Key Concepts in the Anthropological Study of Science and Technology

Concept 1: Networks Modeling Humans

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJmGrNdJ5Gw

This is an RSA Animation by Cognitive Media that animates Manuel Lima, a senior Microsoft Bing Designer, discussing the importance of network visualizations through out history. This vital, universal structure models society and human interaction. In Glitch Racism: Networks as Actors within Vernacular Internet Theory, Lisa Nakamura postulates that interactions over the internet can be modeled as a “human network” and this data structure revealed to her that online racism is caused by “glitches” in this network, not by the Greater Internet F****** Theory. Additionally, in Recursive Publications, Christopher Kelty discusses a “recursive public” to describe a human network concerned with technical and legal conditions of society and uses this recursive network model to highlight key features of his study. Both of these works reflect the power of networks as a tool for anthropological examinations of science and technology.

Concept 2: Equality and Representation

Link: https://phys.org/news/2017-01-women-minorities-persons-disabilities-science.html

These images are data visualizations of the under-representation of women and other minorities in STEM fields from the National Science Foundation posted by phys.org that illustrates the need for more equality and representation for women and minorities in STEM (these images are broken up from a larger visual for clarity and ease). In The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male- Female RolesEmily Martin discusses how sexism in scientific descriptions of concepts like fertilization and menstruation perpetuate misogyny and inequality. This visual media from the NSF illustrates that even in a highly abstract field like computer science, a theoretical field with rigid, abstract, and genderless definitions, has a small percentage of minority groups. Additionally, in U.S. Operating Systems at Mid- Century, Tara McPherson also postulates that since computer science is a relatively new field it was not subjected to the same emergent equality standards and initiatives as other fields which caused UNIX computing systems to unintentionally set up an environment of inequality. These examples highlight how the anthropological study of science and technology reveals systemic inequality.

Concept 3: Science and Technology Reflect and Change Humanity

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxuWIXdYYyQ

In this TEDx talk organized by the University of Sydney, Dr. Jordan Nguyen discusses how technology is reinventing humanity. For example, Dr. Nguyen mentions how he remembered a memory from an Oculus Rift as though it had happened in real life. In On Alternating Sounds, Francis Boas reported a similar phenomenon of encoding and reinventing new, different experiences in familiar ways. He describes this notion of “sound blindness” where, in his research into the Inuit language, he had difficulty perceiving and differentiating sounds in their language because he mentally encoded them in his language. In The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruinsby Anna Tsing asserts that, “humans are made through progress,” and it defines what it means to be human (pg. 21). Nguyen, Boas, and Tsing encapsulate the necessity to anthropologically study science and technology with the acceptance that how people perceive technology vastly changes its reception, and technology, in turn, is a reflection of humanity.

Concept 4: Hacking and Technology Activism

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuRa3pnN6nk

Scholarly Reading: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cL_3CsUvxMMC&oi=fnd&pg=PA239&dq=anonymous+hacker+group&ots=14W2_HIyB2&sig=jvlz2AyXj60q3dLgNzQnCkqXaaM#v=onepage&q&f=false

An additional feature of the anthropological study of science and technology that should be examined is hacking and technology activism. In this PBS News Hour feature Hari Sreenivasan interviews David Kushner of The New Yorker magazine on the hacker group Anonymous. The interview describes the complex social structure of Anonymous as a hive network and analogizes its activism tactics to real life protests (denial of service attacks as picketing a business, etc.). The scholarly readingNetworks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancyby John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt also discusses the prevalence of hacktivism. It asserts that hacktivism and cyber terrorism have an enormous effect on policy and describes them almost as a politically recognizable group or demographic. These works are evidence that hackers must be studied anthropologically as a society because they function with real-world ramifications. Both works point out how this is interesting because hacker groups function as a hive network with some nodes more skilled and prevalent than others. Anonymous, for example, has only a limited amount of highly skilled members, mostly contains people loosely associated with the group, and has no real leadership. These anthropological studies are integral to the understanding of science and technology because anonymous online societies are a prevalent and powerful component of global society.