Module 4: Specific Issues in Science, Technology and Society.

Introduction 

This module will take a look at some of the issues, or dilemmas that the society is facing today as a result
of the continuous growth of science and technology. 

Learning Outcomes: 

1. Linked learned concepts to the development of the information age and its impact on society

2. Determine the interrelatedness of society, environment and health.

3. Discuss the ethics and implications of GMOs’ and its potential future impacts

4. Discuss the major impacts of nanotechnology on society

5. Identify the cause of climate change

6. Assess the various impacts of climate change including economic, geopolitical, biological and
metrological situations

Lesson Flow

Please be guided by this Lesson Flow

Lesson 1: THE INFORMATION AGE

The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or new media Age) is a period

in human history characterized by the shift from traditional industry that the Industrial
Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. The
onset of the Information Age is associated with the Digital Revolution, just as the Industrial
Revolution marked the onset of the Industrial Age.

Lesson Objectives: 

At the end of this lesson, the learners should be able to:

1. Determine the human and social impacts of the developments in the information age;

2. Discuss the evolution of technology from the ancient times up to the present;

3. Illustrate how social media have affected their lives.

INFORMATION
  A word is a combination of sounds that represents something. It is this significance which makes
words distinct from just any kind of vocal utterance. Words are made up of sounds and yet they
transmit something more signofocant. They transmit a message. The words are “informed”
because they carry “information” (Chaisson, 2006; Ben-Naim, 2015). Words are informed with
meaning given by the speaker and intended for the listener. Simply put, words communicate
meaning. 

HISTORY 

 The Renaissance influenced the Information Age by creating 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. 

 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 had a profound effect on the social, economic, and
cultural conditions of the world.

Table 1: Timeline of the information Age

Year Event

3000 BC Sumerians writing system used pictographs to represent words

2900 BC Beginning of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing 

1300 BC  Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing were used
500 BC Papyrus roll was used

220 BC Chinese small seal writing was developed

100 AD Book (parchment codex)

105 AD Woodblock printing and paper was invented by the Chinese

1455 Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press using movable metal type

1755 Samuel Johnson’s dictionary standardized English spelling

1802 The Library of Congress was established
 Invention of carbon arc lamp

1824 Research on persistence of vision published

1830s First viable design for a digital computer

Augusta Lady Byron writes the world’s first computer program

1837 Invention of the telegraph in Great Britain and the United States
1861 Motion pictures were projected onto a screen

1876 Dewey Decimal system was introduced

1877 Eadweard Mutbridge demonstrated high-speed photography

1899 First magnetic recordings were released

1902 Motion picture special effects were used

1906 Lee DeForest invented the electronic amplifying tube (triode)

1923 Television camera tube was invented by Zvorkyn

1926 First practical sound movie

1939 Regularly scheduled television broadcasting began in the US

1940s Beginnings of information science as a discipline

1945 Vannebar Bush foresaw the invention of hypertext

1946 ENIAC computer was developed

1948 Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E. Shannon

1957 Planar transistor was developed by Jean Hoerni 

1958 First integrated circuit
1960s Library of congress developed LC MARC (machine readable code)
1969 UNIX operating system was developed, which could handle multitasking 

1971 Intel introduced the first microprocessor chip

1972 Optical laserdisc was developed by Philips and MCA

1974 MCA and Philips agreed on a standard videodisc encoding format

1975 Altair Microcomputer Kit was released: first personal computer for the public

1977 RadioShack introduced the first complete personal computer

1984 Aplle Macintosh computer was introduced

Mid 1980s Artificial intelligence was separated from information science

 1987 Hypercard was developed by Bill Atkinson

1991 450 complete works of literature on one CD-ROM was released  

January RSA (encryption and network security software) Internet Security code cracked for a
1997 48-bit number.  

INFORMATION ANXIETY

 INFORMATION ANXIETY is produced by the ever-widening gap between what we understand

and what we think we should understand. Information anxiety is the black hole between data
and knowledge. It happens when information doesn’t tell us what we want or need to know.

