LECTURE IN STAS(CHAPTER 1)

INTRODUCTION OF SCIENCE
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
 The challenge of science

Broadly speaking, we are in the middle of a race

between human skill as a means and human
folly as an end.
-Bertrand Russel, 2016, The
Impact of Science on Society, p.88
While it seems that it should only be given to
Science-major students, it should not be
neglected that STS has an effect to everyday life
of every single person.
• Great minds in the past have been
challenged through science and
technology to prove the origin of the
universe, and the position of man in the
universe. This becomes evident during the
time of Scientific Revolution in the 16th to
17th centuries when Galileo Galilei,
Nicolaus Copernicus, and other scientists
argued on the position of the earth in
relation to the sun.
• Later on comes the discussion on the
origin of man.
• Not only does science and technology
affected the way man sees himself but also
has affected the way he lives.
 DEFINITION OF SCIENCE
• System of knowledge of the natural world
gained through the scientific method.
• - Primarily interested in the acquisition of
knowledge.
• - Preoccupied with the “know-why” resulting in
new knowledge usually disseminated through
science papers.
• - Science is a kind of human cultural activity
which is practiced by people known as scientist
and formerly called natural philosophers and
savants.
• Science is complex system of people,
skills, facilities, knowledge, material or physical
resources and technologies devoted and directed to
the inquiry into and understanding of the natural
world.
Science as a modern science is the dynamic
cumulative inquiry into nature using the scientific
method.
Deals with the natural world.
Concerned with WHAT IS (exist) in the natural
world. Focuses on Research
Discovering natural phenomena (knowledge)
 Face to face with science
Some may think that science is very easy to define
and might say that it is just as it is. Science can be
taken as the investigation of the physical world in
which experiments are rendered in order to explain
matters of concern. Merriam-Webster Dictionary
defines science as a knowledge involving general
truths and general laws that is taken from a
systematic study which is concerned with evidences
and theories. To have a face to face with science, it
would be best to explore its wide coverage by
identifying its common characteristics.
 FOCUSES ON THE NATURAL WORLD

• It is through science that we understand the

natural world. Its main concern is the physical
world. It studies animals, plants, rocks, man, and
all other kinds of matter.
• Science is not concerned with supernatural world
which cannot be tested and is not governed by
the laws of the natural world.
• Science aims to explain and provide more
understanding of the natural world. This
continuous study of the physical world to look for
evidences that could prove something.
 GOES THROUGH EXPERIMENT
• Science subjects any matter of study to
experimentation.
• Something has to be tested and should arrive
at a number of consistent observations so it
could be taken as true.
 Relies on evidence
• Science requires a number of consistent
evidences for not to be biased, it has to go
through different groups or people who would
qualify the idea.
• In finding different evidences, a scientist
would likely check on different angles
concerning the matter of study and would
therefore work with people of different
expertise.
 DEFINITION OF Technology
• Comes from Greek words tekhne meaning “art or
craft” and logi meaning a ‘subject or interest”.
• Practical application of knowledge
• Science of industrial arts and manufacture
• material products or result of human fabrication
and making.
• A kind of human cultural activity or endeavor
which is practiced by people called technologist
which include engineers, craftsmen and
machinists
 MEANING OF TECHNOLOGY
• A complex system of knowledge, skills, people,
methods, tools, organization, facilities, materials,
physical resources devoted and directed to the
research, development, production as well
operation of a new or improved product, process
or services in a reproducible way.
• concerned with the know-how
• resulting in a new product or process distributed
for commercial consumption or appropriated
through patents.
• Deals with how humans modify, change, alter
or control the natural world.
• Concerned with what can be or should be
designed, made or developed from natural
world and substances to satisfy human needs
and wants.
• Focuses on Development and Innovation
• Inventing new or better tools and materials.
• Development -which involves transforming
research findings into prototype inventions of
new materials, devices and processes
• Innovation- which involves commercialization of
prototype inventions of Research and
Development into marketable products or
processes.
• Research- a process of acquiring new knowledge.
The power and promise of technology can be
further enhanced through the study of technology
to assure that all people are technologically literate
in the future.
• Society- people in general thought of as living
together in organized communities with
shared laws, traditions and values.
Types of Research
1. Fundamental/Basic Research- gaining new
knowledge
2. Applied-practical application
3. Mission-Oriented-accomplishing a particular
mission or technological objective
 Face to face with technology
• When science and technology is being discussed,
people usually connect it with machines and
tools.
• The Nature of Technology by W. Brian Arthur
(2009) defined technology in three ways:
1. “means to fulfill a human purpose”
2. “assemblage of practices and components”
3. “collection of devices and engineering
practices available to a culture”
 Types of Technology

