Science, Technology and Society (STS)

[01 Readings 1]

SCIENCE METHODOLOGY

In a tradition that can be traced back to John Stuart and Francis Bacon many have taken the scientific method to be inductive. An inductive inference
is ampliative and nondemonstrative.

The fallibility of inductive inferences is often referred to as Hume’s problem of induction, after the philosopher David Hume.

Karl Hempel argues that the scientific method begins not with observations but with hypotheses. According to his hypothetico-deductive method
one deduces certain observational predictions from the hypothesis and then rigorously tests them further observation and experimentation.

Karl Popper insists that the scientific method is deductive, not inductive.

SCIENTIFIC REALISM vs ANTIREALISM

 Realists accept the existence of a mind-independent world, those antirealists who deny this advocate some form of idealism.
 Realists tend to be optimistic about epistemic access to the world; antirealists argue in some various ways that this optimism is
unwarranted.
 Realists typically see the aim of science being truth; antirealists argue the aim is something less.

Realist views: Naïve realism, Entity realism, Structural realism

Antirealist views: Instrumentalism, Constructive empiricism, Social constructivism

REDUCTIONISM to THEORETICAL PLURALISM

[01 Readings 3]

THE THREE STAGES OF HUMAN LIFE

 Prehistory – No ICTs
 History – Individual and social well-being related to ICTs
 Hyperhistory – Individual and social well-being dependent on ICTs

Towards an Hyperhistorical Environment

The living generation is experiencing a transition from history to hyperhistory. Advanced information societies are more and more heavily dependent
on ICTs for their normal functioning and growth.
Hyperhistory Encounters:
 Storage capacity (space)
 Speed of our communications (time) are lagging.
 Digital Amnesia
o 1st myth concerns the quality of digital memory.
o 2nd myth – dependability of digital memory.

Moore’s Law - over the development of digital computers, the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years.

Metcalfe’s Law – it states that the value of network is proportional to the square of a number of connected nodes of the system.

[01 Readings 4]

 The early Filipinos learned to make metal tools and implements – copper, gold, bronze, and later, iron.
 By the first century, A.D., Filipinos were weaving cotton, smelting iron, making pottery and glass ornaments and were also engaged in
agriculture.
 Filipinos had also learned to build boats for the coastal trade. By the tenth century A.D., this had become a highly developed technology.
o The early Spanish chronicles took note of refined plank-build warship called caracoa.
 o The Spaniards later utilized Filipino expertise in boat-building and seamanship.
o Boat-building (what the Spaniard learned from the Filipinos)

[02 Readings 1]

REVIVAL OF ANARCHY IN ITALY

1. The Roman cities were older and more deeply rooted than cities in Northern Europe.
2. Their position in the middle of the Mediterranean attracted trade from the richer Byzantine and Muslim civilizations in the East.
3. The Byzantine Empire, which ruled parts of Italy, protected its towns there from at least some of the chaos of the times. (Italian towns)

Asmagnates – literally “great ones “; were a new nobility that was a fusion of middle class and nobles.

[02 Readings 3]

Factors that would help lead to the Rise of the Kings:

 Rising class of townsmen
 A money based economy

[02 Readings 6]

Black Death – known as bubonic plague (China – Italy – France – England – Scandinavia)

[02 Readings 10]

THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Renaissance largely defined by four new ideas  Transition from medieval top modern civilization.

 Secularism – belief this world and life are worth studying and living for now, not just as preparation for afterlife.
 Humanism – belief that humans are not helpless pawns in the divine plans, but capable of their own great accomplishments.
 Individualism – belief that the individual alone, not just groups of people (e.g., guild), can accomplish great things on their own.
 Skepticism – belief in the need to challenge accepted authorities’ views.

Renaissance literally means rebirth.

NEW PATTERNS OF THOUGHT

Whether one sees Renaissance as a period of originality or just drawing upon older cultures, it did generate four ideas that have been and still in
central to Western Civilization:
[03 Readings 3]

5 FILIPINOS BREAK INTO TOP 100 ASIAN SCIENTISTS LIST

 Ramon Cabanos Barba (3rd), field of plant physiology; a horticulturist known for devising a way for mango trees to produce flowers
regardless of season, which paved the way for the development of country’s mango industry.
 Angel Alcala (7th Place) – was hailed in for his research on Philippines amphibians and reptiles.
 Edgardo Gomez (9th Place) – was recognized for leading the world’s first national-scale assessment of damage coral reefs.
 Mahar Lagmay (10th Place) – was lauded for leading Project NOAH, the science and technology department’s program on disaster risk
reduction and management.
 Gavino Cajulao Trono Jr. (12th) – he is recognized for his study on tropical marine phycology.

[03 Readings 4]

LADY SCIENTIST LEADS PIONEERING METHOD TO REVIVE MARINDUQUE’S MINING WASTELANDS

 A female scientist’s efforts to revive the degraded and abandoned mining sites in Marinduque have shown promising results
through a new method of bioremediation she developed, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said.
 Bioremediation, touted by scientists as a biological response to environmental abuse, uses microorganisms to clean up
contaminated sites.
 It is normally employed to address environmental pollution caused by heavy and toxic metals through mining and other
metallurgical processes.
 Dr. Nelly Aggangan, a University of the Philippines (UP) Los Banos-based researcher of the National Research Council of
the Philippines (DOST-NRCP), developed new bioremediation protocols and used it to restore a part of the 32-hectare mined
dumpsite in Mogpog, Marinduque.

[03 Readings 5]

HOUSE PANEL APPROVES BILL TO BOOST PH SCIETIFIC INNOVATIONS, INVENTIONS

 The House Committee on Science and Technology has approved House Bill 4581 filed by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, which aims to
boost the country’s scientific innovations and inventions, research and development towards social progress and global competitiveness.
 Titled “Science for Change Program (S4CP) Act” with the theme “Science for the People”, and a budget that could reach PHP672 billion
by 2022, HB 4581 is designed to help accelerate science, technology and innovation (STI) developments and enable the country to keep up
with the current global technology and innovation trends.

[03 Readings 6]

USE OF INDIGENOUS FILIPINO MATERIALS AND METHODS IN BUILDING GREEN HOMES

BAHAY KUBO
THE SAWALI DESIGN CUE

Favored in tropical country, the bahay kubo had always been designed to deal with heat, humidity, and floods. Bahay kubos are build lifted from the
ground or on stilts, allowing air to circulate from the under the house, helping keep it cool, as well as avoid significant flood levels.