SOSC 111 - Science Technology and Society Today: More tools for analysis, including

SOSC 111 - Science Technology
and Society
Today:
More tools for analysis, including
Sustainable Development
Week 6, October 5, 1998
Dr. Vincent Duffy - IEEM
http://www-ieem.ust.hk/dfaculty/duffy/111
email: vduffy@ust.hk
administrative
For those who did oral presentation, please
leave a copy of your slides for me
(sometime this week after the holidays)
 note: Monday, 5th evening -holiday

 this

affects section 3
as agreed in class, lecture for section 3 will
be held at 12noon on Monday
 6people
will go to either lecture 1 or lecture 3
 all others are expected to attend at 12 noon
 venue 4480
First: Two more ‘tools for
analysis’
 Path
dependence
 Technological momentum

then...a look at two old ‘tools’ in a new way
 consider
‘complimentary technologies and
‘technological interdependence’
 consider...what is one problem related to
‘complimentary technologies’?

Finally, a discussion about sustainable
development
Why do we have the arrangement
of keys on the keyboard (for
computers) that we have today?

QWERTY
Why?
QWERTY UIOP[
ASDFG HJKL;
ZXCVB NM,./
Why not?
KLMNO PQRST
ABCDE VWX;
FGHIJ YZ,./
Why not?
AEIOU Y
picture of typewriter
Why do we have the keyboard
we have today?

QWERTY keyboard for computers
 People
were already familiar with typing that way.
 A product of technological decisions of the past
The technological decisions of today affect
technological decisions of tomorrow
 What do we call this?

 Path
Dependence
 Q.1 What is an example of path dependence?
Technological momentum
Q.2. What is an example of technological
momentum?
 Many times we have the opportunity/choice
to change technology, but we choose the
same technology anyway.

 Built
into our biases or interests
 eg. If diesel fuel company was a big sponsor for
the community chest (sponsor for sporting
events), we might not want to change to LPG
because of interests (for reasons other than the
technology or other than pollution)
 can be money/political reasons
Another example
 windows
 If
98, do we have to choose it?
we buy a new PC we do
 because microsoft makes so many of the products
(compatibility). Their large market share limits our
choices to some extent.
 You might not even take a free operating system if it
is offered to you because of the chance it may not
work the same with your MS-Word or Powerpoint
 your choices related to internet browsers may
become limited in the future for similar reasons of
money/power/influence/bias rather than the
effectiveness of the technology
 these
seem a bit similar right? (technological
momentum and path dependence, right?
 what is the difference between path dependence and
momentum?
• technological momentum - our choices are not due to
technology, but due to other things
• path dependence - technology choice depends on other
past technologies used

...a look at two old ‘tools’ in a new way
 consider
‘complimentary technologies and
‘technological interdependence’
 consider...what is one problem related to
‘complimentary technologies’?
Problems of complementary
technologies (related to
technological interdependence)
 Technological
 Technologies
Interdependence
depend on other technologies for
their use.
 example automobile
– roads and bridges, traffic signals
 Complementary
technolgies
 Technologies
that can be used with each other
but do not require one another
 together
they complement (enhance) the other
1
Questions of the Day
 Previously:
Can you give an example
of complimentary technologies?
 Q.3
What is a one problem that can occur
because of complemenary technologies?
(related to technological interdependence)
3
insert figure of bridge here
See: article …bridge crash alert SCMP,
March ‘97
 what happens if the bridge is collapsed due
to a crash?
 ….what would happen at the airport?

2
Questions of the Day
 Q.3
What is a one problem that can occur
because of complemenary technologies?
(related to technological interdependence)
 if there was a problem with the Tsing Ma
Bridge, there would be a slowdown of
airtraffic, people would miss their flight,
buses stuck on the bridge, etc.
3
Questions of the Day
 Q.3
What is a one problem that can occur
because of complemenary technologies?
(related to technological interdependence)
 similarly…what if bus drivers went on
strike and decided not to drive on day?
MTR riders would suffer because they have
come to depend on the bus.
3
Questions of the Day

Q.3 What is a one problem that can occur because
of complemenary technologies? (related to
technological interdependence)
 How are these examples of problems with
complimentary technologies related to
technological interdependence?
 Note: the bridge doesn’t need the airport to
function and theairport doesn’t need the bridge
 However, when the technologies are used to the
extent that we rely (depend) on them in our
daily routine, then the effects of a problem
(with one complimentary technology) can be
3
similar to that of technological interdependence
Economic growth: What is it?
 Measured
by Gross National Product
– sum of all personal and governmentt
expenditures on goods and services in a
country, including the value of net exports.
 What
has come with it?
– industrialization, and concentration of
population in the cities, increased energy
consumption and environmental side-effects
 Why
do we need it?
 Are we just greedy and want more $
5
insert population graph

recall?
6
Implications of population growth
 In
article
– increase H.K. Population expected
– more than 8 Million people by 2011
 Increased
–
–
–
–
–
need for:
housing, roads, sewers and water mains
extended water and waste treatment
extensions to hospitals, fire stations
new schools, , libraries
shopping centers, karaoke
 Environmental
implications?
7
Environmental impact?

recall
 acid
rain
 deforestation
 air pollution in cities
 london killer fog
 fish in Patten Lake
8
Tradeoffs - with improvements
come some problems as well
 Recall…in
meeting the basic needs of
the growing population….
 Increased pesticides – increased agriculture output
– increased side effects to lakes, streams, etc.
 Increased
autos, trucks -
– increased efficiency of transport of goods
– increased air pollution, etc.
9
What about Hong Kong? Elsewhere?
 HK…see
article
 ‘A grim outlook for our ecology’
 ‘potential
loss of habitat and destruction of fragile
ecosystems would be….considerable’
 Elsewhere…trouble
too
 attempt to get solutions:
United Nations meeting in 1992 in Rio de Janiero
 focus on international policy to manage the environment

10
Question of the day

Q.4. Sustainable development. What is
it? How can we measure it?
11
Sustainable Development: What is it?
 term
defined in 1987 by
– World Commission for Economic
Development
 Development
that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the future
 or meet the needs of today without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs
 How can we measure it?
12
Measuring Sustainable development
 recall
Economic Growth?
 Measured

by Gross National Product
– sum of all personal and gov’t expenditures
on goods and services in a country,
including the value of net exports.
One way to measure Sustainable
development
 Gross environment improvement as a component of GNP that includes:
the costs of environmental improvments needed to
restore the environment
 such as reforestation, or pollution control measures

What does it mean for us as
engineers?
 Previously:
– engineers, scientists & business
 were
held to principles of efficiency, productivity,
profitability, and other economic criteria
 now/future
– Challenged to include concerns about:
– health and environmental impacts, resource
and energy consumption, conservation, waste
management, unemployment
14
Exam
review next Wednesday October 7
 exam Friday October 9
 format multiple choice and short answer

a
sample exam is on the www homepage
readings
 See tutorial 9 for discussion of sustainable
development & tutorial 7 momentum and
path dependency
 handout in class - ‘grim outlook for our
ecology’, ‘bridge crash alert’ from SCMP
and 1 page on sustainable development 16
