The Golem At Large Analysis

"The Golem at Large: What you should know about technology"

Technology can be regarded as a phenomenon with vast uncertainties. Technological change is rapid and we are struggling to keep up to date with the latest advances, while learning new ones and trying to prepare for the next changes proposed for the future. In order to do so, however, we need to be clear about what we mean, and what we consider to be a technology and evaluate some of the assumptions of our understanding of our technologically advanced society.

In ‘The Golem at Large, What we should know about technology' The authors' main purpose is to show their audience that we trust technology too much and don't take into consideration that human error occurs. Much of the world
They prove this by showing us how the imperfections of technology are related to the uncertainties of science. They are basically trying to show the audience that we need not trust technology completely, because we are the ones who developed it to originally and that humans are really the ones not to be trusted. Many of these cases have a main point to be accomplished by the authors'. For example in the Patriot missile story, they try to bring a certain message across to their audience to prove their thesis. Sometimes, issues that the authors attempt to address are raised in the context of technology the are discussing. However, these instances are few and far between and the proposed solutions ,I feel ,can be
As quoted in the book from the Chernobyl and the Cumbrian Sheepfarmers, "Rather than admitting to the uncertainties, they made false claims which in the long run being unsustainable. This encouraged the farmers to change their views of scientists and watch them beck and call to their government masters." This is exactly the point that Pinch and Collins are trying to prove. Should we or should we not have trust in the system of technology or should we go on believing what the so called experts tell us. In cases of technological failure, such as the space shuttle, they say, "Invariably humans are accused of causing the failure rather than the failure being recognized as one of a complex technology." Their point also is that we tend always to go for the more human explanation when technologies go wrong. In the cases of the Chernobyl nuclear fallout, where British farmers quickly saw the effects on their animals, and of AIDS, where victims offered advice ,but often bad, the book makes the point that expertise is where knowledge is. "Lay people can have expertise, That doesn't mean that one voice is as good as another, but that people can contribute and gain expertise. Scientists shouldn't reject that." The message they are trying to give is that no one should deny expert advise. Particularly there should be trust in the work of scientists and technologists they are