The following is a series of quotes from Arnold Pacey, Meaning in Technology. Read them, mark the parts you agree or disagree, and comment on them.
"Much technology has been “conceived and applied in the context of war and oppression”, yet many still want to think of it as morally neutral, as if it bore no mark of its origins."
". . . much is said about the impact of computerization, as if we were dealing with something that has come on us like a meteorite from nobody knows where. The reality is that the source of this technology is as much human as other major intentions. Like literacy, printing, firearms, bicycles, and automobiles, computers are self-revealing inventions. It is what we learn from them about ourselves – our impulses, purposes, abilities, and potential – that makes these technologies seem revolutionary."
"[airplanes] with propellers _behind_ the wings working propulsively, and one Cessna design of 1961 with a tractive propeller at the front of the body and a propulsive one at the back. Other options that have scarcely ever been used include the canard design, with the stabilizer at the front rather than forming a tail. This design could have weight-saving advantages. . . . some pilots rejected . . . the 1961 Cessna whose exceptional lateral stability made it seem too safe and easy to fly. . . . “the kind of safety given by this aircraft . . . did not fit the male image that a pilot has”. Conventional aircraft shapes also seem to have social meaning fro the general public denoting reliability and efficiency. It has become difficult for designers to depart from a conventional symbolism . . ."
I agree with this. It's the process of lifelong learning and encouraging us to question and discuss meaning....