s "to help prepare society for anticipated advanced
technologies"—most important, nanotechnology.)
The enabling breakthrough to assemblers seems quite likely within the next 20
years. Molecular electronics—the new subfield of nanotechnology where individual
molecules are circuit elements—should mature quickly and become enormously
lucrative within this decade, causing a large incremental investment in all
nanotechnologies.
Unfortunately, as with nuclear technology, it is far easier to create destructive
uses for nanotechnology than constructive ones. Nanotechnology has clear military

85
and terrorist uses, and you need not be suicidal to release a massively destructive
nanotechnological device—such devices can be built to be selectively destructive,
affecting, for example, only a certain geographical area or a group of people who are
genetically distinct.
An immediate consequence of the Faustian bargain in obtaining the great
power of nanotechnology is that we run a grave risk—the risk
It is most of all the power of destructive self-replication in genetics,
nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) that should give us pause. Self-replication is the
modus operandi of genetic engineering, which uses the machinery of the cell to
replicate its designs, and the prime danger underlying gray goo in nanotechnology.
In truth, we have had in hand for years clear warnings of the dangers inherent
in widespread knowledge of GNR technologies—of the possibility of knowledge
alone enabling mass destruction. But these warnings haven't been widely publicized;
the public discussions have been clearly inadequate. There is no profit in publicizing
the dangers.
The nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) technologies used in 20th-century
weapons of mass destruction were and are largely military, developed in government
laboratories. In sharp contrast, the 21st-century GNR technologies have clear
commercial uses and are being developed almost exclusively by corporate enterprises.
In this age of triumphant commercialism, technology—with science as its handmaiden
—is delivering a series of almost magical inventions that are the most phenomenally
lucrative ever seen. We are aggressively pursuing the promises of these new
technologies within the now-unchallenged system of global capitalism and its
manifold financial incentives and competitive pressures.
It might be a familiar progression, transpiring on many worlds—a planet,
newly formed, placidly revolves around its star; life slowly forms; a kaleidoscopic
procession of creatures evolves; intelligence emerges which, at least up to a point,
confers enormous survival value; and then technology is invented. It dawns on them
that there are such things as laws of Nature, that these laws can be revealed by
experiment, and that knowledge of these laws can be made both to save and to take
lives, both on unprecedented scales. Science, they recognize, grants immense powers.
In a flash, they create world-altering contrivances. Some planetary civilizations see
their way through, place limits on what may and what must not be done, and safely
pass through the time of perils. Others, not so lucky or so prudent, perish.
I realize now that she had an awareness of the nature of the order of life, and of
the necessity of living with and respecting that order. With this respect comes a
necessary humility that we, with our early-21st-century chutzpah, lack at our peril.
The commonsense view, grounded in this respect, is often right, in advance of the

86
scientific evidence. The clear fragility and inefficiencies of the human-made systems
we have built should give us all pause; the fragility of the systems I have worked on
certainly humbles me.
We should have learned a lesson from the making of the first atomic bomb and
the resulting arms race. We didn't do well then, and the parallels to our current
situation are troubling.
The effort to build the first atomic bomb was led by the brilliant physicist J.
Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was not naturally interested in politics but
became painfully aware of what he perceived as the grave threat to Western
civilization from the Third Reich, a threat surely grave because of the possibility that
Hitler might obtain nuclear weapons. Energized by this concern, he brought his strong
intellect, passion for physics, and charismatic leadership skills to Los Alamos and led
a rapid and successful effort by an incredible collection of great minds to quickly
invent the bomb.
What is striking is how this effort continued so naturally after the initial
impetus was removed. In a meeting shortly after V-E Day with some physicists who
felt that perhaps the effort should stop, Oppenheimer argued to continue. His stated
reason seems a bit strange: not because of the fear of large casualties from an invasion
of Japan, but because the United Nations, which was soon to be formed, should have
foreknowledge of atomic weapons. A more likely reason the project continued is the
momentum that had built up—the first atomic test, Trinity, was nearly at hand.
We know that in preparing this first atomic test the physicists proceeded despite
a large number of possible dangers. They were initially worried, based on a
calculation by Edward Teller, that an atomic explosion might set fire to the
atmosphere. A revised calculation reduced the danger of destroying the world to a
three-in-a-million chance. Oppenheimer, though, was sufficiently concerned about the
result of Trinity that he arranged for a possible evacuation of the southwest part of the
state of New Mexico. And, of course, there was the clear danger of starting a nuclear
arms race.
Within a month of that first, successful test, two atomic bombs destroyed
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some scientists had suggested that the bomb simply be
demonstrated, rather than dropped on Japanese cities—saying that this would greatly
improve the chances for arms control after the war—but to no avail. With the tragedy
of Pearl Harbor still fresh in Americans' minds, it would have been very difficult for
President Truman to order a demonstration of the weapons rather than use them as he
did—the desire to quickly end the war and save the lives that would have been lost in
any invasion of Japan was very strong. Yet the overriding truth was probably very

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simple: As the physicist Freeman Dyson later said, "The reason that it was dropped
was just that nobody had the courage or the foresight to say no."
It's important to realize how shocked the physicists were in the aftermath of the
bombing of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945. They describe a series of waves of
emotion: first, a sense of fulfillment that the bomb worked, then horror at all the
people that had been killed, and then a convincing feeling that on no account should
another bomb be dropped. Yet of course another bomb was dropped, on Nagasaki,
only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
Two years later, in 1948, Oppenheimer seemed to have reached another stage
in his thinking, saying, "In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humor, no
overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a
knowledge they cannot lose."
In 1949, the Soviets exploded an atom bomb. By 1955, both the US and the
Soviet Union had tested hydrogen bombs suitable for delivery by aircraft. And so the
nuclear arms race began.
Nearly 20 years ago, in the documentary The Day After Trinity, Freeman Dyson
summarized the scientific attitudes that brought us to the nuclear precipice:
"I have felt it myself. The glitter of nuclear weapons. It is irresistible if you
come to them as a scientist. To feel it's there in your hands, to release this energy that
fuels the stars, to let it do your bidding. To perform these miracles, to lift a million
tons of rock into the sky. It is something that gives people an illusion of illimitable
power, and it is, in some ways, responsible for all our troubles—this, what you might
call technical arrogance, that overcomes people when they see what they can do with
their minds."8
Now, as then, we are creators of new technologies and stars of the imagined
future, driven—this time by great financial rewards and global competition—despite
the clear dangers, hardly evaluating what it may be like to try to live in a world that is
the realistic outcome of what we are creating and imagining.
In our time, how much danger do we face, not just from nuclear weapons, but
from all of these technologies? How high are the extinction risks?
The philosopher John Leslie has studied this question and concluded that the
risk of human extinction is at least 30 percent, while Ray Kurzweil believes we have
"a better than even chance of making it through," with the caveat that he has "always
been accused of being an optimist." 9 Not only are these estimates not encouraging, but
they do not include the probability of many horrid outcomes that lie short of
extinction.

