The problem of technology as valuation errors: The paradox of the means in Simmel and Scheler

Georg Simmel and Max Scheler provide a framework for making judgements about the desirability of technological development and use, an evaluation absent from a largely relativistic contemporary sociology of technology. The appropriate role of technology in society is to aid in the attainment of ultimate values (ends). Both Simmel and Scheler framed the problem of technology as the elevation of technology to an ultimate value. The modern valuation of technology as an end is irrational because it is a reversal of the means-ends relationship and values the general development of technology instead of the potential benefits of particular technical developments. This inverted valuation is also detrimental to the cultivation of “subjective culture” and harmful to life. The importance of Simmel and Scheler for the contemporary sociology of technology is an illustration of what an evaluation of technology presupposes: claims about the general nature of modern technology as well as its essence. Although insightful, the cultural and phenomenological sociologies of technology found in Simmel and Scheler could be strengthened with structural analysis.     

浅谈科技馆特种影院科普教育功能实践与思考——以上海科技馆为例

就当前内外部环境给我国科技馆特种影院科普教育功能实践带来的机遇和挑战进行分析,发现科技馆特种影院具有一流的硬件设施、多元的节目内容、良好的运行机制以及场馆阵地化科普资源等优势,但也存在资源整合水平不足、高端人才缺乏等待创新问题,同时也面临着科普新媒体冲击、国产科普影片缺乏等挑战。本文以上海科技馆特种影院为例,对我国科技馆特种影院科普教育功能实践进行策略分析并提供新的发展思路。     

US science and technology: An uncoordinated system that seems to work

The US has emerged as the world leader in science and technology research and development in the 60 years following World War II. This status is due, in part, to a successful public–private partnership in research and higher education fostered after the war, and to the fiercely competitive and innovative nature of US industry. This paper provides some background to the complexities of US federal funding of research and development, as well as a brief history of US science and technology policy following World War II. The paper describes how research is managed and funded in the US; outlines how the US federal government interacts with universities and private industry; remarks on the nature of international cooperation; and comments on the future direction of US science and technology policy, including growing challenges to its position of leadership.     

Awakening: Evolution of China's science and technology policies

It was not until the latter part of the 19th century that the people of China acknowledged the importance of science and technology. The revolution in 1911, ensuing civil wars, and the war against the Japanese invasion took up another half century. Thus, a serious move to develop science and technological enterprises did not start until the founding of the People's Republic of China—200 years later than Europe and North America. The author argues that, although there has been notable progress during the past 30 years, it will take another 50 years to forge a prosperous society that enjoys the benefits of science and technology. As part of its efforts to develop its innovation capabilities, China today spares no effort to develop a science educational system that will ensure that future generations can make useful contributions to the world's science and technology resources.     

Perspectives on science and technology in development: Does the urgent drive out the important?

Around the world every year, nations urgently need assistance to cope with natural disasters, refugees, famines. Such chronic urgencies for “foreign aid” tend to drive out actions aimed at achieving crucial goals for long-term economic development. Just as these pressures affect all donors of foreign assistance, they undermine the capacity- building essential in all developing countries. The program of the US Agency for Development (AID) is a prime example of the distortions that result. Past priorities in foreign assistance on enhancing science and technology, and on nurturing human capital, now rate much less attention. Yet progress in S&T is central for economic growth, and historical trends show that the path to innovation demands multiple incentives rewarding autonomy, diversity, and experiment within the private sector. Further, development must be bolstered—over decades—by patiently reinforcing and building the educational and technological institutions of the recipient of “aid.” Accordingly, this article proposes that AID appoint an S&T Adviser and establish a $50 million R&D effort. And it is also imperative to restore an emphasis on human capital throughout AID's strategy. To do this well means conducting rigorous evaluations of results and responding thoughtfully to the priorities seen by the recipients of aid.     

