✓The essence of modern technology
STS The Question Concerning
Mod 1 Technology
TECHNOLOGY
✓Technology is not the same as, not equivalent to the essence
of technology.
✓ "The essence of technology is by no means anything
technological".
HEIDEGGER
✓"Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology".
✓This constraint is true "whether we passionately affirm it or
deny it".
1. TECHNOLOGY AS A MODE OF REVEALING
✓According to traditional philosophy, we can ask the question
of essence by asking "what" something is.
✓Technology is
• A means to an end - Instrumental definition.
• A human activity - Anthropological definition.
✓Both definitions are "correct" but the correct is not the same
as true.
MEANS TO AN END
✓A thing that is not valued or important but useful in achieving
an aim.
✓Example: A computer is merely a means to an end.
REVEALING (A MODE OF BEING)
✓Means that technological things have their own novel kind of
presence, endurance, and connections among parts and
wholes.
✓They have their own way of presenting themselves and the
world in which they operate.
EVERY BRINGING FORTH IS GROUNDED IN REVEALING
✓Aletheia – Thus Heidegger here makes clear that technology
is "no mere means" but a mode or revealing, that is, of bringing
forth into unconcealment.
✓In this sense, techne is something poietic
✓And as Heidegger emphasizes techne is also
a kind of knowing or episteme.
✓Aletheia – means unhiddenness or disclousure
✓Poiesis – bringing forth (for Aristotle, it means making or
producing something for a purpose. Sometimes used to refer to
poetry and composition.
✓Techne – the root word for technology, means skill, art or
craft. It is a means of bringing forth something.
BRINGING FORTH
✓It is a mode of revealing the essence of something through
means of writing, craftsmanship or other artistic processes.
CONTROLLING TECHNOLOGY
✓We seek to master technology
• I.e., as Heidegger says, we seek to "get” technology
spiritually in hand. The will to mastery becomes all the more
urgent, the more technology threatens to slip from human
control.
• This is problematic in the event (and Heidegger will defend
this point) that technology might be something other than a
"mere means"
2. TECHNOLOGY AS POIESIS
• Not a bringing forth
• Instead it is what Heidegger calls a challenging forth into
revealing.
POIESIS
✓The activity in which a person brings something into being
that did not exist before.
✓It is etymologically derived from an ancient Greek term which
means to make.
MODERN TECHNOLOGY
✓Both primitive crafts and modern technology are revealing.
✓But the revealing of modern technology is not a bringing forth,
but a challenging-forth.
✓ It challenges nature, by extracting something from it and
transforming it, storing up, distributing it, etc.
SETTING UPON
✓ The setting upon characteristic of modern technology
challenges forth the energy of nature as an expediting in two
ways.
• Unlocks and exposes (Physics sets nature up).
• And the economic: Maximum yield, minimum expense
demands stockpiling.
• The result Heidegger calls Bestand: standing reserve which is
far more than simply reserves that one happiness to have on
hand.
• Bestand - means "stock", "holdings", "assets", or the term
Heidegger uses often, "standing reserve"
EXAMPLES OF SETTING UPON
✓Hydroelectric power plant, Strip mining & Wind Mill.
✓Suleyman’s Bridge at Mostar, first built in 1566 and aqueduct.
HEIDEGGER’S REFERENCE POINT
STANDING RESERVE
✓Modern technology takes all of nature to stand in reserve for
its exploitation.
✓Man is challenged to do this, and as such he becomes a part
of the standing reserve.
✓Man becomes the instrument of technology, to be exploited in
the ordering of nature.
✓"The world has been framed as well as the standing reserve".
✓It is active in the case of a river once it generates electricity or
the earth if revealed as a coal mining district or the soil as a
mineral deposit.