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 Faced with such assessments, some serious people are already suggesting that
we simply move beyond Earth as quickly as possible. We would colonize the galaxy
using von Neumann probes, which hop from star system to star system, replicating as
they go. This step will almost certainly be necessary 5 billion years from now (or
sooner if our solar system is disastrously impacted by the impending collision of our
galaxy with the Andromeda galaxy within the next 3 billion years), but if we take
Kurzweil and Moravec at their word it might be necessary by the middle of this
century.
What are the moral implications here? If we must move beyond Earth this
quickly in order for the species to survive, who accepts the responsibility for the fate
of those (most of us, after all) who are left behind? And even if we scatter to the stars,
isn't it likely that we may take our problems with us or find, later, that they have
followed us? The fate of our species on Earth and our fate in the galaxy seem
inextricably linked.
Another idea is to erect a series of shields to defend against each of the
dangerous technologies. The Strategic Defense Initiative, proposed by the Reagan
administration, was an attempt to design such a shield against the threat of a nuclear
attack from the Soviet Union. But as Arthur C. Clarke, who was privy to discussions
about the project, observed: "Though it might be possible, at vast expense, to
construct local defense systems that would 'only' let through a few percent of ballistic
missiles, the much touted idea of a national umbrella was nonsense. Luis Alvarez,
perhaps the greatest experimental physicist of this century, remarked to me that the
advocates of such schemes were 'very bright guys with no common sense.'"
Clarke continued: "Looking into my often cloudy crystal ball, I suspect that a
total defense might indeed be possible in a century or so. But the technology involved
would produce, as a by-product, weapons so terrible that no one would bother with
anything as primitive as ballistic missiles." 10
In Engines of Creation, Eric Drexler proposed that we build an active
nanotechnological shield—a form of immune system for the biosphere—to defend
against dangerous replicators of all kinds that might escape from laboratories or
otherwise be maliciously created. But the shield he proposed would itself be
extremely dangerous—nothing could prevent it from developing autoimmune
problems and attacking the biosphere itself. 11
Similar difficulties apply to the construction of shields against robotics and
genetic engineering. These technologies are too powerful to be shielded against in the
time frame of interest; even if it were possible to implement defensive shields, the
side effects of their development would be at least as dangerous as the technologies
we are trying to protect against.

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 These possibilities are all thus either undesirable or unachievable or both. The
only realistic alternative I see is relinquishment: to limit development of the
technologies that are too dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of
knowledge.
Yes, I know, knowledge is good, as is the search for new truths. We have been
seeking knowledge since ancient times. Aristotle opened his Metaphysics with the
simple statement: "All men by nature desire to know." We have, as a bedrock value in
our society, long agreed on the value of open access to information, and recognize the
problems that arise with attempts to restrict access to and development of knowledge.
In recent times, we have come to revere scientific knowledge.
But despite the strong historical precedents, if open access to and unlimited
development of knowledge henceforth puts us all in clear danger of extinction, then
common sense demands that we reexamine even these basic, long-held beliefs.
It was Nietzsche who warned us, at the end of the 19th century, not only that
God is dead but that "faith in science, which after all exists undeniably, cannot owe its
origin to a calculus of utility; it must have originated in spite of the fact that the
disutility and dangerousness of the 'will to truth,' of 'truth at any price' is proved to it
constantly." It is this further danger that we now fully face—the consequences of our
truth-seeking. The truth that science seeks can certainly be considered a dangerous
substitute for God if it is likely to lead to our extinction.
If we could agree, as a species, what we wanted, where we were headed, and
why, then we would make our future much less dangerous—then we might
understand what we can and should relinquish. Otherwise, we can easily imagine an
arms race developing over GNR technologies, as it did with the NBC technologies in
the 20th century. This is perhaps the greatest risk, for once such a race begins, it's very
hard to end it. This time—unlike during the Manhattan Project—we aren't in a war,
facing an implacable enemy that is threatening our civilization; we are driven, instead,
by our habits, our desires, our economic system, and our competitive need to know.
I believe that we all wish our course could be determined by our collective
values, ethics, and morals. If we had gained more collective wisdom over the past few
thousand years, then a dialogue to this end would be more practical, and the incredible
powers we are about to unleash would not be nearly so troubling.
One would think we might be driven to such a dialogue by our instinct for self-
preservation. Individuals clearly have this desire, yet as a species our behavior seems
to be not in our favor. In dealing with the nuclear threat, we often spoke dishonestly to
ourselves and to each other, thereby greatly increasing the risks. Whether this was
politically motivated, or because we chose not to think ahead, or because when faced

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with such grave threats we acted irrationally out of fear, I do not know, but it does not
bode well.
The new Pandora's boxes of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics are almost
open, yet we seem hardly to have noticed. Ideas can't be put back in a box; unlike
uranium or plutonium, they don't need to be mined and refined, and they can be freely
copied. Once they are out, they are out. Churchill remarked, in a famous left-handed
compliment, that the American people and their leaders "invariably do the right thing,
after they have examined every other alternative." In this case, however, we must act
more presciently, as to do the right thing only at last may be to lose the chance to do it
at all.
As Thoreau said, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us"; and this is
what we must fight, in our time. The question is, indeed, Which is to be master? Will
we survive our technologies?
We are being propelled into this new century with no plan, no control, no
brakes. Have we already gone too far down the path to alter course? I don't believe so,
but we aren't trying yet, and the last chance to assert control—the fail-safe point—is
rapidly approaching. We have our first pet robots, as well as commercially available
genetic engineering techniques, and our nanoscale techniques are advancing rapidly.
While the development of these technologies proceeds through a number of steps, it
isn't necessarily the case—as happened in the Manhattan Project and the Trinity test—
that the last step in proving a technology is large and hard. The breakthrough to wild
self-replication in robotics, genetic engineering, or nanotechnology could come
suddenly, reprising the surprise we felt when we learned of the cloning of a mammal.
And yet I believe we do have a strong and solid basis for hope. Our attempts to
deal with weapons of mass destruction in the last century provide a shining example
of relinquishment for us to consider: the unilateral US abandonment, without
preconditions, of the development of biological weapons. This relinquishment
stemmed from the realization that while it would take an enormous effort to create
these terrible weapons, they could from then on easily be duplicated and fall into the
hands of rogue nations or terrorist groups.
The clear conclusion was that we would create additional threats to ourselves
by pursuing these weapons, and that we would be more secure if we did not pursue
them. We have embodied our relinquishment of biological and chemical weapons in
the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the 1993 Chemical Weapons
Convention (CWC).12
As for the continuing sizable threat from nuclear weapons, which we have lived
with now for more than 50 years, the US Senate's recent rejection of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty makes it clear relinquishing nuclear weapons will not

