Introduction
Technological systems are usually very dynamic and complex. Their complexities stem from the impact they have on the environment and other aspects of human life.
The electrification process also shares this complexity because since its birth, electrification has greatly influenced the economic, political, and social aspects of life. For instance, many people have experienced some form of electrification at one point in their lives.
This way, electrification has served different purposes in life, including being an object of transportation, profit making, a political issue, and an element of spectacle (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
Even though electrification has had an immense impact on human life, the electrification process still baffles many people (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
Therefore, electrification has been, for a long time, a mystery to many people. For example, Bijker & Hughes (1987) say “Electricity is a carrier of light and power, devour of time and space, bearer of human speech over land and sea, and the greatest servant of man, yet it is unknown to many people” (p. 106).
Therefore, even though electrification may seem like a simple process, it is not. In fact, Bijker & Hughes (1987) say electrification is a process of several political, technical, and ideological systems that all work together to create the “electrification” experience.
Technological systems also share this complexity because technological systems are also processes of several political, technical, and ideological systems that work together to create the technological system (Allen 2000).
This paper draws from the above complexities to show the relationship between technological systems and the electrification process.
Specifically, this paper uses the above relationship to demonstrate that the electrification process and technological systems are both complex and related. Therefore, through their complexities, this paper identifies several parallels that show how both systems work.
More specifically, this paper uses the electrification process to show the characteristics and outcomes of technological systems. Broadly, this essay takes the example of electrification to show the origins, characteristics, and consequences of technological systems.
Through this analogy, this paper shows that the origins of technology span through four eras – pre-mechanical, mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic eras. Through these eras, technological systems have gained several characteristics, like inter-connectivity, control, and hierarchy.
Comprehensively, this paper uses these characteristics to show that technological systems have had an immense impact on the society by solving human problems, advancing human goals, and instilling social control.
Origins of Technological Systems
Many experts compare the history of technological systems to the history of humanity (Brady 2011). Some experts draw parallels between technological systems and humanity to show that technological systems are as old as humanity (Brady 2011).
Indeed, since the existence of humanity, technological systems have characterized human life. However, different forms of technological systems characterize different points of human evolution. Nonetheless, the history of technological systems aligns with different stages of evolution.
Brady (2011) says that four ages define the growth and development of technological systems – pre-mechanical, mechanical, electromechanical, and electrification.
Pre-mechanical
The earliest forms of technological systems trace to the pre-mechanical age where people started communicating using language and simple drawings.
This period falls between 3000 B.C and 400 A.D (Brady 2011). In this age, people used simple picture drawings such as petroglyths and the Phoenician alphabet to communicate.
Through an increased popularity of the alphabet, people started to develop pen and paper for easy communication (written texts). The first forms of writing manifested as simple marks on wet clay, but as technology improved, people started to write on paper.
People developed the first forms of paper from the papyrus plant. Some people (like the Chinese) also developed paper from other materials like rags (their paper was very popular) (Brady 2011).
Since people had already embraced paper as the acceptable form of communication, the need for storing paper emerged. Consequently, people developed books and libraries.
Through such developments, scrolls (like the popular Egyptian scrolls) also emerged (other societies preferred to bind paper together and make booklets) (Brady 2011). Through the creation of booklets and the need to store information in this form, people developed the numbering system.
Indians developed the first sets of numbers (one to nine). However, it was not until 775 years later when people developed the number “0” as an integral part of the human numerical system (Brady 2011).
Since numbers became an integral part of human life, people started to apply numbers in many aspects of trade and economic activities (calculators emerged through this development).
In fact, many historians say calculators were the first forms of information processing systems (Brady 2011). The abacus was among the first popular forms of information processing systems (calculator).
Mechanical Age
The second age of technological system development is the mechanical age. This age outlines the link between current and past technologies. The mechanical age falls between the years 1450 and 1840 (Brady 2011).
This period saw the proliferation of many new technologies, and an increased interest in the same area (information technology). Certainly, during the same period, scientists developed many new technologies, like the slide rule.