3. QUESTIONING AS A PIETY OF THOUGHT
• Normally, piety is associated with being religious.
• For Heidegger, however, piety means obedience and
submission. In addressing what technology has brought forth,
one cannot help but submissive to what his/her thoughts and
reflections elicit.
• It is when we start questioning that we submit ourselves to our
thoughts.
• This kind of questioning leads one to search for his/her place
in the universe and in the grand scale of things.
• It is through this process that one builds a way towards
knowing the truth of who he/she is as a being in this world.
4. ENFRAMING: WAY OF REVEALING IN MODERN
TECHNOLOGY
✓It is not man that orders nature through technology, but more
basic process of revealing.
✓The challenge of this revealing is called, "enframing"
✓In enframing, the actual is revealed as a standing-reserve.
✓This is "historically" prior to the development of science.
✓Enframing is the essence of technology.
ENFRAMING
✓Means that way of revealing that holds sway in the essence of
modern technology and that it is itself not technological.
✓In simple terms: it is as if nature is put in a box or in a frame
so that it can be better understood and controlled according to
people's desires.
✓ "All that has come to prsence in the world has been
enframed"
✓Example: Steel is produced to be used in such things as the
production of automobiles, and although steel is not the
automobile, it is, nevertheless affected by the "coming into" of
the automobile itself.
GESTELL
✓Means literally framing.
✓Technology does not come to an end but rather a mode of
human existence.
✓Describes what lies behind or beneath modern technology.
5. ART AS A WAY OF ENFRAMING
✓Enframing as the mode of revealing in modern technology,
tends to block poiesis.
✓The poetry that is found in nature can no longer be easily
appreciated when nature is enframed.
✓Earth has become a gas station for us, then we have become
enframed as well.
✓Causality - the idea that something can cause another thing
to happen or exist.
✓Technology brings about change causally!
✓The cause is what is responsible for the effect and the effect
is indebted to the cause.
✓The unifying notion is that of starting something on its way to
arrival.
✓Being responsible is an inducing to go forward.
THE FOUR CAUSES: Didactic Illustration (ARISTOTLE'S
EXPLORATION OF THE FOURFOLD NATURE OF
CAUSALITY)
1. Material Cause - causa materialis.
2. Formal Cause - causa formalis.
3. Final Cause - causa finalis.
4. Efficient Cause - causa efficiens.
CAUSA EFFICIENS
✓For us today this is the exclusive meaning of causality.
✓Heidegger explores this in terms of language (our English
word is indebted to the latin.
✓German: Ursache, Latin, Causa, Greek aition
THE CRAFTSMAN – SILVERSMITH
HUMAN PERSON SWALLOWED BY TECHNOLOGY
• Though it is true that the individual takes part in the revealing
of nature, limits must still be recognized.
• If we constantly plugged online and no longer have the
capacity for authentic personal encounters, then we are truly
swallowed by technology.
• If we cannot let go of the inconveniences and profits brought
about by processes and industries that pollute the environment
and cause climate change, then technology has consumed our
humanity.
FRIEDRICH HOLDERLIN
✓ “But where danger is, grows The saving power also.”
✓One must raise a further question, beyond questioning after
technology to raise the question of what Heidegger, who thinks
the danger together with the notion of Ge-Stell, might mean by
speaking of Holderlin’s saving power.
THE SAVING POWER
✓The poet Holderlin writes that the saving power grows where
danger is.
✓ The saving would allow a bringing-forth that is not a
challenging-forth (things would reveal themselves not just as
standing-reserve).
✓ Both technology and bringing-forth grow out of “granting”,
which allows revealing.
HEIDEGGER
✓ “The essence of
technology is nothing
technological”
✓ The essence of
technology is not found
in the instrumentality
and function of
machines constructed,
but in the significance such technology unfolds. The various
problems brought about by human’s dependence on technology
cannot be simply resolved by refusing technology altogether.
 IN ANCIENT GREEK SOCIETY
STS Aristotle’s View on
✓They believe that acquiring these will surely bring the seekers
happiness, which in effect allows them to partake in the greater
Mod 2 Human Flourishing notion of what we call the Good.

ACCORDING TO DICTIONARY
• Happiness is contentment, felicity imply an active or passive
state of pleasure or pleasurable satisfaction.
ACCORDING TO PSYCHOLOGY
• Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being which
can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions
ranging from contentment to intense joy.
ACCORDING TO BEHAVIORIST
• Happiness is a cocktail of emotions we experience when we
do something good or positive.
ACCORDING TO NEUROLOGISTS
• Happiness is the experience of a flood of hormones released
in the brain as a reward for behavior that prolongs survival.
ACCORDING TO HEDONISTIC VIEW OF WELL-BEING
• Happiness is the polar opposite of suffering which means 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.
ARISTOTLE’S VIEW ON HUMAN FLOURISHING
✓Aristotle believed that human flourishing requires a life with
other people.
✓Aristotle taught people acquire virtues through practice and
that a set of concrete virtues could lead a person toward his
natural excellence and happiness.
✓According to Aristotle, there is an end of all the actions that
we perform which we desire for itself known as eudamonia,
flourishing, or happiness, which is desired for its own sake with
all other things being desired on its account.
TERMS USED BY ARISTOTLE
✓Eudaimonia is a property of one's life when considered as a
whole.
✓Flourishing is the highest good of human endeavors and that
toward which all actions aim. It is success as a human being.
The best life is one of excellent human activity.
EUDAIMONIA
✓ Comes from the Greek words for "good" and "spirit" to
describe the ideology.
✓Eudaimonia defines happiness as the pursuit of becoming a
better person.
✓ Eudaimonists do this by challenging themselves
intellectually or by engaging in activities that make them
spiritually richer people.
EVOLUTION
• As time changes, elements that comprise human flourishing
changed.
• People found means to live more comfortably, explore more
places, develop more products, and make more money.
• Humans of today are expected to become “man of the world”
• Supposed to situate himself in a global neighborhood, working
side by side among institutions and the government to be able
to reach a common goal.
• Competition as a means of
survival has become passé.
• Coordination is the new trend.
PRINCIPLE OF HUMAN FLOURISHING
✓Dignity of the Human person
• Innate personal values or rights which demand respect for
all people regardless of race, social class, wealth, etc.
✓Common Good
• Sacrificing self-interest to provide for the basic human
needs of everyone makes the whole community flourish.
✓Preferential Option for the Poor
• When decisions are made by first considering the poor.
✓Subsidiarity
• When all those affected by decision are involved in making
it.
✓Universal Purpose of Goods
• The Earth's resources serve every person's needs,
regardless of who "owns" them.
✓Stewardship of Creation
• Duty to care for Earth as (God-given) gift is a personal
responsibility for the common good
✓Promotion of Peace
• Everyone has the duty to respect and collaborate in
personal relationships and at national and global levels.
✓Participation
• Everyone has the right and the duty to take part in the life
of a society (economic, political, cultural, religious)
✓Global Solidarity
• Recognition that we are all interconnected, part of one
human family.
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

