Blog 7: Program Two: Cultural Hermeneutics

This chapter seemed to look a bit deeper into technology and how in fact culture plays a role in the way that technology is used and therefore what it in fact is. The first section of the chapter shows that when cultures use a device for different uses it becomes something else altogether. There a few examples mentioned in the text. One being the sardine can that the Australians brought with them when entering the New Guinean highlands in the hopes of finding gold. The New Guineans found sardine cans left behind and then used them as a center piece for their headwear. By the look and shape of the object they did what they perceived it to be used for. An object is what it is culturally. Another example is the case of the clock. The clock as we use it today is for regulataing time and the Chinese clock was for an astrological calender than for telling hours, minutes, and seconds. As states int he book: "a contextless conclusion that the 'technology' as such is 'neutral' but takes its significance dependent upon different 'uses' (p.128)." An object is what it is in its cultural context.
The book then went into a bit of a different direction. Ihde started to discuss the difference in first and third world countries. A lot of what he said made sense. He discussed the fact that science education is essential in order to become an high-technological country. While we are one of the first world countries money for research and development and scientists and engineers, third world countries do not have this luxury. These countries want to develop but are not given the chance. One interesting point that he mentioned was the idea that children in Japan, China, etc. are exceeding United States' children in mathematics and science. This is something that should be recognized. Due to current technologies like the calculator, mathematics may have taken the back burner. Everyone can enter numbers into a calculator, but you still have to be able to read the numbers and comprehend the meaning. It seems as though we are falling behind a bit globally.
The last section of the book goes into the idea of controlling our technologies. There is no way to control something that you have not mastered. The whole idea of "controlling" a technology is a hard question to answer. Is any type of technology controllable? In order to control something you have to know every facit of it. It seems to me that nothing is truly controllable. Especially with things continually changing. This chapter's main focus seemed to be on the idea of connecting technology to our culture. Your culture makes an object what it is.