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be politically easy. But we have a unique opportunity, with the end of the Cold War,
to avert a multipolar arms race. Building on the BWC and CWC relinquishments,
successful abolition of nuclear weapons could help us build toward a habit of
relinquishing dangerous technologies. (Actually, by getting rid of all but 100 nuclear
weapons worldwide—roughly the total destructive power of World War II and a
considerably easier task—we could eliminate this extinction threat. 13
Verifying relinquishment will be a difficult problem, but not an unsolvable one.
We are fortunate to have already done a lot of relevant work in the context of the
BWC and other treaties. Our major task will be to apply this to technologies that are
naturally much more commercial than military. The substantial need here is for
transparency, as difficulty of verification is directly proportional to the difficulty of
distinguishing relinquished from legitimate activities.
I frankly believe that the situation in 1945 was simpler than the one we now
face: The nuclear technologies were reasonably separable into commercial and
military uses, and monitoring was aided by the nature of atomic tests and the ease
with which radioactivity could be measured. Research on military applications could
be performed at national laboratories such as Los Alamos, with the results kept secret
as long as possible.
The GNR technologies do not divide clearly into commercial and military uses;
given their potential in the market, it's hard to imagine pursuing them only in national
laboratories. With their widespread commercial pursuit, enforcing relinquishment will
require a verification regime similar to that for biological weapons, but on an
unprecedented scale. This, inevitably, will raise tensions between our individual
privacy and desire for proprietary information, and the need for verification to protect
us all. We will undoubtedly encounter strong resistance to this loss of privacy and
freedom of action.
Verifying the relinquishment of certain GNR technologies will have to occur in
cyberspace as well as at physical facilities. The critical issue will be to make the
necessary transparency acceptable in a world of proprietary information, presumably
by providing new forms of protection for intellectual property.
Verifying compliance will also require that scientists and engineers adopt a
strong code of ethical conduct, resembling the Hippocratic oath, and that they have
the courage to whistleblow as necessary, even at high personal cost. This would
answer the call—50 years after Hiroshima—by the Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, one of
the most senior of the surviving members of the Manhattan Project, that all scientists
"cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving, and manufacturing
nuclear weapons and other weapons of potential mass destruction." 14 In the 21st
century, this requires vigilance and personal responsibility by those who would work

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on both NBC and GNR technologies to avoid implementing weapons of mass
destruction and knowledge-enabled mass destruction.
Thoreau also said that we will be "rich in proportion to the number of things
which we can afford to let alone." We each seek to be happy, but it would seem
worthwhile to question whether we need to take such a high risk of total destruction to
gain yet more knowledge and yet more things; common sense says that there is a limit
to our material needs—and that certain knowledge is too dangerous and is best
forgone.
Neither should we pursue near immortality without considering the costs,
without considering the commensurate increase in the risk of extinction. Immortality,
while perhaps the original, is certainly not the only possible utopian dream.
I recently had the good fortune to meet the distinguished author and scholar
Jacques Attali, whose book Lignes d'horizons ( Millennium, in the English translation)
helped inspire the Java and Jini approach to the coming age of pervasive computing,
as previously described in this magazine. In his new book Fraternités, Attali describes
how our dreams of utopia have changed over time:
"At the dawn of societies, men saw their passage on Earth as nothing more than
a labyrinth of pain, at the end of which stood a door leading, via their death, to the
company of gods and to Eternity. With the Hebrews and then the Greeks, some men
dared free themselves from theological demands and dream of an ideal City
where Liberty would flourish. Others, noting the evolution of the market society,
understood that the liberty of some would entail the alienation of others, and they
sought Equality."
Jacques helped me understand how these three different utopian goals exist in
tension in our society today. He goes on to describe a fourth utopia, Fraternity, whose
foundation is altruism. Fraternity alone associates individual happiness with the
happiness of others, affording the promise of self-sustainment.
This crystallized for me my problem with Kurzweil's dream. A technological
approach to Eternity—near immortality through robotics—may not be the most
desirable utopia, and its pursuit brings clear dangers. Maybe we should rethink our
utopian choices.
Where can we look for a new ethical basis to set our course? I have found the
ideas in the book Ethics for the New Millennium, by the Dalai Lama, to be very
helpful. As is perhaps well known but little heeded, the Dalai Lama argues that the
most important thing is for us to conduct our lives with love and compassion for
others, and that our societies need to develop a stronger notion of universal
responsibility and of our interdependency; he proposes a standard of positive ethical
conduct for individuals and societies that seems consonant with Attali's Fraternity
utopia.