ARISTOTLE’S EUDAIMONIA
✓It literally translated as “good spirited”
EASTERN CONCEPTION
which is coined by Aristotle.
✓Focus is community-centric.
✓ Describes the pinnacle of happiness
that is attainable by humans or “human ✓Individual should sacrifice himself for the sake of society.
flourishing”. ✓Chinese Confucian system.
✓Japanese Bushido.
FROM NICOMACHEAN ETHICS (PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY ✓Encourage studies of literature, sciences, and art for a greater
INTO THE NATURE OF THE GOOD LIFE FOR A HUMAN cause.
BEING.)
✓Human flourishing arises as a result of different components WESTERN CONCEPTION
such as phronesis, friendship, wealth & power. ✓More focused on the individual.
✓Human flourishing as an end.
✓Aristotelian view.
✓Aims for eudaimonia as the ultimate good.
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN FLOURISHING
• Every discovery, innovation, and success contributes to our
pool of human knowledge.
• Human’s perpetuals need to locate himself in the world by
finding proofs to trace evolution.
• Elicits our idea of self-importance
ACCORDING TO HEIDEGGER
• Technology is a human activity we excel in as a result of
achieving science.
• Good is inherently related to the truth.
SCIENCE AS METHODS AND RESULTS
• Science stems from objectivity brought upon by a rigid
method.
• Claim to reason and empiricism.
STEPS IN SCIENTIFIC METHOD
1. Observe.
2. Determine the Problem.
3. Formulate hypothesis.
4. Conduct experiment.
5. Gather and analyze.
6. Formulate conclusion and provide recommendation.
VERIFICATION THEORY
✓A discipline is science if it can be confirmed or interpreted in
the event of an alternative hypothesis being accepted.
✓Premium on empiricism.
✓Takes into account those results which are measurable and
experiments which are repeatable.
VIENNA CIRCLE
✓Group of scholars who believed that only those which can be
observed should be regarded as meaningful.
✓ Reject those which cannot be directly accessed as
meaningless.
EXAMPLE OF VERIFICATION THEORY
✓Suppose, for instance, this girl, Lea has a theory that her
classmate Ian likes her. Good, she thought, I like him too. But
how do I know that he likes me? She began by observing him
and his interactions with her.
✓Several gestures she noted include his always exchanging
pleasantries with her whenever they bump into each other, his
big smile when he sees her, and him going out of his way to
greet her even when riding a jeepney.
✓Through these observations, she was then able to conclude
that Ian does like her because, she thought, why would anyone
do something like that for a person he does not like?
✓As it turns out, however, Ian is just generally happy to meet
people he knew. He had known Lea since they were in first year
and regards her as a generally okay person.
✓It is no surprise then that upon learning that Ian basically does
this to everyone, Lea was crushed. She vowed to herself that
she would never assume again.
FALSIFICATION THEORY
✓As long as an ideology is not proven to be false and can best
explain a phenomenon over alternative theories, we should
accept the said ideology.
✓ Allowed emergence of theories otherwise rejected by the
verification theory.
✓Encourages research in order to determine which among the
theories can stand the test of falsification.
KARL POPPER
✓Aim at the production of new, falsifiable predictions.
✓Scientific practice is characterized by its continual effort to
test theories against experience and make revisions based on
the outcomes of these tests.
EXAMPLE OF FALSIFICATION THEORY
✓Ian is generally everybody’s friend. He likes to be around
people and generally aspires to become everybody’s friend.
✓However, there is this one girl, Lea, who seemed to not like
him when he is around. Every time he waves at her, she turns
away, and when they are in the same room, she avoids his
glances.
✓Through this he concluded that Lea does not like him and
does his best to show her that he is not a threat.
✓He began greeting her whenever they pass by each other at
the corridor, even going so far as calling her attention when he
was in the jeepney and saw her walking past.
✓When they were able to talk to each other, he found out that
Lea is just shy and is not accustomed to people greeting her.
✓He then was able to conclude that his initial impression of her
not liking him is wrong and thus said proposition is rejected.
FALSIFICATION THEORY
✓There is no known rule as to the number of instance that a
theory is rejected or falsified in order for it to be set aside.
✓There is no assurance that observable event or “evidences”
are indeed manifestations of a certain concept or “theories”.
STS The Good Life: World
Mod 3 Views and Human Values
A PUZZLING PROBLEM
• People want to be healthy, but many consume junk food.
• People want to be happy, but many do things that make
themselves miserable.
• Most things that taste good are probably bad for you.
• Most things that give you thrill are probably bad for you.
WHAT IS THE GOOD LIFE?
✓People have different ideas of what constitutes the good life.
✓Wrong pursuits may lead to tragic consequences.
✓Correct pursuits may lead to flourishing.
✓Therefore, be careful what you dream for.
THE HAPPINESS PURSUIT
• Everybody wants more happiness and success.
• Its good to know how to optimize happiness and success.
• There are many happiness coaches and self-help books in the
market.
RISK FACTORS WHEN:
✓The happiness pursuit become one's ultimate purpose in life
✓The happiness pursuit is not guided by a philosophy of life
informed by general principles of meaning, spirituality ad virtue
(e.g., the Golden Rule)
FOUR PERSONS WHO DEFINED THE GOLDEN RULE
GOLDEN RULE
✓ “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do unto
