Tech Fix

Tech Fix

1. Technocentrism is the view that the use of technology can improve lives and solve problems.

2. Technology is any innovation that allows humans to control the environment and meet our needs.

   • Alternatives
     • Attitudinal fix: using education to change people's behaviour in order to deal with a problem. e.g. using public transport
       • To tackle GW, instead of using geo-engineering to reduce incoming solar radiation, this would involve education/tax incentives to reduce personal carbon footprints.
     • Environmental determinism: the idea that people and their activities were determined by the environment in which they lived. Whilst this is untrue, some places are more vulnerable to the negative impact of environments than others because they lack the access to technology that would otherwise help them cope.
   • 'Techies' are early adopters of new tech. Most people will adopt a new tech when its benefits are clear and it's become affordable.
   • Luddites are people opposed to technological change, e.g. because it threatens jobs.

3. Digital Access Index

   • Countries at higher levels of devt tend to have greater access to communications technology.
   • Combines data on telephone landlines, internet users, cost of internet access, internet bandwidth available, adult literacy
   • DAI of over 75 = hyperconnected. Hyperconnectivity is the increasing digital interconnection of people and things anytime and anywhere.
   • Other side of digital divide is countries with index scores 15 or lower - largely in Africa, far from entering the digital age.

4. Access to technology is strongly correlated with level of economic devt, as devt brings with it the infrastructure needed for technological advancement.

   • Educated popns, TNCs able to invest in new techs, advanced legal system protecting research from theft/new products from patent infringement, and reliable energy/water/transport/comm. systems
   • Devd world economies are increasingly knowledge based as we move from the industrial age to the information age - economy based on ideas, info and services.
     • Promoted by...
       • Globalisation of markets/free trade
       • ICT
       • Networking using internet technology
   • Much of devg world is industrial, suggesting a technology gap.

5. Green Revolution - HYVs plus fertilisers, irrigation and machinery double wheat/rice yields, increasing food security in devg countries.

   • Economic
     • In many cases yields increased dramatically by up to 10x traditional rice
     • 2 crops per year could be grown and harvested
   • Social
     • Improved diet & health
     • Introduction of machinery automated jobs and lead to unemployment.
     • Only relatively well-off farmers can afford the new tech
   • Environmental
     • Increased use of fertilisers causes nutrient rich runoff and eutrophication
     • Pesticide overspray damages biodiversity.

6. Gene Revolution - genetic makeup of crops modified so they are resistant to pests, disease and herbicides.

   • Economic
     • Increased exports and rising farm incomes.
     • Farmers become dependent on seeds and chemicals from TNCs
   • Social
     • Public opinion may reject GM technology
     • Many of the crops are for export not food.
   • Environmental
     • Weeds may be developing resistance to herbicides

7. Polluter Pays Principle is the idea that those who cause pollution should bear the economic cost of the damage they are doing to the environment. Approaches:

   • Command & Control - where new techs, enforced by law, are introduced to limit pollution.
   • Market-based - where govts introduce pollution taxes, carbon trading permits and product labelling
   • A key feature of the devd world is its dependence on fossil fuels - exploiting them gives us access to cheap energy on which modern technology depends. The developing world is dependent on capturing energy directly, which restricts devt as these sources are unreliable and small-scale.

8. Types of tech fix

   • Intermediate tech - low cost, simple, small scale using local skills and resources. Labour intensive.
   • Appropriate tech - tech that suits the level of income, skill and needs of the local people.
   • High tech mega projects - provide a one off solution at very high cost
   • Most advanced solution currently available, e.g. nanotechnology
   • Alternative tech - has the lowest possible environmental impact and pollution

9. Futures

   • Divergence
     • Access to tech is dependent on devt, without which technical developments cannot progress.
       • 2007 IMF report - world has become more unequal since 1980 & tech has contributed most to this rising inequality and divergence.
         • To prevent tech gap widening further, technology transfer to the devg world is required.
   • Convergence
     • Where access to tech increases for all. As countries develop their access to tech will increase. People gain the means to afford new techs and will be more able to innovate themselves.
       • Tech has a role to play in narrowing the devt gap and addressing key global concerns such as global warming.

10. The Global Fix

    • Tech fixes for global warming and land degradation are referred to as geo-engineering.
      • Solar sunshade 16trn flat discs in space reflecting solar energy away from earth.
      • Iron Fertilisation of Oceans
      • Aerosol blanket (sulphur dioxide) to reflect solar radiation & promote cloud formation.
      • Carbon capture