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 The Dalai Lama further argues that we must understand what it is that makes
people happy, and acknowledge the strong evidence that neither material progress nor
the pursuit of the power of knowledge is the key—that there are limits to what science
and the scientific pursuit alone can do.
Our Western notion of happiness seems to come from the Greeks, who defined
it as "the exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them
scope."15
Clearly, we need to find meaningful challenges and sufficient scope in our lives
if we are to be happy in whatever is to come. But I believe we must find alternative
outlets for our creative forces, beyond the culture of perpetual economic growth; this
growth has largely been a blessing for several hundred years, but it has not brought us
unalloyed happiness, and we must now choose between the pursuit of unrestricted and
undirected growth through science and technology and the clear accompanying
dangers.
Knowing is not a rationale for not acting. Can we doubt that knowledge has
become a weapon we wield against ourselves?
The experiences of the atomic scientists clearly show the need to take personal
responsibility, the danger that things will move too fast, and the way in which a
process can take on a life of its own. We can, as they did, create insurmountable
problems in almost no time flat. We must do more thinking up front if we are not to
be similarly surprised and shocked by the consequences of our inventions.
My continuing professional work is on improving the reliability of software.
Software is a tool, and as a toolbuilder I must struggle with the uses to which the tools
I make are put. I have always believed that making software more reliable, given its
many uses, will make the world a safer and better place; if I were to come to believe
the opposite, then I would be morally obligated to stop this work. I can now imagine
such a day may come.
Each of us has our precious things, and as we care for them we locate the
essence of our humanity. In the end, it is because of our great capacity for caring that I
remain optimistic we will confront the dangerous issues now before us.
My immediate hope is to participate in a much larger discussion of the issues
raised here, with people from many different backgrounds, in

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 MODULE 9
NANOTECHNOLOGY

INTENDED LEARNING OUCOMES

At the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Define nanotechnology
2. Explain the significance of nanotechnology.
3. Identify the types of nanomaterials
4. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of nanotechnology
5. List down some applications of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of extremely small structures, having size of 0.1 to

100 nm. Classification of nano materials based on their dimensions is given. An
application of Nanotechnology are found in various fields such as health and medicine,
electronics, energy and environment.
Nanotechnology is defined as the study and use of structures between 1
nanometer and 100 nanometers in size. To give you an idea of how small that is, it
would take eight hundred 100 nanometer particles side by side to match the width of a
human hair.
A nanodevice, or nanomachine, is defined as a nanoscale automaton, or at least
one containing nanosized components. Direct nanotechnology refers to nanosized
objects used directly in an application-a responsive nanoparticle used to deliver drugs to
an internal target in the human body. Indirect nanotechnology refers to a device that
contains a nanodevice, possibly along with other micro or macro components and
systems. The definition of nanotechnology is “the design, characterization, production,
and application of materials, devices and systems by controlling shape and size at the
nanoscale.”The term “nanoscience” appears to be superfluous if it is used in the sense
of “the science underlying nanotechnollogy
Nanotechnology has three aspects: (1) A universal fabrication procedure; (2) A
particular way of conceiving, designing, and modeling materials, devices, and systems,
including their fabrication; (3) The creation of novelty.
Scientists have been studying and working with nanoparticles for centuries, but
the effectiveness of their work has been hampered by their inability to see the structure
of nanoparticles. In recent decades the development of microscopes capable of
displaying particles as small as atoms have allowed scientists to see what they are
working with.
The following illustration titled “The Scale of Things”, created by the U. S.
Department of Energy, provides a comparison of various objects to help you begin to
envision exactly how small a nanometer is. The chart starts with objects that can be
seen by the unaided eye, such as an ant, at the top of the chart, and progresses to
objects about a nanometer or less in size, such as the ATP molecule used in humans to
store energy from food.

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Significance of Nanotechnology
These unusual physical and chemical characteristics come about because there
is an increase in surface area compared to volume as particles get smaller and also
because they are subject to quantum effects. This means they can behave in different
ways and do not follow the same laws of physics that larger objects do.
Nanotechnology is designed to provide a novel and improved approach to cancer
diagnosis and treatment. Nanoscale devices can interact with large biological molecules
on both the surface and inside cells involved in cancer.
Nanotechnology can improve the performance of catalysts used to transform
vapors escaping from cars or industrial plants into harmless gasses. That's because
catalysts made from nanoparticles have a greater surface area to interact with the
reacting chemicals than catalysts made from larger particle
Nanotechnology offers the potential for new and faster kinds of computers, more
efficient power sources and life-saving medical treatments. Potential disadvantages
include economic disruption and possible threats to security, privacy, health and the
environment.
Advantages and Disadvantages of nanomaterials. These objects combine the
advantages of nanomaterials such as an extremely large surface area, improved
reactivity or high porosity with good mechanical properties, which allow their further

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processing and utilization in various fields e.g. vascular tissue engineering, wound
healing .
Understanding, shaping and combining matter at the atomic and molecular scale
is called nanotechnology. Nanotechnology encompasses science, medicine,
engineering, computing and robotics at this scale, called the nanoscale.
Nanotechnology offers the potential for new and faster kinds of computers, more
efficient power sources and life-saving medical treatments. Potential disadvantages
include economic disruption and possible threats to security, privacy, health and the
environment.

Manufacturing Advantages

Nanotechnology is already making new materials available that could

revolutionize many areas of manufacturing. For example, nanotubes and nano particles,
which are tubes and particles only a few atoms across, and aerogels, materials
composed of very light and strong materials with remarkable insulating properties, could
pave the way for new techniques and superior products. In addition, robots that are only
a few nanometers in length, called nanobots, and nanofactories could help construct
novel materials and objects.

Energy Advantages

Nanotechnology may transform the ways in which we obtain and use energy. In
particular, it's likely that nanotechnology will make solar power more economical by
reducing the cost of constructing solar panels and related equipment. Energy storage
devices will become more efficient as a result. Nanotechnology will also open up new
methods of generating and storing energy.

Advantages in Electronics and Computing

The field of electronics is set to be revolutionized by nanotechnology. Quantum

dots, for example, are tiny light-producing cells that could be used for illumination or for
purposes such as display screens. Silicon chips can already contain millions of
components, but the technology is reaching its limit; at a certain point, circuits become
so small that if a molecule is out of place the circuit won't work properly.
Nanotechnology will allow circuits to be constructed very accurately on an atomic level.

Medical Advantages

Nanotechnology has the potential to bring major advances in medicine. Nanobots

could be sent into a patient's arteries to clear away blockages. Surgeries could become
much faster and more accurate. Injuries could be repaired cell-by-cell. It may even
become possible to heal genetic conditions by fixing the damaged genes.
Nanotechnology could also be used to refine drug production, tailoring drugs at a
molecular level to make them more effective and reduce side effects.

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Environmental Effects

Some of the more extravagant negative future scenarios have been debunked by
experts in nanotechnology. For example: the so-called "gray goo" scenario, where self-
replicating nanobots consume everything around them to make copies of themselves,
was once widely discussed but is no longer considered to be a credible threat. It is
possible, however, that there will be some negative effects on the environment as
potential new toxins and pollutants may be created by nanotechnology.