others” – Confucius.
✓ “We should behave to others as we wish others to behave to
us.” – Aristotle.
✓ “Hurt not other with that which pains thyself.” – Buddhism.
✓ “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” -
Christianity
THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
✓The pursuit of the good life has ended in misery and self-
destruction for many people.
WHAT IS THE COMMON CAUSE?
✓They make personal happiness and success their ultimate
end of life without a moral compass and without the desire to
pursue inner goodness.
✓Solomon realized the vanity of success long, long ago: The
world will never be enough: "The eye is not satisfied with
seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing" (Eccl. 1:8)
✓It takes more and more to reach the same level of happiness -
addiction, money, etc.
✓Nothing in this world can fill the spiritual vacuum within us.
✓Dreams are often broken when reality strikes.
DISILLUSION
✓Having lost faith or trust in something formerly regarded as
good or valuable.
FATE AND CIRCUMSTANCE
✓Bad things happen to good people.
✓Reversal of fortune.
✓For some people, most days are bad days (e.g., poverty).
✓Lack of opportunities to pursue PERMA (Seligman, 2011).
FIVE INGREDIENTS TO A FLOURISHING LIFE (PERMA) BY
SELIGMAN (2011)
✓P – Positive Emotions
• Experience happiness, joy, hope, love, gratitude, etc.
✓E – Engagements
• Use your strengths to meet challenges; be in the moment.
✓R – Relationships
• Connect with others; love and be loved.
✓M – Meaning
• Connect to meaning; find your purpose.
✓A – Accomplishment
• Pursue ang accomplish goals; strive for greatness.
ADVANTAGES OF THE MEANING PURSUIT
✓Avoids the pitfalls of self-centered pursuit of happiness and
success.
✓Sustains us between the highs of inspiration and the lows of
despair.
✓Happiness and flourishing will sneak in through the back door.
✓Ability to transform adversities into opportunities for personal
growth.
THE GOOD LIFE IS A VIRTOUS LIFE
✓A meaningful authentic good life is based on inner goodness.
✓"The end of life is eudaimonia" - Aristotle
✓Eudaimonia means well-being, virtue, and human flourishing.
✓To live the good life is to become what we ought to be as
human beings-moral agents who strive for moral excellence.
ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE
✓His moral theory is teleological.
✓Aristotle's virtue ethics.
✓The golden mean to avoid extremes.
✓ Practical wisdom: the proper end to our actions and the
proper means to our end
FOUR CARDINAL VIRTUES OF ARISTOTLE
✓Prudence ✓Fortitude
✓Justice ✓Temperance
ACCORDING TO CONFUCIUS
✓Lived in a tumultuous period of war and conflict.
✓Equates the good life with social harmony.
✓The need to fit in an ordered society
✓Inner cultivation of virtues leads to world peace.
FIVE CARDINAL VIRTUES OF CONFUCIUS
✓Benevolence ✓Wisdom
✓Righteousness ✓Faithfulness or loyalty
✓Propriety
A SHIFT IN THE NARRATIVE OF THE GOOD LIFE
✓ A shift from virtue and ethics to
personal happiness and success.
✓ An increase in personal freedom
and gross domestic product (GDP).
✓ Money does not always buy
happiness.
IS THERE THE GOOD LIFE WITHOUT INNER GOODNESS?
✓A morally neutral stand on the good life will lead to risk
factors.
✓We feel good from doing good.
✓We are moral beings living in a moral universe.
✓We cannot flourish without a moral compass.
THE HOLISTIC APPROACH
✓The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
✓Good people + Good community + World peace = Good life.
THE GOOD LIFE IN TOUGH TIMES
✓Finding meaning through a heroic attitude (Frankl, 1985).
✓Accepting what cannot be changed.
✓"Every cloud has a silver lining".
✓Transforming adversities through meaning and faith.
✓Reducing stress, depression, and anxiety.
✓Integrating negatives with positives.
THE GOOD LIFE IS A SPIRITUAL LIFE
✓The adaptive advantages of religion and believing in God.
✓A moral compass and answers to the big questions.
✓Belief in an Ultimate Rescuer.
✓Hope beyond the grave.
✓Significance in the mundane activities.
✓A meaning-mindset is a faith-filled perspective.
THE GOOD LIFE IS A BALANCE LIFE
✓A single-minded pursuit is not always beneficial.
✓Active engagement needs to be balanced by rest.
✓Exclusive love needs to be balanced by greater love. ✓Per capita income can be used to determine the average per-
✓Achievement needs to be balanced by acceptance. person income for an area and to evaluate the standard of
✓Self-transcendence needs to be balanced by fair treatment. living and quality of life of the population.
✓Per capita income for a nation is calculated by dividing the
SEVEN IMPORTANT AREAS OF LIFE TO BALANCE country's national income by its population.
✓Family ✓Health ✓Social ✓Work
✓Spiritual ✓Personal ✓Financial HIGHER INCOME AND LIFE EXPECTANCE
✓ Higher income was associated with greater longevity
DR. PAUL T. P. WONG throughout the income distribution.
✓He is a psychologist, researcher, and speaker. ✓ The gap in life expectancy between the richest 1% and
✓Dr. Wong has developed over 50 instruments and exercises poorest 1% of individuals was 14.6 years (95% CI, 14.4 to 14.8
for research and therapy, including: Personal Meaning Profile, years) for men and 10.1 years (95% CI, 9.9 to 10.3 years) for
Death Attitudes Profile, Stress Appraisal Measure, women.
Multidimensional Jealousy Scale, Servant Leadership Profile,
Coping Schemas Inventory, and more. LEVELS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
✓The economic development level of a country refers to the
measure of the progress in an economy that could be
measured, especially through GDP or GDP per capita.
✓ The level of these indicators can be influenced by many
factors as a large scale, from social and economical to
environmental and government policies factors.

THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI)

THE MEANINGFUL MOMENT EXERCISE

✓ It is a moment marked by special meaning and personal
significance. Different from happy times, MMs can stir up
negative emotions.
✓Typically, an MM has at least two of the four characteristics:
felt, processed, enlighten, transformed.

1. IT IS DEEPLY FELT
✓It touches your emotions in a deep and lasting way.
✓More than a fleeting feeling, it reaches your inner most being.
WHAT ARE THE INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT?
2. IT IS DEEPLY PROCESSED • Often, development is equated with growth and greater
✓It involves deeper layers of meaning beyond the factual and consumption.
superficial. • The more that a population is able to consume, the wealthier it
is.
3. IT IS ENLIGHTENING • Likewise, the more that a person is able to buy stuff, the
✓It provides a solution to some puzzling problems or leads to higher he/she is in the development scale.
some new discovery. • The planet, however, is already overburden with human
activities.
4. IT IS TRANSFORMING
• It is about time that we rethink our standards of development if
✓It enriches your life, changes your life’s direction, or restores a
we really want to live a good life.
sense of purpose and passion to your life.
JASON HICKEL
CARL ROGERS
✓ An anthropologist at the London School of Economics,
✓ “The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a
challenges us to rethink and reflect on a different paradigm of
direction not a destination.” “de-development”.
✓“Forget “developing “poor countries, it’s time to “de-develop
rich countries.” - Jason Hickel
STS Human Flourishing as
Reflected in Progress THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Mod 4 GOALS (SDG) OF THE UNITED NATIONS IS TO ERADICATE
and Development THE POVERTY BY 2030

MAJOR INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

✓Poverty Level Per Capita GDP
✓Higher Income and Life Expectance
✓Levels of Economic Development
✓The Human Development Index (HDI)

POVERTY LEVEL PER CAPITA GDP

✓Per capita income is a measure of the amount of money
earned per person in a nation or geographic region.
• The main strategy for eradicating poverty is the same: Growth
1. Orthodox economists insist that all we need is yet more
growth.
2. More progressive types tell us that we need to shift some
of the yields of growth from the richer segments of the
population to the poorer ones.
NEITHER OF THE APPROACH IS ADEQUATE
✓ Because even at current levels of average global
consumption, we’re overshooting our planet’s bio-capacity by
more than 50 % each year.
✓In other words, growth isn’t an option anymore. We’ve already
grown too much.
GROWTH (IN TERMS OF YIELD)
✓Main object of development for the past 70 years, despite the
fact that it is not working.
✓Since 1980, the global economy has grown by 380%, but the
number of people living in poverty on less than $ 5 a day has
increased by more than 1.1 billion.
GREATER CONSUMPTION
✓The more that a population is able to consume, the wealthier
it is
✓Likewise, the more that a person is able to buy stuff, the
higher he/she is on the development scale.
GROWTH ISN’T AN OPTION ANYMORE IN ERADICATING
POVERTY
✓Global crisis is due almost entirely to overconsumption in rich
countries
✓Right now, our planet only has enough resources for each of
as to consume 1.8 “global hectares” annually.
GLOBAL HECTARES
✓A standard unit that measures resource use and waste 1.8
global hectares is the figure roughly what the average person in
Ghana or Guatemala consumes
✓By contrast, the people in the US and Canada consume about
8 hectares per person, while Europeans consume 4.7 hectares
ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT OF THE PHILIPPINES
✓The Ecological Footprint measures a population's demand on
nature.
✓The Philippines has an Ecological Footprint of 1.01 global
hectares (gha) per person, while Mindanao has an Ecological
Footprint of 0.78 gha per person.
✓ For the past half-century, the Philippines has run an
ecological deficit, with its population demanding more
renewable resources than the nation’s own ecosystems can
provide.
✓ Although per capita demand on the country’s productive
ecosystems has remained relatively stable, the Philippines’ per
capita biocapacity has decreased 44 percent, due to rapid
population growth.
✓In addition to confronting increasing resource constraints, the
Philippines is vulnerable to the compounding effects of climate
change including devastating typhoons as a result of its location
in the South Pacific.
✓ In 2011, the Philippine government and Global Footprint
Network began a multi-phase initiative to analyze the country’s
resource constraints and identify opportunities for Ecological
Footprint accounting to help shape policymaking.
✓Among Southeast Asian nations, based on the latest data
available, the good news is that the Philippines have the lowest
ecological footprint (1.1 gha).
✓ Singapore stands out as the country with the highest
ecological footprint (5.86 gha), followed by Brunei Darussalam
(5.55 gha), Malaysia (4.42 gha), Thailand (2.49 gha), Myanmar
(1.88 gha), Laos (1.78 gha), Vietnam (1.73 gha), Indonesia
(1.61 gha), and Cambodia (1.32 gha).
✓Although doubled from 0.3 planet in the 1960s, the latest data
showed that the Philippines is using resources of 0.7 planet.
✓Ever since, the country has not entered the ecological debt.
PETER EDWARD
✓ He is an economist that has created the “Theory of
Development”.
THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT BY ECONOMIST PETER
EDWARD
✓ “Instead of pushing poorer countries to “catch up” with rich
ones, we should be thinking of ways to get rich countries to
“catch down” to more appropriate levels of development.”
✓We should look at societies where people live long and happy
lives at relatively low levels of income and consumption.
GET RID OF GDP (GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT) AS A
MEASURE OF PROGRESS
✓A truer form of progress, in which it is geared toward quality
instead of quantity.
✓One that is more sophisticated than just accumulating ever
increasing amount of stuff which doesn’t make anyone happier
anyway.
HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY NEED TO LIVE LONG AND
HAPPY LIVES?
✓In US, life expectancy is 79 years and GDP per capital is
$53,000. But many countries have achieved similar life
expectancy with a mere fraction of this income.
✓Cuba has a comparable life expectancy to the US and one of
the highest literacy rates in the world with GDP capita of only
$6,000 and consumption of only 1.9 hectares.
✓ Similar claims can be made of Peru, Ecuador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Tunisia.
ROBERT AND EDWARD SKIDELSKY (HOW MUCH IS
ENOUGH)
✓The possibility of interventions such as banning advertising, a
shorter working week and a basic income, all of which will
improve our lives while reducing consumption.
ACCORDING TO JASON HICKEL
✓ “This is not about giving up. And it’s certainly not about living
in a life of voluntary misery or imposing harsh limits on human
potential.
✓ On the contrary, it’s about reaching a higher level of
understanding and consciousness about what we’re doing here
and why”.
DE-DEVELOPING BY HICKEL
✓The idea of ‘de-developing’ rich countries might prove to be a
strong rallying cry in the global south, but it will tricky to sell to
westerners.
✓Tricky but not impossible.
✓ The problem is that the pundits promoting this kind of
transition are using the wrong language.
✓ They use terms such as de-growth, zero growth, or de-
development (worst of all), which are technically accurate but
off-putting for anyone who’s not already on board.
✓Negative formulations won’t get us anywhere.
✓The idea of ‘steady-state’ economics is a step in the right
direction and is growing in popularity, but it still doesn’t get the
framing right.
STEADY STATE ECONOMY
✓A steady state economy is an economy of stable or mildly
fluctuating size. The term typically refers to a national economy,
but it can also be applied to a local, regional, or global economy.
✓An economy can reach a steady state after a period of growth
or after a period of downsizing or degrowth. To be sustainable,
a steady state economy may not exceed ecological limits.
✓A steady state economy entails stabilized population and per
capita consumption. Birth rates equal death rates, and
production rates equal depreciation rates. Minimizing waste
allows for a steady state economy at higher levels of production
and consumption.
✓ All else equal, the steady state economy is indicated by
stabilized (or mildly fluctuating) gross domestic product (GDP).
GDP is not a good indicator of well-being but is a solid indicator
of economic activity and environmental impact.
✓It made our lives so much easier in communicating, playing,
working and learning new information.
HOW DID IT CHANGED OR INFLUENCED SOCIETY AND
THE WORLD
✓ This revolution influenced many factors in the society
because it led us to the age of the internet.
✓ The world has experienced phenomenal network growth
during last decade and further growth is imminent.
SECTORS OF SOCIETY