The triple helix model and intellectual property: The case of the University of Brasilia

The knowledge generated by scientific and technological institutions are instruments of competitiveness that guarantee financial return for business. The State is responsible for regulating these relations, in order to promote and develop the interaction between entrepreneurship and innovative environments. The University of Brasilia is a model of institution of science and technology (ICT), which exemplifies the generation of products protected by intellectual property law, available for the generation of wealth in the relationship with the market. This case study analyzes this example, identifying and contextualizing the role of actors as suggested by the authors of the triple helix model. It was built using a broad theoretical analysis and, subsequently, by examining data from the University of Brasilia, to discuss the practical results exposed by the bibliography and serve as the foundation for institutional policies on the subject. The University of Brasilia presented significant results within the regional scenario. In this way, it is suggested that the good numbers are due to the operation of the system of innovation in a microenvironment. As a conclusion, it was possible to understand the functioning of the triple helix, once the system components assume role of government, through legislation, promotion and/or support to development.     

Science, technology and the economy: An Indian perspective

During the first three decades after 1947, the Indian economy grew only 3% per year but there was vast expansion in the science and technology (S&T) infrastructure. Decades later, especially during the last few years, the economy has grown much faster, but the S&T systems have not experienced the transformation that business and industry have. The net result is that the public sector S&T system is facing a major crisis even as the private sector contributes little to the national R&D effort. Wealth generation in India by private S&T services, especially in information technology, has led to greater prosperity for the educated middle class, but has also led to greater inequalities in income. The national scene is one of generally uneven achievement and extraordinary potential. This paper argues that unless another major shift in S&T policy occurs, there is real danger that India will not move beyond its status as a blue-collar S&T power.     

The development of science and technology in China: A comparison with India and the United States

In “The Outline of the Medium and Long-term National Plan for Science and Technology Development (2006–2020)” (OMLP)), the Chinese government outlined an ambitious goal to become an innovation-driven country by 2020. However, there are many barriers that restrain the development of the national innovation capacity of enterprises. This paper reviews the capacity for science and technology (S&T) and innovation in China, including the factors that influence capacity building, the supporting policies for implementing the OMLP, and the promotion of capacity building for S&T and innovation in China. The paper concludes with recommendations for promoting further development of S&T and innovation in China.     

Building competitive firms: technology policy initiatives in Latin America

This paper selectively discusses a number of technology and innovation policy initiatives in Central and South America that target small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The examples highlight the transition towards a balanced supply–demand approach to innovation. They also highlight that assisting small firms, whether high- or lower-tech, requires long-term dedication, policy consistency, and work at the local level involving all primary stakeholders. Intermediate organizations are found to play a very important role in the success of policy initiatives targeting SMEs. The importance of large firms for development and upgrading of SMEs cannot be underestimated. Frequently, the most useful type of assistance to SMEs is not technological but more general business oriented such as locating and approaching the customer, achieving a steady cash flow, developing relationships of trust, accessing finance, managing the firm effectively, and training the employees. While clusters, industrial districts, and networks can work, the extent to which such business agglomerations can successfully emerge solely as a result of government policy is currently under debate.     

Autonomy, security, and inequality: China, India, the United States, and the globalization of science and technology

Perhaps no three countries have benefited from the globalization of science and technology (S&T) more than India, China, and the United States. All three have leveraged the growing internationalization of innovation to offset weaknesses in their own national innovation systems. Still, globalization raises critical questions of autonomy, security, and equality, and in turn the political struggle over these three issues shapes the pace and scope of the globalization of S&T. Significant deterioration on any one of these criterion could lead to substantially less support among policy makers and the public for the globally networked system of innovation that appears to be emerging.     

Responsible governance in science and technology policy: Reflections from Europe,China and India

This Issues and Opinions Essay provides insights on developments and challenges related to responsible governance in the field of science and technology (S&T) across Europe, China and India. The Essay presents an overview of policy debates and some key public policy documents in these three geopolitical areas, exploring how responsibility is viewed and outlined in the policy domain. Considerations on the range of processes and actors affecting the relationship between science and society in China and India are also presented. Finally, the Essay introduces ‘responsiveness’ as a possible area for comparative research work on responsibility in S&T and relevant policy collaboration amongst the three regions.     

