Technology and culture

In this paper, you will write a 1000-1250 word narrative
that communicates your assessment of your
technology’s impacts, biases, and political properties.
Your paper should do the following:

1. Introduce your technology by describing its
intended use, its location, and its creators and their
demographics.

2. Answer the question, “What invisible biases,
values or norms may have been introduced into the
design, planning or intended use of this artifact by
the creators or planners, and how can you
determine this?”

3. Based on your observations of interactions
between people and this technology, and the
context of the technology (physical or digital),
discuss who benefits from the technology the most
and who benefits from it the least and offer some
reasons why this is the case.

4. Review pages 252-256 Winner’s article, “Do
Artifacts Have Politics,” from Week 3 and suggest
how the technology you have chosen can create
a certain types of social order in our world by
including and benefiting some people while
excluding others. Or, you could talk about how the

artifact emphasizes some values and norms over
others in its actual design as well, basing your
observations on Brey’s ideas from “Disclosive
Computer Ethics” in Week 4, even if the
technology is not digital. You can include any
sociological, anthropological studies that have
been done on the technology or lawsuits that have
been filed etc. as part of your research as well.