“Science intersects with other areas of knowledge and culture and draws on those systems in its day to day practices.” Going back to the notion of science’s role in everyday life, though we do not notice it, we are at every second exposed to technology and science. For example, the computer that I am blogging on required a scientific innovation and invention; the buildings we have class in require a certain level of scientific achievement and accomplishment. The fact that we have chicken nuggets is yet another example of the countless ones we oftentimes do not notice or think about. With such prevalence in society and in everything we do, science cannot escape influencing culture. For example, we are called the “Myspace” generation. However, even though Myspace is popular and people are constantly creating new Myspace pages, in a changing society and culture such as ours, Myspace to some has become “outdated” and something of the past. It is always becoming more obvious that the world is an ever-changing culture impacted immensely by changing and increasingly advanced technologies.
“Positivist science- in which the idea that we can know things positively and factually without the mediation of language representation systems” has been for the most part undermined by constantly-improving technology and its way of causing people to question traditional authority. The unreliability of positivist science, exemplified during King’s trial, is again constantly illustrated with new technologies, such as Photoshop and video editing software like Final Cut Pro. However, to update the idea of positivist science, its definition should be changed to include “for the most part,” as it still sees practical, reliable application in the medical field, say for example, if someone’s x-rays show a tumor of some sort, possibly implying that he or she has cancer. However, in most cases, positivist science should see more practical application in crime scene investigation, at least in situations where there are low-tech criminals.
The notion that women visually bond with their future children through sonogram images and actually change their minds about abortion illustrates the powerful impact of technology upon not only culture as a whole, but in the everyday decision making process, and especially in big decisions such as that of trying to decide whether or not to keep a baby. Nowadays, one can hop onto the internet and research whatever he or she pleases. If anyone should want a new computer, one could spend minutes researching deals and after finding a deal, possibly the cheapest deal, he or she could purchase it. In the past, limited technology prevented such research possibilities and potential for decision making. However, with increasing technologies can sometimes come dependence, addiction, and purposeful forms of either. Businesses nowadays readily expect any potential employee to research the companies they seek employment at. Otherwise, with competition, anyone who performs research will have the upper hand and easily have an advantage over another person. On some levels, technology such as the internet levels the playing field; in this example, anyone can jump on the net and become informed. However, people who don’t have access to technologies like the internet will be sorely disadvantaged. Thus, a gap appears between the tech-savvy and the tech-less.
Medical and technical or computer language and jargon now seem to be interchangeable. In describing brain and brain function, one can say that the brain “codes” a “message” before having the message carried out. In computer talk, one could “code” a program and “instant message” a friend. Though identical, the two words have very different meanings. As technology continues to be applied to more and more fields, however, words traditionally reserved or limited to technical and computer situations could become widespread and even part of our everyday vernacular.
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