 Our relationship to information isn’t the only source of information anxiety. We are also made
anxious by the fact that our access to information is often controlled by other people. We are
dependent on those who design information, on the news editors and producers who decide
what news we will receive, and by decision makers in the public and private sector who can
restrict the flow of information. We are also made anxious by other people’s expectations of
what we should know, be they company presidents, peers or even parents.

 Almost everyone suffers from information anxiety to some degree. We read without
comprehending, see without perceiving, hear without listening. It can be experienced as
moments of frustration with a manual that refuses to divulge the secret to operating a
videocassette recorder or a map that bears no relation to reality. It can happen at a cocktail
party when someone mentions the name Allan Bloom and the only person you know by that
name is your dentist. It can also be manifest as a chronic malaise, a pervasive fear that we are
about to be overwhelmed by the very material we need to master to function in this world.

COMPUTER

 This is an electronic device that stores and processes data (information). It runs on a program
that contains the exact step-by-step directions to solve a problem. 

 Types of Computer

1. Personal computer 

o Single user instrument

o Known as microcomputers since they were a computer but built on a smaller scale

2. Desktop computer

 PC that is not designed for portability

 Workstation: desktop computer that has a more powerful processor, additional

memory, and enhanced capabilities for performing special groups of tasks.
 2. Laptops

 Portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in a battery-

operated package

2. Personal Digital Assistants (PDA)

 Tightly integrated computers that usually have no keyboards but rely on a touch screen
for user input.

 Typically smaller than a paperback, lightweight and battery-operated. 

2. Server

 Computer that has been improved to provide network services to other computers

 Usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory and large hard drives

2. Mainframes

 Huge computer systems that can fill an entire room

 Used by large firms that process millions of transactions every day. 

2. Wearable computers

 vMaterials that are usually integrated into cell phones, watches and other small objects
or places.

  

The World Wide Web (Internet)

 A more modern example of technology feeding upon itself is the 29 th –century tour de force: the
World Wide Web through the internet. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented it as a way of addressing
data processing and information sharing needs among scientists for the European Organization
for Nuclear Research (CERN). 

 With the ease of sharing information at present, its reliability becomes compromised. Anyone
with a connection to other people can produce contents which are showing half-truths or even
lies, giving rise to disinformation. Social media also encourages building a community of like-
minded people. The creation of these groups often reinforces biases and beliefs based only on
content they allow within the community, foregoing the variation and clash of ideas provided in
real life. Worse, these communities can be tapped by people in power who may take advantage
of these mechanism – controlling public opinion and harassing those who present opposing
views – for their own advantage.

 Meanwhile, the easy access to personal information makes one susceptible to online predation,
identity theft and scamming, among others. Thus, it pays to be vigilant in utilizing these modern
devices at all times. Considering the many benefits, we get from these technologies, we must
also be responsible in utilizing them to avoid harming others and ourselves.
 

Lesson 2: BIODIVERSITY AND THE GMO

Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of organisms that are present in a given ecosystem.   Biodiversity
can be measured many different ways including genetic, species, and ecosystem variation within the
defined area, biome, and even the entire world.  

Where several different species and genera cohabitate, there is rich biodiversity. One of the basic laws
of the living is that of self-preservation. An organism will sacrifice all it has to ensure its survival.
However, with a limited amount or resources, how do the many living organisms a diverse region
survive?  The answer lies in the way the available energy supply in the world is shared among different
species through various ecological relationships. The energy needed to live is shared among the
elements of the living world, or passed on from one to another. 

Lesson Objectives

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

1. Determine the interrelatedness of society, the environment, and health;

2. Explain the process of genetic engineering; and

3. 1Discuss the ethics implications and potential future impacts of GMOs.