WHAT IS CERTAIN IS THAT GDP AS A MEASURE IS NOT

GOING TO GET US THERE AND WE NEED TO GET RID OF
IT ADVANTAGES
✓Perhaps we might take a cue from Latin Americans, who are ✓Speed of communication ✓Pooling of knowledge
organizing alternative visions around indigenous concept of ✓Interactive link-up ✓New forms of communication
buen vivir or good living. ✓Global scale ✓E-commerce
✓Buen vivir: South America’s rethinking of the future we want ✓Freedom of ideas ✓Entertainment
✓Either we slow down voluntarily, or climate change will do it
for us. We can’t go on ignoring the laws of nature. DISADVANTAGES
✓ But rethinking of our theory of progress is not only an ✓Information overload ✓Pornography
ecological imperative, but it is also a development one. ✓Lack of privacy ✓Spam and unwanted
✓Increasing government advertising
GERMANY KENT controls and restrictions ✓Information and identity theft
✓“When the vision is clear, the results will appear. Keep your ✓Pirate media and illegal ✓Cyber warfare
mindset positive as you work your plan, flourish, and always file-sharing ✓Social disconnects
remember why you started.” ✓Attention span shortened

MESOAMERICAN (1500 BCE – 1525)

STS Intellectual Revolution:
Information, Mesoamerican,
Mod 5 Asian, African & Middle East
INFORMATION REVOLUTION (20TH CENTURY)
• The term Information Revolution describes the current
economic, social and technological trends beyond the Industrial
Revolution.
• The information revolution that began in the 20 th century has
been driven in most part by a geometric growth in the
production of high-tech electronics, including components of
computers, computer peripherals, semiconductors, integrated
circuits, printed circuit boards, video display equipment, audio
equipment, and household electronics
• The Information Revolution’s main idea is to provide easier
access of information through the use of internet and
technology.
EVENTS HAPPENED DURING INFORMATION REVOLUTION
• Alan Turing’s machine introduced the idea that thinking and
being conscious could be attributed to nonhuman entities.
• The information revolution started from the Sumerian
pictographs.
• The invention of Gutenberg’s printing press in 1455.
• The use of typewriter and telegraph.
• Today, these technologies are used widely which became
easier with the help of the internet
WAS THE REVOLUTION WIDELY ACCEPTED?
✓It was widely accepted by the world for it gave such a huge
change on how we live our lives today.
• Mesoamerican civilization, the complex of indigenous
cultures that developed in parts of Mexico and Central America
prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century.
• In the organization of its kingdoms and empires, the
sophistication of its monuments and cities, and the extent and
refinement of its intellectual accomplishments, the
Mesoamerican civilization, along with the comparable Andrean
civilization farther south, constitutes a New World counterpart to
those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and China.
• Some of the most well-known Mesoamerican cultures are the
Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Mixtec, and Mexica (or
Aztec).
• The geography of Mesoamerica is incredibly diverse—it
includes humid tropical areas, dry deserts, high mountainous
terrain, and low coastal plains.
MESO-AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL REVOLUTION (2012)
• The Mesoamerican or the Mexican American civilization,
has a very sophisticated culture and practices in science.
• They have number of codices (codex), of all, there were only
four codices survived up to date, which were majorly destroyed
by the Spanish imperialists.
• This civilization aimed to answer an imperial question on
“when are we”, “what is time?”, and “how do we measure it?”.
OLMECS (1500 – 400 BCE)
• Known as the rubber people before and now the southern
Mexico, has sophisticated understanding of the arts and
sciences, they built human jaguars, colossal heads, from the
volcanic heads.
• They have an advanced art styles, writing systems,
mathematics, and even included number zero, and the calendar
system that influenced number zero, and the calendar system
that influenced the succeeding Mesoamerican civilizations.
EARLY MESOAMERICAN WRITING SYSTEM

