Any technology offers both advantages and disadvantages. What are they?
These advantages and disadvantages aren’t evenly spread throughout the population; some will benefit, others will be injured. Who are they?
All technologies come complete with a philosophy about what is important about human life and what is unimportant. What parts of life does the technology exalt? What parts does it ignore?
Every technology competes with an old technology for time, money, and attention. What technology is being replaced or squeezed out?
Every technology favors a certain type of intellectual expression, a certain type of emotional expression, a certain type of political system, a certain type of sensory experience. What are these?
Assignment
Choose one pre-twentieth century technology—for example, the alphabet, the printing press, the telegraph, the factory—and indicate what were the main intellectual, social, political, and economic advantages of the technology, and why. Then indicate what were the main intellectual, social, political, and economic disadvantages of the technology, and why.