BIOTECHNOLOGY

 The Biodiversity International has released a module titled “Law and policy of relevance to the
management of plant genetic resources” (Bragdon et al,. 2005) which aims to help professionals
in managing, conserving and using plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The module
provides the following definitions. 
 o Biotechnology uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, tp make
or modify products or processes for a specific use.

o Genetic engineering is a technique that allows genes and DNA to be transferred from
one source to another, it leads to the production of living modified organisms (LMOs) or
genetically modified organisms (GMOs)

 Modern biotechnology gives scientists molecular tools for obtaining a better

understanding of the structure and functions of genes in living organisms.

 Modern biotechnology paves the way for new developments on food and agriculture,
particularly, it aims to develop new precision tools and diagnostics; speed up breeding
gains and efficiency; develop pest- and disease-resistant crops; combat salinity; drought
and problems of agriculture; enhance the nutritional quality of food; increase crop
varieties and choice; reduce inputs and production costs; and increase profits (Bragdon
et al., 2005). 

GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS

 People have been altering the genomes of plants and animals for many years using traditional
breeding techniques.

  Artificial selection for specific, desired traits has resulted in a variety of different organisms,

ranging from sweet corn to hairless cats. 

 But this artificial selection, in which organisms that exhibit specific traits are chosen to breed
subsequent generations, has been limited to naturally occurring variations.

  In recent decades, however, advances in the field of genetic engineering have allowed for
precise control over the genetic changes introduced into an organism. 

 Today, we can incorporate new genes from one species into a completely unrelated species

through genetic engineering, optimizing agricultural performance or facilitating the production
of valuable pharmaceutical substances. Crop plants, farm animals, and soil bacteria are some of
the more prominent examples of organisms that have been subject to genetic engineering.

What qualifies as a GMO?

 A common misconception is that any animal or plant considered to be outside the realm of our
reference for “natural” is a GMO. 

o Images of abnormally large cows and tomatoes come to mind. 

 However, the scientific community and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) use
a stricter definition for a GMO: an animal or plant that has been created through
genetic engineering.

o  Genetic engineering is a term used to describe biotechnological methods used by

scientists to directly manipulate an organism’s genome. 
 o Under this definition GMOs do not include plants or animals made by selective breeding,
or animals modified by being given hormone supplements or antibiotics.

o In fact, we do not currently eat any meat products considered to be GMOs, although
farm animals may be fed a genetically modified crop.

 The main goal of the majority of genetic engineering performed on food is to increase
crop yield and/or to improve the nutrient value in animal feed. 

o No genetically engineered crops on the market in the United States have been modified
to be unusually large. Pictures of extremely large vegetables used to support the
“Franken-food” image of GMOs are probably not GMOs at all; an unusually large
vegetable would more likely be created through less controversial methods of selective
breeding or nutrient supplements, not genetic engineering.

The process of genetic engineering

 Genetic engineering is widely used in biological research. 

o Mouse models are engineered for biomedical studies, bacteria are engineered to
produce medications such as insulin, and crops are engineered for agriculture. 

 All of these products of genetic engineering were created using the same basic steps: 

o identifying a trait of interest, 

o isolating that genetic trait, 

o inserting that trait into the genome of a desired organism, 

o and then growing the engineered organism. These steps are explained below. 
Lesson 3: THE NANO WORLD

Society is at the threshold of a revolution that will transform the ways in which materials and products
are created. How will this revolution develop? The opportunities that will develop in the future will
depend significantly upon the ways in which a number of challenges are met. As new systems are
designed at Nano scale, the scientific community develops the capability to redesign the structure of all
materials -- natural and synthetic along with rethinking the new possibilities of the reconstruction of any
and all materials. Such a change in design power of products represents tremendous social and ethical
questions. In order to enable the future leadership to make decisions for sustainable ethical, economic
nanotechnological development, it is imperative that all nanotechnology stakeholders are educated
about the short-term and long-term benefits, limitations and risks of nanotechnology. The social
implications of nanotechnology encompass so many fundamental areas such as ethics, privacy,
environment, and security.