• 1.Material technology-extraction,
fabrication,processing, combination and
synthesis of materials
• 2.Equipment technology-Design and
fabrication of tools, instruments, devices and
machines
 Types of Technology

3.Energy technology-Generation, conversion and

distribution of various forms of energy
4.Information technology-Collection, storage,
processing, retrieval, transmission and utilization of
information
5.Life technology-Preservation, repair,
maintenance, reproduction and improvement of
living systems
6.Management technology-Planning, organization,
coordination and control of social activities
 Branches of Science
1. Geology
2. Chemistry
3. Physics
4. Biology
5. Astronomy

Scientific Processes

1. Observing
2. Describing
3. Comparing
4. Classifying
5. Measuring
6. Making inference
 Science Processes
1. Identification of an aspect, problem,
question or phenomenon of nature of interest
to the scientists or practitioner.
2. Formulation of some sort of intellectual
construct- a guess or hypothesis or theory
explain the aspect, problem, question or
phenomenon.
3. Application of the construct to the aspect,
problem, question or phenomenon.
 Science Processes
4. Assessment, evaluation or analysis of the
adequacy of fit, compatibility or appropriateness
of the construct to the aspect, problem,
question or phenomenon.
5. Acceptance, adoption modification or
rejection of the construct base on the
application and assessment, evaluation or
analysis.
 Technology Processes
1. Identification of a specific need, desire
or opportunity to be satisfied of interest to the
practitioner or technologist
2. Conceptualization of design or plan to satisfy
the need or opportunity
3. Production or execution of plan or design
4. The use of phase.
Classification of technology based on a country’s
level of technological sophistication
1. First Wave Technology- Agricultural Age- comprising
the pre-industrial technologies which are labor-intensive,
small-scale, decentralized and based on empirical rather
than scientific knowledge.
2. Second Wave technology- comprising the industrial
technologies which were developed since the time of
industrial revolution until the end of World War II. These
are usually capital-intensive technologies and are
essentially based on the classical principles of classical
physics, chemistry and biology
3. Third-Wave technology- comprising the
post-industrial or the high technologies which
are called science-intensive since they are based
on the modern scientific knowledge of the
structures, properties and interaction of
molecules, atoms and nuclei.
• Evolution of Societies
1. Hunter and Gatherer Societies- the most
primitive of all societies.
2. Shifting and Farming- slash and burn farming
3. Agricultural and Mining Societies-
 Evolution of Societies
• 4. Manufacturing and Processing Societies-
the use of coal marked the start of
industrialization.
• 5. Synthesizing and Recycling Societies-
production of synthetic food and other
resources and recycling of nonrenewable
resources.
•
 Evolution of Societies
• Whoever can measure the heavens, number
the stars, and balance the elements "is no
more pleasing to God than one who cannot,
scientific knowledge was more likely to
encourage pride than lead people to God.
Salvation was the goal, not material progress;
science was not only superfluous to that aim
but might even be dangerous.”
• (Brown 1986)
 The effects of science and technology
to the society
• In 2011 to 2015, Research and Development as
component of project planning of the
Department of Science and Technology got the
highest budget allocation with P 1.433B in 2011
to P 3.802B in 2015 which shows an average of
16.2% increase every year.
• It is fairly obvious how Science and Technology
has improved man’s way of life but it is also
notable how it has caused harm to both the
environment and people.
 Where science and technology is
taking the society
• Man has benefitted much from the advance made with land,
water, air and animals. Machines and tools have made living
so much easier.
• Science and Technology in itself would not exist without the
society. It is the society that allows for the discoveries and
inventions to take place. It is the society that decides how
science and technology is to be utilized.
• In as much as science and technology is taking the society
towards progress and development, the risks and dangers
that come with it should not be taken lightly and accepted
blindly.