Economic Upheaval

It is likely that nanotechnology, like other technologies before it, will cause major
changes in many economic areas. Although products made possible by nanotechnology
will initially be expensive luxury or specialist items, once availability increases, more and
more markets will feel the impact. Some technologies and materials may become
obsolete, leading to companies specializing in those areas going out of business.
Changes in manufacturing processes brought about by nanotechnology may result in
job losses.

Privacy and Security

Nanotechnology raises the possibility of microscopic recording devices, which

would be virtually undetectable. More seriously, it is possible that nanotechnology could
be weaponized. Atomic weapons would be easier to create and novel weapons might
also be developed. One possibility is the so-called "smart bullet," a computerized bullet
that could be controlled and aimed very accurately. These developments may prove a
boon for the military; but if they fell into the wrong hands.

Different Types of Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles can be classified into different types according to the size,

morphology, physical and chemical properties. Some of them are carbon-based
nanoparticles, ceramic nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles, semiconductor
nanoparticles, polymeric nanoparticles and lipid-based nanoparticles.

Carbon-Based Nanoparticles

Carbon-based nanoparticles include two main materials: carbon nanotubes

(CNTs) and fullerenes. CNTs are nothing but graphene sheets rolled into a tube. These
materials are mainly used for the structural reinforcement as they are 100 times
stronger than steel.
CNTs can be classified into single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and
multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). CNTs are unique in a way as they are
thermally conductive along the length and non-conductive across the tube.
Fullerenes are the allotropes of carbon having a structure of hollow cage of sixty or
more carbon atoms. The structure of C-60 is called Buckminsterfullerene, and looks like

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a hollow football. The carbon units in these structures have a pentagonal and hexagonal
arrangement. These have commercial applications due to their electrical conductivity,
structure, high strength, and electron affinity.

Ceramic Nanoparticles

Ceramic nanoparticles are inorganic solids made up of oxides, carbides,

carbonates and phosphates. These nanoparticles have high heat resistance and
chemical inertness. They have applications in photocatalysis, photodegradation of dyes,
drug delivery, and imaging.
By controlling some of the characteristics of ceramic nanoparticles like size,
surface area, porosity, surface to volume ratio, etc, they perform as a good drug
delivery agent. These nanoparticles have been used effectively as a drug delivery
system for a number of diseases like bacterial infections, glaucoma, cancer, etc.

Metal Nanoparticles

Metal nanoparticles are prepared from metal precursors. These nanoparticles

can be synthesized by chemical, electrochemical, or photochemical methods. In
chemical methods, the metal nanoparticles are obtained by reducing the metal-ion
precursors in solution by chemical reducing agents. These have the ability to adsorb
small molecules and have high surface energy.
These nanoparticles have applications in research areas, detection and imaging
of biomolecules and in environmental and bioanalytical applications. For example gold
nanoparticles are used to coat the sample before analyzing in SEM. This is usually
done to enhance the electronic stream, which helps us to get high quality SEM images.

Semiconductor Nanoparticles

Semiconductor nanoparticles have properties like those of metals and non-

metals. They are found in the periodic table in groups II-VI, III-V or IV-VI. These
particles have wide bandgaps, which on tuning show different properties. They are used
in photocatalysis, electronics devices, photo-optics and water splitting applications.
Some examples of semiconductor nanoparticles are GaN, GaP, InP, InAs from group
III-V, ZnO, ZnS, CdS, CdSe, CdTe are II-VI semiconductors and silicon and germanium
are from group IV.

Polymeric Nanoparticles

Polymeric nanoparticles are organic based nanoparticles. Depending upon the

method of preparation, these have structures shaped like nanocapsular or
nanospheres. A nanosphere particle has a matrix-like structure whereas the
nanocapsular particle has core-shell morphology. In the former, the active compounds
and the polymer are uniformly dispersed whereas in the latter the active compounds are
confined and surrounded by a polymer shell.

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 Some of the merits of polymeric nanoparticles are controlled release, protection
of drug molecules, ability to combine therapy and imaging, specific targeting and many
more. They have applications in drug delivery and diagnostics. The drug deliveries with
polymeric nanoparticles are highly biodegradable and biocompatible.

Lipid-Based Nanoparticles

Lipid nanoparticles are generally spherical in shape with a diameter ranging from
10 to 100nm. It consists of a solid core made of lipid and a matrix containing soluble
lipophilic molecules. The external core of these nanoparticles is stabilized by surfactants
and emulsifiers. These nanoparticles have application in the biomedical field as a drug
carrier and delivery and RNA release in cancer therapy.
Thus, the field of nanotechnology is far from being saturated and it is, as the
statistic says, sitting on the staircase of an exponential growth pattern. It is basically at
the same stage as the information technology was in the 1960s and biotechnology in
the year of 1980s. Thus it can easily be predicted that this field would witness a same
exponential growth as the other two technological field witnessed earlier.

Tools

Nanotechnology tools and instruments are the hardware, software and

suppliesused to measure and manipulate structures on the nanoscale. They include
microscopes, probes, lithography systems, manipulation and fabrication systems,
software and other accessories. Rarely are these instruments unique
tonanotechnologies

Chemical Sensors

Nanotechnology can enable sensors to detect very small amounts of chemical

vapors. Various types of detecting elements, such as carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide
nanowires or palladium nanoparticles can be used in nanotechnology-based sensors.

Nanotechnology Applications

Medicine
Researchers are developing customized nanoparticles the size of molecules that
can deliver drugs directly to diseased cells in your body. When it's perfected, this
method should greatly reduce the damage treatment such as chemotherapy does to a
patient's healthy cells.

Electronics

Nanotechnology holds some answers for how we might increase the capabilities
of electronics devices while we reduce their weight and power consumption.

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Food

Nanotechnology is having an impact on several aspects of food science, from

how food is grown to how it is packaged. Companies are developing nanomaterials that
will make a difference not only in the taste of food, but also in food safety, and the
health benefits that food delivers.

Fuel Cells

Nanotechnology is being used to reduce the cost of catalysts used in fuel cells to
produce hydrogen ions from fuel such as methanol and to improve the efficiency of
membranes used in fuel cells to separate hydrogen ions from other gases such as
oxygen.

Solar Cells

Companies have developed nanotech solar cells that can be manufactured at

significantly lower cost than conventional solar cells.

