Here is another short article analysis I wrote for one of my university courses last term. The artilce is “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering” by Alvin Weinberg. Just in case your didn’t know, Alvin Weinberg is a famous (at least in the academic world) nuclear physicist who writes articles from time to time, and below is my take on his article.
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Alvin Weinberg’s “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering” aims to explore the connection between technology and social engineering. As the title indicates, most of the article focuses on whether if technological solutions can completely replace social engineering when it comes to solving social problems. Throughout the article, the author looks at the views of both the technologist and the social engineer, and concludes that while technology can never replace social engineering, it has provided and will continue to provide options for solving social problems. In reaching such a conclusion, Weinberg recommends that the government deploy its technological resources around social problems and also calls for the cooperation between technologists and social engineers.
The author starts his article by explaining the views of the technologist and the social engineer. This information is important as the rest of the article uses these contrasting views to evaluate the role of technology in solving social problems. By defining these views at the start, the author ensures that the reader will be able to follow the rest of the article. In the rest of the article, Weinberg provides both historical and hypothetical examples to develop his argument. Because this article was written in the 1960s, some of the examples such as the suggestion of nuclear-powered desalination plants are out of date. However, this doesn’t really affect the effectiveness of the article because the author presents his ideas clearly and in enough detail so readers can understand his ideas even if the examples are out of date.
In writing this article, one of the first things that Weinberg assumes is that technology can be applied to solve social problems in general. Weinberg’s assumption seems reasonable if we accept that society and technology influence, a point of view which is supported by authors such as Robert Pool, John Seely Brown, and Paul Duguid. In “How Society Shapes Technology”, Pool concluded that technology carry “traces of both the engineer and the larger society”. This same view was presented in Brown and Duguid’s “A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-Gloom Technofuturists”, where the authors state that “technological and social systems shape each other”. If we accept these ideas, then it’s reasonable to think that society may push technology towards solving a social problem, and that technology can be used to induce social changes.
At the end of the article, Weinberg concludes that while technology cannot entirely replace social engineering, it can be a valuable tool in solving social problems. The conclusion is valid because the author spent the time to analyze both the views of technologist and the social engineer. Through presenting historical and hypothetical examples, Weinberg examines the strengths and weaknesses of these two contrasting views on solving social problems. The author demonstrates that a “Quick Technological Fix” can definitely be applied to social problems and in many cases they are effective in alleviating the problem. However, the author also looks at the downsides of applying technological solutions without looking at the root of the social problem, admitting that such solutions are at best temporary and may cause more problems in the future. After looking at the topic from several different perspectives, Weinberg logically comes to a conclusion that falls somewhere in between these two philosophies. By acknowledging both sides of the argument and by providing examples, Weinberg demonstrates that he has examined the issue carefully, and this makes the article more effective as a result.
Overall, “Can Technology Replace Social Engineering” succeeds in its purpose of examining the connections between technology and social engineering. Some of the examples in the article might be out of date by modern standards, but the author is still able to clearly convey his ideas and develop a logical and reasonable conclusion to the issue.