engr 195 social global issue engineering writing

Description

No copy and paste from online, you should do by your own and No ai using in this homework, it will be checked by turnitin so be considerate for those two rules , after you done share with me report of the checked by turnitin both ai and plagiarism report thank you.

Reflection Paper 2
 (minimum 750 words)

Select a technology of interest (invented anywhere, but not nuclear weapons, timekeeping, or social media). You will consider the political implications of this technology within a non-U.S. country (that may or may not have invented the technology). See brief notes after the prompt on “governance,” “political qualities” and “inherently political.”


1) Describe the relevant factual details of the case you will be discussing: the technology, where it was first developed, the non-US country you will examine, and how people are using it in that country.


2) State your conclusion about whether or not the technology possesses inherently political qualities. You may consider this for the case that a non-US country has absorbed the technology, or if you wish, for a technology that is being or soon will be assimilated. In the latter case you will need to forecast the shape the follow-on governance so that you can assess the technology as “inherently political” or not.

Then give an argument that establishes your conclusion based on the relation of the selected technology to specific social factors related to governance in the non-U.S. country. That is, describe an aspect of governance, such as processes related to societal leadership and social choice, and show how governance has shifted under the influence of the technology. You are making an argument that the way the technology has entered into social practice has made prior governance unsuitable, and caused some particular changes in governance that you identify.

If your selected technology has not reached mainstream use at scale (e.g., quantum computing, genetic engineering, blockchain), you need to project how the technology would be deployed into the selected non-U.S. society, and how that would influence governance. That is, you would imagine along the lines of: “I assume the technology will have these properties and will be deployed and taken up in this way. This will mean that this set of presently-existing governance structures or practices will be undermined or altered, and the new governance will have the following form.” You are making an argument that the way the technology will enter into widespread social practice will rule out or substantially undermine the present form of governance, requiring changes that you can (at least partly) envision because those changes in some manner directly reflect properties/features of the technology.


3) State your conclusion about whether or not it was ethical to introduce the technology into the selected country. If your technology is not yet used at scale, then you will envision societal arrangements once it is in widespread use and assess the ethical qualities.

Then give an argument for your conclusion that assesses ethical qualities of social arrangements that result from taking up the technology at scale. That is, you will identify some new conditions, activities, relationships, etc., and show that they meet or violate what (you believe to be) ethical practices/standards/ideals. For example, you may identify a shift in governance, show that it asymmetrically empowers a small sub-population in the non-U.S. country, and find this unethical because it limits the ability of the rest of the population to fairly and equally participate in choices about the future (that affect them).

Treat “ethical” as supportive of general flourishing (many lives are improved, and this is achieved without requiring substantial harm to some). Treat “unethical” as the uptake of the technology results in a society with less justice, more entrenched inequality, new or stronger barriers to freedom to determine one’s course — or in general is such that whatever benefits accrue to some are achieved in a way that necessarily and substantively harms others.


Notes on Technology, Political Qualities, and Inherently Political Technology

You have the slides and recordings from lecture, and the Winner readings, to guide your understanding of governance, technology with political qualities, and inherently political technology. Here are brief summaries, including the generalization of “inherently political” that I’ve introduced to cover technology in the current era.

By “governance” we mean processes by which some actors (perhaps all!) in a society participate in the formation of choices and the taking of decisions about the future state and functioning of society. This includes substantive impacts on lives, livelihoods, roles, agency, opportunities, distribution of power, ability to be considered for primary roles in key institutions, etc. The most important case for governance is when its effect is to shape future governance — e.g., the ‘rules’ that determine who participates in charting society’s course, and how they participate.

In brief, “technology with political qualities” is technology that, when entered into practice, shifts governance in a community. It may do so by dissolving an issue, by settling a matter (e.g., after the manner of McCormick or R. Moses), by introducing new mechanisms for people to influence societal relationships in the future, or by creating or removing barriers to participation by some in processes aimed at shaping the collective future .
“Inherently political technology,” in Winner’s definition, is technology that is only compatible with one or a narrow range of (future) forms of governance — e.g., in the way that nuclear weapons technology requires the absolute centralization and hierarchical control over decision-making pertaining to the use of these systems. However, many modern technologies, such as social media, are clearly disruptive of governance, yet may be compatible with a variety of societal arrangements. We therefore generalize Winner and allow that “inherently political” can also be taken to mean (a) that governance in the present society is essentially certain to change in substantive ways, (b) we may not know the timing or follow-on form of governance if we look ahead, but then (c) looking ahead we can say that the follow-on form will be strongly constrained by the technology, and looking back we can see clearly how the technology caused what turned out to be the evolution of governance. In essence, our generalization says the future is not pre-determined, but it is not random or completely opaque — it’s shape will reflect the technology in necessary ways.

Grading and Use of AI



Your essay must have an introduction (summarizes the paper, or, makes a claim that will be argued), a conclusion (summing up), and your thoughts/answers on the questions above. When you respond to these questions, you should be specific and cite specific details from the readings, class lectures, and your own research. You should have at least two references; these may include documents or lectures from the class. Also, you MUST make sure to cite your sources in your response and include a reference list at the end of your essay. Citations must be from reputable sources. Sites like Wikipedia, about.com, etc. are NOT considered acceptable sources. 



You may use AI as a thought partner, but in this, your thinking must lead. Keep in mind that grammar checking and language improvement now uses AI, and that the results you receive will almost always build in new content (extend your thinking); therefore, always critique what you receive for (a) validity or non-hallucination, and (b) indications it has added to your thinking. You may not submit the prompt to an AI, and you may not use AI to write any part of your paper, even if you were to cite it as a source. See the syllabus for the complete discussion of how you may and may not use AI.

Higher credit will be given for responses that show evidence of a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the topics involved.
 You are encouraged to review the rubric for this assignment and make sure that you answer each question in detail and with specifics.
 Correct use of English is a fundamental requirement for your papers to be graded.


Formatting

Standard font, 12pt.
 MLA, APA, or any other format is acceptable provided that it is consistent through the entire paper. No cover sheets.