Lesson Objectives: 

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

1. Define the major potential and realized impacts of nanotechnology on society;

2. Analyse nanotechnology through the conceptual STS lenses; 

3. Examine the costs and benefits to society of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology

 In healthcare it is very likely that Nanotechnology in the area of medicine will include
automated diagnosis. 

o This in turn will translate into fewer patients requiring physical evaluation, less time
needed to make a diagnosis, less human error and wider access to health care facilities.
And with nanomedicines, if the average life span of humans increases, it will create a
large portion of elderly persons requiring medical attention, resulting in increased
health expenditures.

 As the global economy continues to be transformed by new technology, an intense competition

will grow for intellectual capital and intellectual property. 

 Technology will continue to drive the global and domestic GDP. 

 Advances in nanoscience will enable researchers to manipulate the behavior of a “single cell,”
reverse disease, repair and grow human tissues. 

 Nanotechnology could supply improved services for a small fraction of current energy in
lightening, computing, printing, water filtration. 

 Nanotechnology innovations such as quantum dots, semi-conductor nanoparticles, carbon

nanotubes, and Nano shells will enable the fabrication of electronics hardware devices using the
“bottom-up,” approach in contrast to present “top down,” approach.
Lesson 4: ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS: 

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE ENERGY CRISIS

All the discussions regarding the interaction among science, technology and society will conclude with a
current controversial topic – climate change. It is current in a sense that it has been put under
international spotlight since the start of the 21 st century. Data that have been accumulated are used by
scientist to determine if there is really a significant change in the Earth’s climate. 

Lesson Objectives

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

1. Explain how climate change happens;

2. Assessed the various impacts of climate change including economic, geopolitical, biological and
metrological situations. 

 
GLOBAL WARMING. 

 Global warming is a term used for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of
the Earth's climate system and its related effects. 

 Scientists are more than 95% certain that nearly all of global warming is caused by increasing
concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other human-caused emissions.

 Within the earth's atmosphere, accumulating greenhouse gases like water vapor, carbon

dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone are the gases within the atmosphere that absorb
and emit heat radiation. Increasing or decreasing amounts of greenhouse gases within the
atmosphere act to either hold in or release more of the heat from the sun.

 Our atmosphere is getting hotter, more turbulent, and more unpredictable because of the
“boiling and churning” effect caused by the heat-trapping greenhouse gases within the upper
layers of our atmosphere. 

o With each increase of carbon, methane, or other greenhouse gas levels in the
atmosphere, our local weather and global climate is further agitated, heated, and
“boiled.”

Escalating global warming destabilizes the climate and creates economic, political and social chaos

 It is important that we understand that the stability of our climate is the essential foundation for
running our personal and business lives smoothly and successfully. If the global climate
continues to destabilize because of escalating global warming, most people will not connect the
dots to see that their normal lives will also destabilize until it is too late.

 Most people do not think about:

1. What will happen when food production drops due to drought, floods, and extreme heat, which
will cause food prices to soar and many foods to be scarce.

2. How storms will continue to grow more violent, costly, and cataclysmic. Damage to homes,
businesses, and infrastructure will increase, as well as occur in more and larger areas.

3. How our normal lives will gradually grind to a near halt.

 It is not an overstatement to say most people do not understand how much of the stability,
predictability, and success of their daily lives (and futures) is completely dependent upon
a stable temperature range and a stable climate. By and large, they take the general stability of
the climate for granted, almost as though it could never change.

Climate destabilization

 The global climate system or its key subsystem processes can quickly move from one fairly
stable state of dynamic balance and equilibrium into a new transitional state of instability and
greater unpredictability.

  Eventually, the global climate will settle at a new, but different, stable state of dynamic
equilibrium and balance, but it will be at a new level and range (a dynamic equilibrium is not
static or unchanging; it varies within a range of some climate quality, e.g., average temperature,
average humidity). The preceding suggests that a useful and accurate definition for climate
destabilization would be:

o The three degrees of climate destabilization

 Catastrophic climate destabilization  

 When global warming-caused storms, floods, seasonal disruption,

wildfires, and droughts begin to cost a nation 30 to 100 billion
dollars per incident to repair, we will have reached the level of
catastrophic climate destabilization. 

