Question

PL401

For your first essay, please write a two- to three-page (600-900 word) response to the following question:

In "I'd Hammer Out Freedom: Technology as Politics and Culture" (pp. 75- 82), Richard Sclove argues that we should do more to acknowledge technology's 'polypotency.' What does this term mean, why does Sclove think that it is important to acknowledge this characteristic of technology? Do you agree with Sclove that technology has this characteristic? Why or why not? If you agree that technology is polypotent, do you agree with Sclove that it is important that we address this fact as we reflect on our relationships with technologies? Why or why not?

Please ensure that your essay addresses each component of the assigned question and that your answer is well-organized, uses excellent, college-level prose, and makes judicious use of textual evidence.

Technology's Polypotency

Technology's polypotency has been used to mean the multiple aspects of interference caused by the introduction of a technology with a relatively few or even a singular purpose in mind. Polypotency could be argued to be caused by way of universal adaptation. Unless the bulk of society does not renege control to the technology, regardless of what technology it is, the technology itself has little power really.

For example, something simple like the internet was merely a pinging tool for the nerdiest of our kind. Not until the bankers of Wall Street, grandmothers of Iowa and sheep herders of Mongolia began to place trust in it that it turned to be the formidable entity it has turned into today - capable of powering revolutions. In a way, our adaptation and the precise method that the process comes about to be results in the...