Republic of the Philippines

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES
Urdaneta City

Course Code : SED 216

Course Title : SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
Topic : MODULE 2 : CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
SOME IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS
Discussant : ROSEMARIE C. ITUM
Professor : DR. PRISCILLA L. AGSALUD
INTRODUCTION:
Science and Technology have exercised a broad and deep influence on contemporary Western
society. In this lesson you will venture on an account of the influence of science and technology on
twentieth century Western society. The purpose of this lesson is to discuss some notable distinguishing
features of science and technology in this century. Some of these features shed on why science and
technology have been and remain vital factors in twentieth century social change.

IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

1. POLYMORPHISM
It includes design of a particular technic by an independent inventor; quantitative analysis by an
investigator to determine the best or acceptable way of setting the parameters affecting the operation of a
particular technical or sociotechnical system (e.g. a nationwide telecommunications network); and
scientific research into the structure and properties of natural or synthetic materials in order to serve a
particular technological purpose.

2. THE PRODUCTS OF CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A. Technology
1. Complexity Many contemporary technics are astonishingly complex in structure or
operation. They require extraordinary integration. The operation of such technics is often subject to
hierarchically ordered levels of control.
2. System Embeddedness. Many contemporary technics are embedded in complex
socio technical support systems on which they depend for their manufacture, use, or maintenance.
3. Product Specialization and Incomprehensibility. It pertains to their specialized
character. While the production of technics has long been a specialized activity, the degree of
specialization involved in the production of contemporary technics is unprecedented.
4. Formalized Technical Procedures.
Two categories of products of technological activity: Technics and Technic
related intellectual constructs. In describing what is most characteristic of contemporary
technology, we have focused on technics. Formalized technical procedures are devised for a variety of
purposes, including ones related to the design, production, operation, and maintenance of many
contemporary technics and technical systems
5. Sociotechnical SystemsAnalysis System analysis is the Quantitative examination of
a particular system of interest to determine how it behaves or would behave under certain conditions or
assumption.

B. Science
1. Abstract and Abstruse Nature Three aspects of contemporary science:
a. concern phenomena remote from everyday experience (e.g. microorganisms,
fossils, nuclei)
b. There are some concepts that are profoundly counterintuitive (the relativity of
time and space)
c. Unintelligible to all but initiated (Black Holes)
2. Theory Dependence Some scholars contend that scientific knowledge that even
gleaned directly from observation is implicitly if not explicitly, theory related.
3. Growth of Scientific Knowledge One way of gauging the growth of scientific
knowledge is by counting the number of scientific journals that exist at various times.
3. SETTINGS
Pre-twentieth century scientific and technological activities took place in home attics, basements
and garages, as well as in as in small shops. The housing of scientific research in certain Europe
universities dates from the middle ages while in both Europe and United States, modest university
science laboratories grew considerably in number in the nineteenth century.
4. RESOURCES-
Many of the achievements of contemporary science and technology would not have come about without
the resources at the disposal of their practitioners.
Two kinds of Resources
A. Input Resources- Input resources are supplies of various sorts introduced into
scientific or technological contexts to enable or facilitate certain endeavors.
Input Resources include:
Materials Material inputs to technological activity consists largely of raw
materials that had undergone relatively simple preparatory processes. Long bfore
the modern era, preparatory processes for technological input materials were
sometimes fairly complicated.
Natural Phenomena- Thanks to the incessant development of myriad new or
improved technics including microscope, computers and various kinds of
imaging machines- the domain of natural phenomena accessible to scientific
exploration is constantly expanding.
Money- expensive technology, numerous highly salaried workers, and heavy
institutional overhead costs are primary contributors to the steep price of much
contemporary scientific research.
B. Transformative Resources Transformative resources are those used in converting
scientific inputs and technological activities into their respective outputs or products .
First Order Resources
-Perennial kinds of first order transformative resources include technics and
technical systems, mathematical techniques labor power , materials alteration
processes, and energy forms.
Second Order Resources
It can be divided into two kinds: methods and knowledge. Technological
knowledge is based on direct observations of and experience with the ways in
which materials and power sources behave under various circumstances It is
based on systematic activity, scientific understanding, and intuitive insight or
imagination as to what would be an appropriate way of proceeding with a given
technological task.

5.PRACTITIONERS- The practitioner can also be generated as a kind of transformative resource for
science and technology. There are several noteworthy respects in which the practitioner dimension of
contemporary scientific and technological activity is distinctive.

A. Number and Density- the number of engineers and scientists relative to the population size is
also unprecedentedly large.
B. Collaboration and Teams the solitary practitioner carrying out an independent
investigation has been increasingly superseded by the team of scientists working on an experiment, team
of engineers, and technicians working on either a scientific experiment or a research and development
project.
C. Management Skills One consequence of this development is that being an effective
scientists or engineer is more likely to require more management skills than ever before; scientists and
engineers will need to have fund-raising, interpersonal and organizational skills.
D. Individual Practitioner Reaffirmed The individual practitioners may play a crucial role in
fund raising, in the design of prototype or experimental apparatus in marketing, or in theoretical
breakthrough.
E. Training and Specialization- It gives significance to the degree of specialization within the
general fields of engineering and science.

6. SYMBIOTIC INTERDEPENDENCE Stripped of their contributions to each other in this century,

each would be much less effective. Technics and related intellectual constructs play an ever more
influential role in the process of acquiring scientific knowledge. This interactive feedback relationship is
sufficiently widespread to qualify as an important distinguishing characteristic of contemporary science
and technology.