Batteries

Companies are currently developing batteries using nanomaterials. One such

battery will be a good as new after sitting on the shelf for decades. Another battery can
be recharged significantly faster than conventional batteries.

Space

Nanotechnology may hold the key to making space-flight more practical.

Advancements in nanomaterials make lightweight spacecraft and a cable for the space
elevator possible. By significantly reducing the amount of rocket fuel required, these
advances could lower the cost of reaching orbit and traveling in space.

Fuels
It can address the shortage of fossil fuels such as diesel and gasoline by making
the production of fuels from low grade raw materials economical, increasing the mileage
of engines, and making the production of fuels from normal raw materials more efficient.

Better Air Quality

It can improve the performance of catalysts used to transform vapors escaping

from cars or industrial plants into harmless gasses. That's because catalysts made from
nanoparticles have a greater surface area to interact with the reacting chemicals than
catalysts made from larger particles. The larger surface area allows more chemicals to
interact with the catalyst simultaneously, which makes the catalyst more effective.

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Better Water Quality
Nanotechnology is being used to develop solutions to three very different
problems in water quality. One challenge is the removal of industrial wastes, such as a
cleaning solvent called TCE, from groundwater. Nanoparticles can be used to convert
the contaminating chemical through a chemical reaction to make it harmless. Studies
have shown that this method can be used successfully to reach contaminates dispersed
in underground ponds and at much lower cost than methods which require pumping the
water out of the ground for treatment.

Chemical Sensors
Nanotechnology can enable sensors to detect very small amounts of chemical
vapors. Various types of detecting elements, such as carbon nanotubes, zinc oxide
nanowires or palladium nanoparticles can be used in nanotechnology-based sensors.
Because of the small size of nanotubes, nanowires, or nanoparticles, a few gas
molecules are sufficient to change the electrical properties of the sensing elements.
This allows the detection of a very low concentration of chemical vapors.

Sporting Goods
If you're a tennis or golf fan, you'll be glad to hear that even sporting goods has
wandered into the nano realm. Current nanotechnology applications in the sports arena
include increasing the strength of tennis racquets, filling any imperfections in club shaft
materials and reducing the rate at which air leaks from tennis balls.

Fabric
Making composite fabric with nano-sized particles or fibers allows improvement of fabric
properties without a significant increase in weight, thickness, or stiffness as might have
been the case with previously-used techniques.

Other Application of Nanotechnology

An application of Nanotechnology in various fields such as health and medicine,
electronics, energy and environment, is discussed in detail. Applications of nano
particles in drug delivery, protein and peptide delivery, cancer are explained.
Applications of various nano systems in cancer therapy such as carbon nano tube,
dendrimers, nano crystal, nano wire, nano shells etc. are given. The advancement in
nano technology helps in the treatment of neuro degenerative disorders such as
Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Applications of nano technology in
tuberculosis treatment, the clinical application of nanotechnology in operative dentistry,
in ophthalmology, in surgery, visualization, tissue engineering, antibiotic resistance,
immune response
Society benefits greatly from the richness of biodiversity since human can source from
nature biological resources such as food, medicine, energy, and more. Biodiversity in
natural ecosystems can also regulate climate, flood, pollination, water and air quality,
water storage, decomposition of wastes, among others.
Blue economy is a version of the green economy made relevant to our seas and oceans. It is a
model of economic development that focuses on the sustainable management and use of
natural and other resources in maritime sector. The province of Batangas is so much blessed

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because it poses blue and green economy. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations
near Metro Manila. The province  has numerous beaches and diving spots including Anilao in
Mabini, Sombrero Island in Tingloy, Ligpo Island and Sampaguita Beach in Bauan,
Matabungkay in Lian, Punta Fuego in Nasugbu, Calatagan and Laiya in San Juan. All of the
marine waters of the province are part of the Verde Island Passage, the center of the center of
world's marine biodiversity.
 Science

 The process of discovering, explaining, and predicting natural or social phenomena.

 Technology

Activities that apply the principles of science and mechanics to the solutions of a specific problem

 The internet is the international information infrastructure (a network of networks) available

through universities, research institutes, government agencies, and businesses.  

Web 2.0 is a platform for millions of users to express themselves online in the common areas of
cyberspace

 The Search for Knowledge and Information:

 The Internet, perhaps more than any other technology, is the foundation of the
information society.

 There is concern, however, that the very way in which the “Google generation” reads,
thinks, and approaches problems has been altered by the new technology.

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over the Internet.

• Social Networking and Blogging

Social network sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and blogs comprise a sector of the Internet called
membership communities. Membership communities have changed in recent years in three
substantively significant ways

 Politics and e-Government

 The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has emerged as a
critical threat to public life. Around the world, government agencies and political
parties are exploiting social media platforms to spread junk news and disinformation,
exercise censorship and control, and undermine trust in media, public institutions and
science.

 Technology affects social relationships and the nature of social interaction.

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  The development of telephones has led to fewer visits with friends and relatives; with the
advent of DVRs, cable television, and video streaming, the number of places where social life
occurs (e.g., movie theaters) has declined.

Even the nature of dating has changed as computer networks facilitate instant messaging, cyberdates,
and “private” chat rooms. As technology increases, social relationships and human interaction are
transformed

 Although technology can bring people together, it can also isolate them from each other.

 For example, children who use a home computer “spend much less time on sports and
outdoor activities than non-computer users.”

 A study of more than 1,500 U.S. Internet users between the ages of 18 and 64 found that, for
every hour a respondent was on the Internet, there was a corresponding 23.5-minute
reduction in face-to-face interaction with family members.

 Schools, employers, and the government are increasingly using technology to monitor
individuals’ performance and behavior.

 In 2010, identity theft was the number-one complaint filed with the Federal Trade
Commission for the 11th year in a row.

 One of the most significant social problems associated with science and technology is the
increased division between the classes.

 The fear that technology will produce a “virtual elite” is not uncommon. Several theorists
hypothesize that, as technology displaces workers—most notably the unskilled and
uneducated—certain classes of people will be irreparably disadvantaged—the poor,
minorities, and women.

What is Biodiversity?

 The variety of different types of organisms present and interacting in an ecosystem.

 Often more species equals more diversity, although there are, in fact many more factors
beyond a simple count of species that determine whether biodiversity is higher or lower in
any given ecosystem.

