For me, 2024 ended up with an episode of CBC Ideas about Dr Ursula Franklin, who delivered the Massey Lectures in 1989 on The Real World of Technology. I was taking notes as I was listening to the episode (a good sign something was really connecting for me).
I’m only at the starting point; I don’t know more about her work than what the episode discussed, but it was a compelling introduction. So, at least for the next couple months, I expect that I’m going to be delving further into her work.
It kicked off when the program pointed out Franklin considered technology as practice – “the way we do things around here.” This caught my attention because Nathan Lowell just noted that “Practice” will be his word for the year (https://zirk.us/@nlowell/113742070702096103), and that resonated for me. I read Donald Schon’s book “Educating the Reflective Practitioner” in grad school. It’s applicable to a range of fields (architecture for me) broadly focusing on how to teach a process (like design) that cannot be taught directly & needs to be internalized.
Ursula Franklin divided technology into two categories: Holistic Technology, which is defined by the artisan’s choice, where the doer is in control of the whole process; and Prescriptive Technology, where the making is broken down into steps, the concept of division of labor. That’s an idea to delve further into; here’s the wiki summary to start with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Franklin#Holistic_and_prescriptive_technologies
Another Franklin quote: “…wish(ing) that the government of Canada would treat Nature with the same respect that all governments of Canada have always treated the United States…”
And 7 points in the discourse on public decision making for a new project:
*it promotes justice
*it restores reciprocity
*it confers divisible or indivisible benefits
*if it favors people over machines
*whether strategy maximizes gain or minimizes disaster
*whether conservation is favored over waste
*whether the reversible is favored over the irreversible
These are good things to give more consideration to.
Here’s the link to the CBC Ideas episode – Massey at 60: How Physicist Ursula Franklin’s Prescient Ideas on Technology Persist – https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-23-ideas/clip/16098841-masseys-60-physicist-ursula-franklins-prescient-ideas-technology
I’ve gotten a copy of “The Real World of Technology” revised edition from the library to start reading. So that’s a starting point for the new year. I expect this will be a thing for at least the first quarter of the year. And it’s engaging enough that it’s prompted me to write this.
