The Inherently Political Design of Social Media

The Politics of Humans

I recently read an article by a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the name of Langdon Winner, titled “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”, which addresses something that is I think rarely discussed in common discourse about the history of modern works of art…

Technology and Politics — Does Technology Contribute to Inequality?

Why I don’t bother too much with racism

I don’t bother with racism? What does that mean? Does it mean I don’t try to be racist? Does it mean I don’t try to correct racism? Does it mean I don’t think racism is worth correcting? Do I mean that racism is something you can “try” and not for me like…

Humans, Technology, and Nature

This week, we read chapter 16 of “The Perception of the Environment” written by Tim Ingold. This chapter discusses how the mission of mankind in the Western world has been to achieve mastery over nature. Society is thought to be a grouping of rational people, nature is the…

Electric Cars: Political Chess Pieces

Governments around the world are shifting policies that are likely to make electric vehicles…

Anti-vaxxers and Authority

As we read in Steven Epstein’s article, it is common for the public to hold an opinion on developments in science, especially those that interact with politics and personal lives of citizens. In the past few decades this has been abundantly true with the debate surrounding vaccines…

Ethical Advancement

A major theme this week has been the social ramifications of technical advancement. We read about how the height of a bridge can be socially motivated and how many jobs were lost to an automatic tomato picker. While these objects don’t hold political affiliation themselves, they can be used to…