Levels of Biodiversity

 Genetic Diversity

 Species Diversity

 Ecosystem Diversity

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Genetic Diversity

 Amount and variety of genetic material within individuals, populations or communities

 Source of biodiversity at all levels

 Knowledge of amount of genetic variability present within local populations essential in

directing conservation programs.

 Amount of genetic differences among species could help determine rates of evolutionary
change

Ecosystem and Biome diversity

 Ecosystems are the collection of all the plants and animals within a particular area

 Ecosystems may differ in species composition, physical structure and function as a result of
differences in physical structure and composition

 Biomes are large ecological units on the basis of dominant vegetation

 Preserving a variety of ecosystems and biomes are necessary for preserving species diversity

Philippine Fauna

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 Threats to biodiversity

 habitat destruction (slash and burn agric. or felling of old-growth forests)

 overexploitation (fishing, hunting)

 pollution (domestic and industrial emissions)

 global climate change (the greenhouse effect and destruction of the ozone layer)

 invasion by introduced species (displacement of native species

 underlying social conditions (increased per-capita consumption, poverty, rapid population

growth, unsound economic and social policies )

Threats to Biodiversity cont’d

 Habitat degradation

– Some 93% of coral reefs damaged directly or indirectly by human activities

– During the 1990s between 130,000 and 150,000 km2 of forest cover lost each year

 Changes in atmospheric composition.

 siltation, nutrient loading, pollution of air and water by toxic chemicals

invasion by introduced species

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Patterns of species vulnerability

 Rare Species

 Long-lived species

 Keystone species

Rare species

 May be the result of many factors small range, high habitat specificity or small population
density

 Human-induced rarity may be more damaging

Long-lived species

 Well-suited to long-term predictability

 Often not equipped to adapt to rapid changes brought by human-induced changes

 Often population declines may take many years to recover

Keystone species

 A species or group of species that makes and unusual contribution to a community structure
or processes

 May be predators, food source or species that maintains critical ecosystem processes

 A loss of a keystone species may lead to loss of others that depend on it.

Biodiversity Management
Conservation vs Preservation?

 All about management of Genetic Variation

– Aim is to allow continued evolutionary change in the populations and species

concerned

– Since ecological systems are not static- management should allow for change-
Conservation rather than preservation.

– 3 Time scales of concern: extinction avoidance (short-term); ability to adapt or evolve

(medium term) and potential for continued speciation (long-term)

– Units of conservation: What are the units of conservation? How do we determine the
most appropriate unit?

In general, public opinion concerning GMOs is extremely negative and blown out of
proportion from the actual effects. Further, public opinion towards GMOs differs across
geographical and cultural boundaries

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 Food and feed are derived from plants and animals grown and bred for several thousand years

Over time these plants and animals have undergone genetic changes, those with the most
desirable characteristic were selected for breeding the next generation

Scientific advancement has now made it possible to modify genetic material using modern
gene transfer technologies

• Genes which cause expression of desirable traits are selected from one org (bacteria, plant or
animal) & transferred into another, to alter its genetic material (DNA) & produce desirable
characteristics

• The food/feed which contains/consists such GMOs or are produced from GMOs is called GM
food/feed

• Orgs to which foreign genes are introduced by genetic methods are referred to as transgenic

Traditional methods GM

slow very fast

imprecise precise

modification of genes that naturally can introduce genes into an organism that
occur in the organism would not occur naturally!

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• Categories of GM food

Transgenic plant food product

Transgenic animal food product

Transgenic MO food product

Special transgenic food product (fruits containing edible vaccines

Social/Environmental Impact

• Easing of World Hunger

 Devpt of crops that can be grown in marginal soil

 Fast growing animals

• Reduced strain on non renewable resources

 Devpt of drought resistant crops

 Salt tolerant crops

 Crops that make more efficient use of nitrogen & other nutrients

• Reduced use of pesticides and herbicides

 Devpt of pest resistant crops

 Reduced herbicide use is better for the environment & reduces costs for farmers

 Results in significant increase in crop yields

• Improved crop quality

 Frost resistant crops

 Disease resistant crops

 Flood resistant crops

• Improved nutritional quality

 Foods designed to meet specific nutritional goals e.g. leaner meat, added vitamins/minerals
e.g. reduce # of children at risk for Vitamin-A-deficiency-induced blindness (i.e. Golden Rice)

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 • In the face of global warming and climate change, only the more robust crops will manage to
survive and thrive.

• Crops

• Enhanced taste and quality

• Reduced maturation time

• Increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance

• Improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides

• New products and growing techniques

• Animals

• Increased resistance, productivity, hardiness, and feed efficiency

• Better yields of meat, eggs, and milk

• Improved animal health and diagnostic methods

• Environment

• "Friendly" bioherbicides and bioinsecticides

• Conservation of soil, water, and energy

• Bioprocessing for forestry products

• Better natural waste management

• More efficient processing

• Society

• Increased food security for growing populations

Potential Risks

• Environmental harm

 Effects on non-target spp (e.g. Monarch butterfly)

 Inevitable out-crossing of transgenic plants with naturally occurring

ones leading to creation of super-weeds creating potential future need
for even greater pesticide use

 Irreversible disruption of the Earth’s biosphere

 Monoculture problem - loss of flora and fauna biodiversity

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• Economic/Political

 Consolidation of control over food production (Monsanto’s “terminator seed”)

 Threat to organic farmers

 What does the lax regulation process imply for future technologies?

• Health Safety

 Negative change in Nutritional Content

 Allergenic potential: the splicing of different types of plants could cause allergies (ex:
peanut) to spread among many food types

 Possible Illness

 antibiotic resistance: the genes that are added to the crops to resist insects can cause
resistance to common antibiotics, including penicillin and ampicillin

 Creation of biological weapons.

• Personal/Axiological Impacts

 Personal appreciation/understanding (Will this change the way we think about food?)

 Religious/Moral Issues

 Lack of authority in our lives/individual choice

• Access and Intellectual Property/Society

 Domination of world food production by a few companies and developing countries.

• Ethics

 “Playing God” - Violation of natural organisms' intrinsic values

 Tampering with nature by mixing genes among species

 Objections to consuming animal genes in plants and vice versa

• Labeling

 Not mandatory in some countries

 Mixing GM crops with non-GM confounds labeling attempts

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Undefined risk

• GM foods are for profit According to its opponents, GM foods were created for profit and
nothing else. They believe that these multinational giants e.g. Monsanto, a pioneer in GM
research are unlikely in the GM business for purely noble reasons. 

