Hi fellow classmates,
On the evening of 28 August 2009, I attended the EG1471 mass lecture at LT7. There were three guest speakers who gave interesting talks that covered various topics. The second speaker from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy delivered a talk that was particularly interesting. The talk was about the non-adoption of electric vehicles and how it was greatly influenced by the society. I thought it was very interesting since it was something that everyone can relate to.
The speaker explored the area of social dimensions in technology and what makes a technology acceptable. We assume that new technologies are not accepted because they simply do not work. In this case, he explained that technologies can succeed technically but fail socially.
He quoted the example of the picture phone that I thought was a perfect way of explaining why such a technology that was available back then was not accepted. He mentioned that people do not want their faces to be shown when they talk on the phone because it evaded their privacy. Even with today’s technological advancements, where you can make video calls with your mobile phone, we do not commonly see people using the service. We still prefer the conventional way of making calls. Another example he quoted was the nuclear bomb that I thought was an act of showcasing power. Such technology was developed not because it was needed but because of political and economic reasons.
As for electric vehicles, the technology had already existed back then. It was supposed to be a greener alternative. Electric vehicles are already available today and often cheaper. However, I personally thought that it was not well accepted by the society probably because the availability of charging stations were limited. Consumers need vehicles that can last longer and travel greater distances. Electric vehicles cannot satisfy this requirement as compared to gasoline-powered vehicles. Here we see that such a technology had been socially determined.
Overall, the talk was very educational and interesting. From it, I have learnt that it is how well the technology is accepted and not how good it is.
Entry by: Izzul Azhar
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Hi Izzul,
ReplyDeleteI have seen your entry on last Friday’s lecture; I believe that it is a good effort in putting the parts and pieces of the lecture together and explaining to us how the Social Science System views the technology at another observation point.
From your second paragraph, I can see how you link the cause and effect of one leads to another. From your example that shows how even though working inventions maybe even reject like failed products even though the technology was great and innovative.
However, from your third paragraph, I wish to suggest that you could split up your given examples and divide them into subtopics so that from it, I would be able to see a few supporting evidence agrees with different subtopic. For example, you can write a topic on products that were socially rejected and insert your example of the picture phone, and the same for politically challenged examples which your example on nuclear bomb.
None the less, I can observe that you have written the same topic from another perspective that shows specific examples relating to the challenges and reasons. My suggestion to you would be to write on what are the other challenges that the electric vehicles faced. For example how it was politically, economically and technically challenged in the past.
Done By: Chen Yan Yu