KASIM A.

TIRMIZEY

ENGR 392 - The Impact of Technology on

Society
Session #1 - Introduction
 Does technological development imply that society is
progressing?
Does technology bene t everyone in society?
Can some bene t more than others?
Can some technology bene t one gender more than another?

Society Technology
[noun] The application of scienti c knowledge for practical
[noun] The aggregate of people living together in a more or purposes, especially in industry.
less ordered community. (Oxford English Dictionary)

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 Learning Objectives: What

do we need to know?

1. Critically evaluate the political dimensions of

technology through an analysis of racism,
gender, and capitalism.
2. Analyze the experiences of Indigenous peoples
with settler colonialism in relation to technology.
3. Re ect on an equity-based approach to
engineering.
4. Communicate the social and political context of
an engineered object or project through course
concepts.
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 Learning Activities:
How will we get there?
• Reading and annotating articles
• Class lectures and activities
• Writing short essays
• Giving a presentation

 Assessments:
How do we know we got there?
1. Mini-Assignments: 12%
2. Re ection Essays: 3 x 10% = 30% [May 19, June 2, June 9]
3. Quiz: 28% [June 15]
4. Final Project (Group Presentation): 30% [June 15 + 20]
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 Mini-Assignments: 12%

• Begins after the Add-Drop period

• Each week:
• Pre-class reading assignment on Perusall or Moodle
[ rst due on May 22]

• In class assignment, pop quiz, exit quit [ rst due on May 18]
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 Mini-Assignments: 12%

• You have articles that you are required to read and annotate (due
on Monday and Wednesday at 11:59 pm): each is worth 1% x 7
sessions.
• During the course you will have in-class activities and work, that
will be worth 1% each x 8 instances.
• Your top 12 grades will be considered, and the lowest 3 will be
dropped.

 Mini-Assignments:
Pre-class reading assignment
• Add/Drop Deadline is May 17th
• Perusall platform: You will receive an
invitation using your e-mail on record on
May 18th.




Figure 4.2 Low-friction track and carts used in the experiments described
in this chapter.
You may wonder whether it is possible to make surfaces
that have no friction at all, such that an object, once given
a shove, continues to glide forever. ere is no totally fric-
tionless surface over which objects slide forever, but there
are ways to minimize friction. You can, for instance, oat an
object on a cushion of air. is is most easily accomplished
with a low-friction track—a track whose surface is dotted
with little holes through which pressurized air blows. e
air serves as a cushion on which a conveniently shaped ob-
ject can oat, with friction between the object and the track
all but eliminated. Alternatively, one can use wheeled carts
with low-friction bearings on an ordinary track. Figure 4.2
shows low-friction carts you may have encountered in your
lab or class. Although there is still some friction both for
low-friction tracks and for the track shown in Figure 4.2,
this friction is so small that it can be ignored during an
experiment. For example, if the track in Figure 4.2 is hori-
zontal, carts move along its length without slowing down
appreciably. In other words:
I n the absence of friction, objects moving along a
hori zontal track keep moving without slowing down.
Another advantage of using such carts is that the track
constrains the motion to being along a straight line. We can
then use a high-speed camera to record the cart’s position
at various instants, and from that information determine its
speed and acceleration.
4.1 (a) Are the accelerations of the motions shown in
Figure 4.1 constant? (b) For which surface is the acceleration
largest in magnitude?
4.2 Inertia
We can discover one of the most fundamental principles of
physics by studying how the velocities of two low-friction
carts change when the carts collide. Let’s rst see what hap-
pens with two identical carts. We call these standard carts
Cory: I remember, in high school, being amazed at how quickly
carts could travel on these tracks - air would blow up through
these tiny holes evenly distributed along the length of the track
and the cart would essentially float on the air and consequently -
the cart would move very quickly with the slightest push.
Alison: Although there is no way to create frictionless surfaces, I
find it interesting that we consider experiments "in the absence of
friction." In a way, this relates back to Chapter 1.5 where we talked
about the importance of having too little or too much information in
our representations. In some cases, the friction is so insignificant
that we ignore it (simplifying our representation).
Beth: Does this only apply to solid surfaces? I feel as if a sub -
stance that floats on water either has negligible or very little friction.
Cory: Why is this? I don't get it.
What’s a reading
Alison: I believe this applies to almost every surface, although I'm
not sure if water would count more as resistance than friction.
Anyways, the best example I could think of would be a surf board.
If people who were paddling in the same direction as the waves
annotation?
experienced no resistance, they would continually speed up, and
eventually reach very high speeds. However, in reality if they were
two stop paddling they'd slow down and only the waves would
slowly push them to shore.
Beth: Is it possible to have a surface, in real life, that inflicts NO
friction at all?
Beth : Doesn't air resistance factor into this at all? • Annotation basically refers to the notes
Alison :The key word is "appreciably". In the absense of friction, you make while reading (e.g. summary of
the cart does not slow down appreciably but still would a little -due
to air resistance important points, comment, a connection
to another idea/reading, a fuzzy point, a
Cory :a) yes b) concrete has the acceleration of greatest magnitude
question)
Beth: I would think that they are not constant because if we
think of the formula F=ma, the force of friction is different in every
• “Effective annotations” means you are
engaging deeply with the text, stimulating
case.
discussion, responding to my questions or
Alison: :As a theoretical question about inertia, if an object in
motion will stay in motion, but is being affected by friction, will it
those of your colleagues, asking relevant
slow down perpetually but remain in motion, or will it eventually
stop completely due to the friction? Just curious.
questions, making an informed comment
Beth: With friction everything slows down to a half at one point
or another. It is only if an outside force acts on the object if that

 Offences of Academic Integrity

• Plagiarism is "the presentation of the work of • Falsi cation and fabrication of information is
another person, in whatever form, as one's also an academic offence
own or without proper
acknowledgement" (Article 19a in the • Unauthorized collaboration between
Academic Code of Conduct) students and presenting another student’s
work as their own are academic offences
• Citation is needed for any work that is
quoted directly and paraphrased from
another source
• Citation is needed for ideas taken from
another source
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 For next week:

Read
• Chapter 2 - Does Technology Control Us?
• Examines the concept “technological
determinism”
• Recommendation: make notes about
what is technological determinism and
examples provided in the text

 Buy Joe Sacco’s

“Paying the Land”
• We will discuss the graphic non- ction
“Paying the Land”
• Should be available at The Book Stop
(Concordia's bookstore)

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Buy Joe Sacco’s
“Paying the Land”
• A journalistic work on the impacts of
resource extraction projects (fracking and
mining) in Indigenous communities.
 Upcoming schedule of tasks

• Read the syllabus

• Read Nye, David E. Technology Matters:
Questions to Live With. Chapter 2 – Does
Technology Control Us, pages 17-31.
• Buy a copy of “Paying the Land”
• Read voraciously on society/technology
issues: MIT Technological Review, New York
Times, Wired Magazine, etc …
• Listen to podcasts on society/technology

Questions?