• DNA is actually not well understood. 97% of human DNA is called ‘junk’ because scientists do
not know its function. The workings of a single cell are so complex, no one knows the whole of
it.

• Other unknown effects

MODULE 12
THE ASPECT OF GENE THERAPY

Lesson objective:
At the end of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Describe gene therapy and its various forms
2. Explore the opportunities that may be opened by gene therapy in the future.
3. Examine a bioethical issue from the viewpoint of various stakeholders.

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 4. Learn about the risks and potential outcomes involved in actual gene therapy
trials.

Gene therapy has been existence for almost half of century and is already the
standard care in certain procedures such as bone marrow transplants. The past decade
has seen this new and innovative science reach heights and has been proven to be
effective in treating diseases such as stroke, autism, Parkinson's, diabetes, spinal cord
injury and host of other ailments, both common and rare.
In 2013, La Union Rep. Eufranio Eriguel has introduced House Bill No. 212,
which would put up a “bioethics advisory board” that would establish “ethical standards”
governing the practice of stem cell therapy. Its purpose is to make the country a haven
for open technological innovation for stem cell, and will promote investment and
generate jobs. Further on, the Philippines may become known as hub for medical
tourism, with the surging increase of foreigners to come in for stem cell therapy that
some hospital in the country may offer at a much cheaper cost but with highest quality.

The Basic Process

Gene therapy is an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent
disease. This technique may allow doctors to treat a disorder by inserting a gene into a
patient’s cells instead of using drugs or surgery. Researchers are testing several
approaches to gene therapy, including:
 Replacing a mutated gene that causes disease with a healthy copy of the gene.
 Inactivating, or “knocking out,” a mutated gene that is functioning improperly.
 Introducing a new gene into the body to help fight a disease.

Source: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/therapy/procedures

A gene that is inserted directly into a cell usually does not function. Instead, a carrier
called a vector is genetically engineered to deliver the gene. Certain viruses are often
used as vectors because they can deliver the new gene by infecting the cell. The
viruses are modified so they can't cause disease when used in people. Some types of
virus, such as retroviruses, integrate their genetic material (including the new gene) into
a chromosome in the human cell. Other viruses, such as adenoviruses, introduce their
DNA into the nucleus of the cell, but the DNA is not integrated into a chromosome.

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 Although gene therapy is a promising treatment option for a number of diseases, the
technique remains risky and is still under study to make sure that it will be safe and
effective. Gene therapy is currently being tested only for diseases that have no other
cures.

Types Of Gene Therapy

There are two different types of gene therapy depending on which types of cells are
treated:

Source: https://socratic.org/questions/meiosis-occurs-in-
reproductive-cells-while-mitosis-occurs-in-somatic

A. Somatic gene therapy: transfer of a section of DNA to any cell of the body
that doesn’t produce sperm or eggs. Effects of gene therapy will not be
passed onto the patient’s children.

B. Germline gene therapy: transfer of a section of DNA to cells that produce

eggs or sperm. Effects of gene therapy will be passed onto the patient’s
children and subsequent generations.
STEM CELL
Stem cells are special type of cells in the body that have the ability to differentiate
into other cell types. This ability allows them to replace cells that have died. Because of
this ability, they have been tapped to replace or control defective cells in patients
who have certain diseases or defects. There are three sources of autologous adult stem
cells:
1. Bone marrow, harvested by aspiration, is used to treat patient undergoing
chemotherapy.
2. Blood, collected through leukapheresis - a process where blood is drawn from the
patient, passed through a machine that selects only the stem cells and   returns all
other components of the blood back to the patient. Bone marrow transplant and
blood stem transplantation is used to treat leukemia and lymphoma

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3. Adipose tissue, have a capacity of self-renewal is harvested by liposuction. It is used
for clinical trials for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, liver disease, corneal lesions,
articular and cutaneous lesions, among others

Source: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/therapy/procedures
a. Bone marrow stem cell b. blood stem cell

c. adipose stem cell

Source: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/therapy/procedures
According to doctor-lawyer Samuel Bernal, an expert in the fields of regenerative
medicine and regulatory law, stem cell therapy is not a cure all medical procedure. Its
goal is not longevity-anti-aging program. Stem cell therapy is trying to allow the body to
heal itself. The process needs an army of basic scientists in molecular biology,
biochemistry and biochemical engineering because every patient is unique. Model in
clinical trials in drugs doesn't apply to stem cell therapy. Gathering information from
other people may give you the clue but it doesn't give you the full information for each
patient.

The Bioethics of Gene Therapy

The ethical questions surrounding gene therapy includes (Genetics Home reference
2017):

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  How can “good” and “bad” uses of gene therapy be distinguished?
 Who decides which traits are normal and which constitute a disability or
disorder?
 Will the high costs of gene therapy make it available only to the wealthy?
 Could the widespread use of gene therapy make society less accepting of people
who are different?
 Should people be allowed to use gene therapy to enhance hereditary traits such
as height, intelligence, or athletic ability?
 Should people allowed to alter DNA of unborn babies
 Whose authority or power to decide which human traits should be altered on the
next generation
It is vital to understand the principles of bioethics and ethical science aligned with
their socio-ecological responsibility, so as to prioritize the health and welfare of man, in
order to properly utilize the natural resources and technology. Among the fundamental
principles of bioethics are respect for life in all its forms, and to ensure the maintenance
of life.
The law relating to the use of gene therapy is rarely debated in scientific circles,
because of great resistance on the use of these clinical trials, despite numerous
successes of stem cell. However, such perspectives are submerged in dubious
methods, and the effects of the projects now under study are not predictable. As stated
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; everyone has the right to life, but there is
the question of to what extent we can risk this right on behalf of still unfinished scientific
research.
As in other areas of research, validation of new therapeutic methods is closely
related to the development of clinical trials, and prior approval by local, national and
international ethics committees is, therefore, required. Some types of vectors, notably
adenoviral and retroviral vectors, have produced serious and even fatal side effects
and, therefore, security seems to be the main obstacle for the application of this type of
clinical intervention in hospitals and other public health care.
Not so far from the new technological possibilities applied to modern medicine, many
matters involving moral and ethics were raised with heated debate, especially on the
behavior of the professionals involved - including doctors, researchers, patients and
other people involved with the problems of medicine and public health.

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I. Write a concept map to summarize gene therapy.

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