MAYAN (2000 BCE – 1600 CE)
• Now known as all of Belize and Guatemala, western El
Salvador and Honduras, and Southern Mexico.
• It reached the height of the astronomical knowledge.
• They built great step pyramids, devoted for kings, and sites for
astronomical observations.
• They built Caracol or Observatory of Chicken Itza was built
to align with the extremes of Venuses’s rising and setting in the
year CE 1000.
• They also have a Vigesimal mathematical system that is
based on twenty which included zero, but no fractions.
• They also created large table for calculations, which are
intended for future calendar dates, very far future.
• They have made a lot of calculations about time for religious
reasons.
• They have a complex astronomical system that was
intended to generate prophesies. With this system of time, they
coordinated it to military campaigns, how the individual would
work on a daily basis, and what will happen in the future.
• One of the most notable dates was the controversial date,
December 23, 2012, stated the possible end of the world
because of the end of the Mayan calendar.
• The Mayan civilization used extraordinarily complicated
system of five interlocking calendars of different lengths, which
has provided them a very accurate timing on the solar and lunar
years, and even the Venusian year. Because to the Maya,
Venus was the most important heavenly body.
• The Mayans are regarded as people who has complete
understanding of time, answering the question “when are we?”
accurately across literal millions of years.
• Their writing system carries both symbolic and phonetic
meanings. They have actively engaged to research in
improving their tables, and understanding Venuses’ movement
over time, they also have astronomical tables for Mars, Mercury,
and Jupiter, and even had an academy of Mayapan.
• Mayan civilization also intensively practiced cultivation oof
crops using their sophisticated irrigation system. They
domesticated dogs, and ducks, and penned wild turkeys and
dears.
• The Mayan civilization is also regarded as a hydraulic
empire, same scale of that of China. However, the fragility of
the food system destroyed the Mayans.
• Deforestation to make lime stucco, or plaster for decoration,
may have played a role in changing rainfall patterns, leading to
famine.
AZTECS
• Before the arrival of the Spaniards, a
number from the population of Mayan
moved to the southern Mexico, the
Nahuas, they are called Aztec, they were
great builders of the central Mexico.
• They build the capital Tenochtitlan in 1325, it is still around,
known as the Ciudad de Mexico, or the Mexico City.
• Aztecs created a system of canals, floodgates, and
aqueducts.
• They used dikes to separate fresh and saltwater. This allowed
them to practice intensive lake-marsh agriculture, growing
maze, amaranth, fish, and ducks.
• Building a temple near a lake requires a lot of engineering and
understanding of hydraulic systems.
• They built their temples based on the setting of the sun and
not Venus, and they built temples on equinoctial lines.
• Equinoctial lines – a line along which the plane of the Earth’s
equator passes through the center of the Sun’s disk, once in the
spring and once in the fall.
• They have collected a wealth of botanical and medical
knowledge, maintained by the priests who also served as
astrologers.
• They believed in a complicated humoral system that linked
plants, animals, and the human body, and the heavens.
• Aztec healers seems to have been specialists, focusing on
surgery, bloodletting, child birth, creating herbal drugs, or
treating sick turkeys.
• Aztec physicians had an extensive anatomical lexicons, and
even treated dandruff. They prepares flower seeds as tonic and
also applied pain killers.
INKA (roughly 1100 CE – 1532 CE)
• Inka developed an empire in the Andes Mountains roughly CE
1100 – 1532 CE until the Spanish conquest.
• The most famous Inkan site is the Machu Pichu, Peru.
• This city of polished, carefully fitted stones built around 1450,
on top of a mountain.
• They have standard measurement units, medical specialists,
astronomical and calendric data, recorded into very
architecture of their cities.
• Though they do not have a writing system, they used a
sophisticated system of tying strings, called khipu to keep
records, which they used for data in taxes, calendar and even
military organization.
• Spanish genocide created a huge effect in the Mesoamerican
civilizations, some of the accounts are erased in the records of
history.
• However, the Mayan civilization has still a compounding
influence in the current society, they revolutionized engineering,
infrastructure, hydraulic systems, and many more.
ASIAN (2500 B.C. to about 1500 B.C.)
✓Asia is the largest continent in the world with 48 countries.
✓Western Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, South Asia and
Central Asia.
✓Known as the birth of civilization.
✓Birthplace of numerous religions.
✓In many aspects, Asian Intellectual Revolution influenced our
history. Along with the internal improvements brought about by
the revolution, it educated Asian countries about freedom and
independent nationhood.
WESTERN ASIA
✓Scholars from Central Asia made breakthroughs in astronomy
and cartography.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
✓Metal working (bronze) and agriculture was practiced by the
end of 3rd millennium BCE.
✓ Spread of sailing vessels of advanced design and
sophisticated navigational skills.
 SOUTH ASIA
✓Ayuveda and Charaka Samhita are two of the major of Indian
civilization’s contributions to medical knowledge.
✓A comprehensive system of healthcare that dealt with both
preventive and curative aspects.
EAST ASIA
✓ Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture, and herbal
medicine were practiced.
✓Alchemy which is a Taoist chemistry.
CENTRAL ASIA
✓First developed Stirrup.
✓Started sewing clothes about 45,000 BC and invented sewing
needles around 40,000 BC.
HOW DID THE REVOLUTION ADVANCE MODERN SCIENCE
AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING AT THAT TIME?
✓It alters the science behind why many things occur, as well as
what people believe that actually occurs.
✓It allows people to begin to doubt that what they are being told
by the world is incorrect, and that there is scientific evidence to