海洋观测技术

通过海流测量技术的沿革等示例,浅谈了水声技术与海洋观测之间相互依赖相互促进的关系。表明了海洋观测技术在海洋活动中的基础地位,并概括归纳了它的技术特点。强调了传感器技术、观测平台技术和通讯技术在海洋观测技术中的作用。阐述了目前在海洋科学方面和海洋管理方面,海洋观测技术所面临的挑战,以及海洋观测技术向自动、实时、同步、长期连续观测和多平台集成、多尺度、高分辨率观测方向发展。形成从空间到海床,从沿岸到大洋的立体的网络化的发展趋势。     

Controversies in an information technology startup: A critical actor-network analysis of the entrepreneurial process

This article critically investigates the controversies involved in the entrepreneurial process of an IT venture using the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). While ANT and other processual approaches have been used to assess entrepreneurship, little emphasis has been placed on addressing the controversies involved in the entrepreneurial process. To overcome this bias, we used the Cartography of Controversies (CC), an ANT's applied method, to highlight the impacts of conflictual relationships on the organizing process of an IT venture. We based our analysis on a pluralistic corpus of primary data, including interviews, focus groups, field journals, and other documents. We found five main critical issues related to the entrepreneurial process, being them: sociodemographic biases, reproduction of economic and cultural inequalities, conflicts among organizational elites, disputes between owners and workers, and overdependence of startups on larger technological firms. In line with the ‘ANT and After’ literature, we demonstrated how the critical use of ANT sociological approach avoids excessively aggregated categories often present on other critical studies. Finally, we conclude that the critical use of ANT can contribute to more sophisticated and well-built forms of criticism, orienting the research empirically and considering the critical capacities of the actants themselves.     

民族传统文化与现代科技对包装发展的影响

在商品经济高度发达的现代社会中,包装与人们的生活息息相关,扮演着越来越重要的角色.文中详细论述了在其200多年的发展历程中,民族文化和科学技术对其发展产生的重要影响.     

Ethics,society, and technology: A Confucian role ethics perspective

This essay provides a very brief overview of Confucian ethics that focuses on the role-based morality. It compares Confucian ethics with two dominant schools of thought in Western ethics deontology and consequentialism. This essay then discusses how Confucian ethics provides a unique way to think about social and political issues such as how the political leaders are selected and evaluated, the ethical justification of political legitimacy, the prioritization of economic, social, and cultural rights over other rights, and moral egalitarianism. Finally, this essay explores the ways in which Confucian ethics serves as a useful intellectual resource for examining the issues arising from the ethical assessment of (emerging) technologies and the professional formation of engineers. The Appendix of this essay includes some teaching resources that instructors can employ to teach students about ethics, society, and technology from a Confucian role ethics perspective.     

Effects of the magnetic field on the relaxation of small particle systems

We study the effect of a magnetic field on the thermal relaxation of non-interacting small monodomain particles with a distribution of anisotropy constants and random easy-axes directions. Numerical calculations of the relaxation curves for different distribution widths, and under different magnetic fields H and temperatures T, have been performed in the framework of a two-state approximation. We show how the obtained data can be analyzed in terms of an modified Tln(t/τ₀) scaling from which the field dependence of the mean relaxing energy barriers can be extracted, a microscopic information which is not easily obtainable by other methods.     

The progress of radioisotope technology and application in China

The inception of radioisotope and its application in China are introduced. The research,development, production, application progress and the future development prospect of radioisotope and its products are described.     

科学技术在包装设计学科中的渗透及互动性作用

在艺术设计学中，科学技术与艺术的不可避免的汇合使二者间的协调发展成为妊然，这可以说是艺术设计学的一大学科特色。包装设计中所牵涉到的包装材料和包装技术已经使得自身的研究全面化；客观上存在的工科课程与包装设计衔接性问题已在逐步得到提升。     

应用于蓝牙技术发展的LTCC——AlN多层布线工艺

现代IT产业的发展催生了蓝牙技术的发展。而蓝牙技术的发展迫切需要发展高性能三维功能衬底技术。AlN陶瓷具有优良的综合性能。研究了AlN流延坯和Ag导体浆料的低温共烧技术 ,比较了在AlN成瓷基板上的各种金属化工艺。     

科技论文中英文摘要的重要性

在我国几千种科技期刊中,被SCI及EI作为期刊源收录的期刊只有100多家,其中高校学报20多家.这并不能反映我国科技期刊的整体水平.究其原因,它同出版者不够重视与国外检索机构的联系、出版不及时、一稿多投造成期刊内容雷同等有关;但作者对中英文摘要的重要性认识不够,摘要不能说明论文研究的主要问题,英文摘要不符合英文表达习惯,从而导致这些研究成果不能被转摘或收录,也是一个重要原因.