Taken alone, the electronic media and digital computer technologies are powerful enough but it has been the synergistic union of the two in what is broadly known as computer communications which has generated unprecedented technological possibilities. Time, space, and effective cost are continually being reduced by new combined applications of computer, mass storage, and electronic and optical transmission technologies. The control of information within this new technological framework is more dispersed and decentralized than ever before and the roles of governments, commercial interests, and private individuals are often difficult to determine and understand.
From the above short history, it should be clear that the development of information technology has altered the relationships between three dimensions: time (how quickly can I get or send a piece of information?), space (from how far away can I access or send a piece of information in a given amount of time?), and cost (given a time and distance, how much does it cost me to send or receive a piece of information?). There is also a strong interdependence between knowledge, power, and information.
Technology and Society
Before considering the social role and impact of information technology in particular, it is helpful to consider the characteristics of technology in general in terms of its development, distribution, and use. First, when considering relationships between technology and society, it must be clear just what society we are talking about. Failure to do this is one way in which inappropriate technology is applied in some societies (even our own). I will be talking about Western, post-industrial societies, and Canadian society in particular.
We must not lose sight of the fact that it is very difficult to objectively assess technological impact on our own society because we have already been affected by both the society and the technology we are studying. This is the first known effect of technology: it impairs our ability to assess its effect on us. One way it does this is described as technological determinism which is a choice limiting phenomenon resulting from the application of a technology by society. As defined by Heather Menzies, it is the effect of combined technical and social systems which fix the relationships between machines and their users and which institutionalize the ways in which technology can be used or further evolve. Seen this way, technology is more than a collection of tools from which we select the most appropriate for the task at hand or use as a basis for developing new tools.
Finally, the philosophical and psychological facets of technology cannot be ignored in relation to technology and society. Here, we are dealing with a second order effect arising from technological determinism. Not only does the current state of technology determine our choices for the future but it also influences our intellectual and emotional responses (our mind set) to technology and to socio-economic problems generally.
Despite the above difficulties in assessing technology's impact, we have no choice but to try. As we shall see in the following section, failure to address the impact of the new information technology may well result in increasing control of information by a powerful few, and in further erosion of the rights and choices of individuals regarding the application of new technology.
Information Technology and Society: Establishing Social Control
It seems reasonable that if technology is at least partially the response of society to solving its problems and the desire to achieve progress by some measure, members of society should have some control over its application. Control includes the choice between alternatives, the timing and location of the application of a particular technology, the means of human interaction, and the means of regulation.
The report to the President of France by Simon Nora and Alain Minc (published in 1978 as The Computerization of Society), was one of the first efforts to make a serious estimate of the future implications of what was then the emerging interconnection of communications and computers. Nora and Minc introduced the French neologism t‚l‚matique to describe the new technology, and were remarkably successful in identifying many of the social transformations which have occurred in the succeeding 15 years. They concluded that data processing makes possible and accelerates the rise of a very highly productive society, with work and jobs much different than those required in the industrial society. They suggested that these changes could produce a less structured society with a danger of confrontation between innumerable mobile groups. They felt that telematics would affect both language and knowledge (which they defined as collective memory) resulting in both equality and discrimination between social groups. These effects have in fact been seen throughout much of the word and are still taking place.
Nora and Minc also identified the relationship between the control of knowledge (social memory) and the hierarchy of social power. In an effort to socialize information, they proposed that a smooth functioning society must permit individuals and groups to be able to express their aspirations and dislikes but that information concerning the constraints be received and accepted. The State can synthesize information from decentralized units of society, confronting the long-term difficulties and taking into account the collective plan. The results (social policies) must be returned to groups and individuals in an acceptable and effective way, to produce desirable reactions. They envisaged a computerized society in which homogeneous communities would be networked to their counterparts and to the centre. The two-way flow of information would achieve agreement and compromise involving ever larger communities and increasingly long-range views.
The idealistic views of Nora and Minc seem unrealistic from today's viewpoint. In a more recent study (Fast Forward and Out of Control, 1989), Heather Menzies describes the approaching enclosure of our society in a technological monopoly of knowledge, which includes a way of knowing and doing, which is coming to dominate all institutions of private and public life, including biological reproduction and public education. Evidence of the gravitation to a systems view of society, with its emphasis on rationality and economic efficiency, can be seen in the redefinition of such institutions as work (and unemployment), health care, and retail customer service.
A revealing example of the systems approach to revamping social institutions is described by Menzies in the computerization of a women's residence at a large Canadian university. The dean of women ran the residence, in which many years of experience allowed her to carry out all the required administrative requirements in a way which addressed the personal needs of the students. In an effort to bring the residence in line with the growing computerization of the other administrative and academic departments of the university, and to save money in the long run, the systems expert's proposal was to eliminate the night clerk and employ automatic control systems for the doors and lights. Computerized payment of residence fees was also proposed which would eliminate the need for a senior staff member to carry out the twice yearly collection. The dean of women disagreed with the system expert. The night clerk acted as a safety net for the residents returning at night and to generally see that all was well. The collection of fees permitted the opportunity to for the staff member to talk to each of the girls and to offer help with personal and financial difficulties that might arise. The computer, she argued, would be blind to these complexities and sensitivities. Sadly, she was offered early retirement and the computerized system was installed. There are many similar scenarios, the most familiar of which is the elimination of the human operator from the telephone system. In all cases there is an uncontrolled growth in the range of application of the technology in the name of system efficiency.
Our initial look at the history of information technology should serve to remind us that there is nothing fundamentally new in the lack of control and choice which individuals feel in responding to unrelenting technological development. History is in fact filled with accounts of individuals who fought, usually unsuccessfully, against the onslaught of misdirected technological "progress". Today, individuals and groups must engage in a difficult struggle with political leaders, international and local business interests, technologists, and educators to have their needs, desires, and opinions heard. The economic assessment of technological solutions must take into account social and environmental factors, even when they are difficult to quantify in a cost-benefit analysis. Engineers and scientists must assume greater moral responsibility to publicly criticize inappropriate and misdirected technological developments such as the U.S. "Strategic Defence Initiative", or the substitution of human expertise by cost saving computer systems. Educators must help to foster both critical and creative facilities in students so that they are better equipped to make and articulate choices and assume effective control of new technologies.
In the village near my farm, the bank which employs three full time workers is in danger of closing, to be replaced by a automatic teller machine. As an exercise in coming to grips with a real example of the application of information technology within a social system, consider the following questions: what roles do the bank and its employees currently play in the community?, what will be gained and lost by the bank's closing and who will be the winners and losers?, and, lastly, is there any practical response by the bank's customers which will enable them to establish control and choice in this situation?
Suggested Reading
Richard C. Dorf, Technology and Society, Boyd and Fraser Publishing Co., 1974
Simon Nora and Alain Minc, The Computerization of Society, MIT Press, 1981
Heather Menzies, Fast Forward and Out of Control, MacMillan of Canada, 1989