prove.
HINDUISM
✓ Detailed knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology,
embryology, digestion, metabolism, genetics and immunity is
also found in many texts.
BUDDHISM
✓Many theories and invention in science aligned with Buddhist
teachings.
✓ There are conformability, alignment or congruity, but not
associate in related by or have much effect.
MIDDLE EAST (STARTING AS FAR BACK AS THE 5TH
MILLENNIUM BC)
• The Middle East was the first place it could have started
because of all the places on the planet, it had the most wild
grains and animals that could have been domesticated.
Wheat, Barley various legumes, sheep, cattle, goats.
• The Arab applied the Romans principles and improve the
watermill known as noria.
• The Middle East is known for their machine designed and
improvement for irrigation, industrial work, and war.
• The windmill and watermill are used for crushing sugarcanes,
grinding grain, and pumping water.
• The book of Badie al-Zaman ibn al-Razaz al-Jazari described
candle and water clocks, water vessels, fountains, automata,
and water raising devices.
• The book written by Taqi al-Din ibn Maruf al-Rashid al-
Dimashqi explains steam power and a blueprint of a six piston
pump.
AFRICAN (3400 BC)
✓ The civilizations usually include Egypt, Carthage, Axum,
Numidia, and Nubia, but may also be extended to the prehistoric
Land of Punt and others: the Empire of Ashanti, Kingdom of
Kongo, Empire of Mali, Kingdom of Zimbabwe, Songhai Empire,
the Empire of Ghana, Bono state and Kingdom of Benin.
✓The geography impacted where people could live, important
trade resources such as gold and salt, and trade routes that
helped different civilizations to interact and develop.
✓ A wide variety of peoples developed throughout Ancient
Africa over the course of history.
BELIEVED TO BE THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION IN HUMAN
HISTORY
FIRST TO USE APPLIED SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL
ECONOMY
MATH
✓Many modern high-school-level concepts in mathematics first
were developed in Africa, as was the first method of counting.
✓More than 35,000 years ago, Egyptians scripted textbooks
about math that included division and multiplication of fractions
and geometric formulas to calculate the area and volume of
shapes.
✓Distances and angles were calculated, algebraic equations
were solved and mathematically based predictions were made
of the size of floods of the Nile.
✓ The ancient Egyptians considered a circle to have 360
degrees and estimated.
ASTRONOMY
✓ Several ancient African cultures birthed discoveries in
astronomy.
✓Many of these are foundations on which we still rely, and
some were so advanced that their mode of discovery still cannot
be understood.
✓ Egyptians charted the movement of the sun and
constellations and the cycles of the moon.
✓They divided the year into 12 parts and developed a yearlong
calendar system containing 365 ¼ days.
✓Clocks were made with moving water and sundial-like clocks
were used.
✓A structure known as the African Stonehenge in present-day
Kenya (constructed around 300 B.C.) was a remarkably
accurate calendar.
✓ The Dogon people of Mali amassed a wealth of detailed
astronomical observations.
METALLURGY AND TOOLS
✓Many advances in metallurgy and tool making were made
across the entirety of ancient Africa.
✓These include steam engines, metal chisels and saws, copper
and iron tools and weapons, nails, glue, carbon steel and
bronze weapons and art.
✓Advances in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda between 1,500
and 2,000 years ago surpassed those of Europeans then and
were astonishing to Europeans when they learned of them.
✓Ancient Tanzanian furnaces could reach 1,800°C — 200 to
400°C warmer than those of the Romans.
ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING
✓ Various past African societies created sophisticated built
environments.
✓Of course, there are the engineering feats of the Egyptians:
the bafflingly raised obelisks and the more than 80 pyramids.
✓The largest of the pyramids covers 13 acres and is made of
2.25 million blocks of stone.
✓Later, in the 12th century and much farther south, there were
hundreds of great cities in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
✓There, massive stone complexes were the hubs of cities. One
included a 250-meter-long, 15,000-ton curved granite wall.
✓The cities featured huge castlelike compounds with numerous
rooms for specific tasks, such as iron-smithing.
✓In the 13th century, the empire of Mali boasted impressive
cities, including Timbuktu, with grand palaces, mosques and
universities.
MEDICINE
✓Many treatments we use today were employed by several
ancient peoples throughout Africa.
✓Some of these practices were the use of plants with salicylic
acid for pain (as in aspirin), kaolin for diarrhea (as in
Kaopectate), and extracts that were confirmed in the 20th
century to kill Gram positive bacteria.
✓Other plants used had anticancer properties, caused abortion
and treated malaria — and these have been shown to be as
effective as many modern-day Western treatments.
✓Medical procedures performed in ancient Africa before they
were performed in Europe include vaccination, autopsy, limb
traction and broken bone setting, bullet removal, brain surgery,
skin grafting, filling of dental cavities, installation of false teeth,
what is now known as Caesarean section, anesthesia and
tissue cauterization.

NAVIGATION
✓Most of us learn that Europeans were the first to sail to the
Americas.
✓ However, several lines of evidence suggest that ancient
Africans sailed to South America and Asia hundreds of years
before Europeans.
✓Thousands of miles of waterways across Africa were trade
routes.
✓ Many ancient societies in Africa built a variety of boats,
including small reed-based vessels, sailboats and grander
structures with many cabins and even cooking facilities.
✓The Mali and Songhai built boats 100 feet long and 13 feet
wide that could carry up to 80 tons.
✓Currents in the Atlantic Ocean flow from this part of West
Africa to South America.
✓Genetic evidence from plants and descriptions and art from
societies inhabiting South America at the time suggest small
numbers of West Africans sailed to the east coast of South
America and remained there.