 Irreversible climate destabilization 

 Irreversible climate destabilization is a new average global temperature

range and a set of destabilizing climate consequences we most likely will
never recover from—or that could take hundreds or even thousands of
years to correct or re-balance. Irreversible climate destabilization will
eventually cost the nations of the world hundreds of trillions of dollars.

 Extinction-level climate destabilization. 

 Extinction-level climate destabilization is defined as the eventual

extinction of approximately up to half or more of the species on earth
and most, if not all, of humanity. 

 This occurs when the climate destabilizes to a level where the

human species and/or other critical human support species can
no longer successfully exist. 

 Extinction-level climate destabilization has occurred

several times previously during Earth's evolution.

 Extinction-level climate destabilization will cost the nations of

the world hundreds of trillions of dollars and billions of lives—
maybe the survival of the human species itself. 

 There is a possibility that extinction-level climate

destabilization may never correct or re-balance itself to
some new equilibrium level. 

 If the climate were able to correct or re-balance itself

from this level of destabilization, it could take hundreds,
thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.

 To make matters worse, every time we enter a new level of climate

destabilization, the frequency, severity, and scale of global warming
consequences will increase and everything becomes more
unpredictable.
 

Today’s global warming and climate destabilization is a fatal threat to our future

 Our global climate has held many different, relatively stable states over its 4.5-billion-year
history. For hundreds of thousands of years, our planet’s climate has moved within a fairly
stable range of dynamic equilibrium, known as the cycle of Ice Ages. This is an alternating
pattern of an Ice Age, followed by a period of receding ice.

 Humanity has flourished since the last Ice Age because of the warmer, agriculture-friendly
temperatures and lack of glacial ice cover. 

o As our current global climate moves into a human-caused destabilization period (from
its previously stable state of the Ice Age to non-Ice Age cyclical periods) and into a new
state of dynamic equilibrium, many rapid changes are occurring. 

 These changes are characterized, in part, by droughts, floods, wildfires,

superstorms, and the changing of previously established seasonal weather
patterns. These changes are now also occurring with increasing unpredictability
as well as with greater magnitude and frequency because of our continually
escalating temperature.

 We are already experiencing major changes in rainfall, with either too much or too little
at one time. 

 These transitional conditions will remain unstable or worsen until we have

completed the transition to a new, more stable, climate temperature
equilibrium and range. 

 But, any new equilibrium we eventually arrive at because of increasing global

warming may not be friendly to us as humans.

 Fuelled by increasing population and human-caused global warming, we have already

radically increased the destabilization of our climate and our average global
temperature. 

 The climate destabilization process is already increasing the rates of reef

collapse, desertification, deforestation, coastline loss, wildfires, droughts,
superstorms, floods, productive soil degradation, growing season changes,
water pollution, and species extinction

CLIMATE AND THE ENERGY CRISIS

 While we are facing the possibility of our own extinction brought by climate change and climate
destabilization and finding solutions on how to mitigate such concern, we are yet presented
with another crisis: Energy.

o  Energy consumption is the major contributor of GHGs (61%). 

 Within energy consumption, 40% is electricity and heat generation, another 20%
is transportation and the remainder is building heat and industry. 
  Why is this so? This is because our primary source of energy are coals and crude
oil. 

 This energy sources when harvested (burned) emits tremendous

amounts of Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs). 

 And not only has the exploitation of these sourced a threat to

the environment, they are also non-renewable.  Meaning? A
day will come that they will be exhausted. 

 Hence the call for alternative source of energy. 

 Science has given humanity a tool for modernization. 

 It allows for the emergence of technology that spreads and applies knowledge
for the attainment of the good life.

  It must be realized that science is more like a cookbook than a blueprint. 

 It is open for experimentation, innovation and refinement. So like any good chef,
reading it requires a fine sense of taste.