Such technologies could multiply and divide numbers, thereby complementing numerical functions, as described in the pre-mechanical period. During the same period, some of the earliest technology inventors, like Blaise Pascal, invented the first mechanical computers (Brady 2011).
Other scientists and engineers, like Charles Babbage, also developed some of the earliest engines (difference engine) during this period.
Such engines tabulated polynomial equations using finite differences (Brady 2011). Comprehensively, many types of machines emerged during the mechanical age.
Electromechanical age
The electromechanical age bears a close resemblance to modern machines. Historians estimate that the electromechanical age spans between 1840 and 1940 (Brady 2011). This period marked the beginning of the telecommunication period.
For example, scientists developed the telegraph machine and the Morse code during this time. Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, and Harvard scientists also developed the first telephone, first radio, and the first large scale digital computer respectively, during the same period (Brady 2011).
Electronic Age
The fourth age offers the most compelling understanding of the growth and development of technological systems because it defines the electronic age that affects us today.
The electronic age started from around 1940 and its spans through several decades, to date (Brady 2011). Through the same era, the birth of the electrification era occurred.
Characteristics of technological Systems
Inter-Connectivity
Like many systems, technological systems have an input and output. The same is also true for electrical systems because they also have an input and an output.
For example, heat and mechanical energy outline the inputs of an electrical system and electrical energy defines its output (Bijker & Hughes 1987). However, the outputs of technological systems come from the different components that define the system.
Components that define technological systems include physical artifacts, organizations, and legislative artifacts (Bijker & Hughes 1987). These artifacts normally work together to achieve the common goal of the technological system.
Therefore, if one artifact misses from the system, alterations to other artifacts, or the entire system, may occur. For example, in an electric system, any alteration to one system component may cause changes in transmission or distribution of power (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
If this example mirrored an institutional framework, a change of policy in one area would lead to the change of policy in another area.
However, these interconnected systems are socially constructed artifacts because system builders develop technological systems (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
Comparatively, the same people who build electrical appliances are the same people who construct and develop manufacturing companies or electrical companies.
Ordinarily, these groups of people develop electrical hardware and their associated companies (two groups of people undertake both tasks) (Bijker & Hughes 1987). Nonetheless, their tasks show that technological systems are interconnected artifacts.
Limits of Control
Technological systems are subject to artificial and natural limits of control. Environmental control is one such limit of control that characterizes technological systems.
The characteristic of technological systems as processes of environmental control stem from the role that organizational components play as system-builder creations.
Certainly, technological systems are often subject to environmental factors that are beyond the control of the operation managers (Lee & Bai 2003). However, not all these factors are organized.
For example, if the supply of energy surfaces as part of the technological system, it then becomes part of the technological system.
Since the limits of control define technological systems, users have always tried to delimit the system. For example, throughout history, technology has strived to incorporate environmental factors into their systems so that they reduce the effect of environmental uncertainties.
In closed systems, where the influence of the environment is non-existent, managers often resort to bureaucracies, and routine as possible ways of controlling some unexpected environmental factors (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
From the above analysis, two types of environmental factors surface as the most significant limits of technological systems – independent and dependent factors.
The same limitations apply to the electrification process. For example, the supply of fuel to a power system often surfaces as an important environmental limit that influences electric or power supply systems.
Concisely, the electrification process shares control limits with technological systems because load dispatching centers and human load dispatchers limit electrification processes (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
These dispatching centers control the power loads and transmissions throughout the electrical system. Furthermore, human limitations, through standards and specifications, limit the designs of the dispatching centers (Hughes 1979).
The introduction of these standards to the electrification process may include the inclusion of utilities, banks, and agencies that are supposed to protect the relevant regulations.
The inclusion of these agencies outlines part of a larger hierarchical structure that controls utility management (Hughes 1979).
If we compare the above situation to the electrification process, the interconnection between electric utilities and other forms of utilities may create a centrally focused electric light and power system that controls the entire electrification process.
These regional and central structures often integrate at different levels. For example, electric utilities may integrate with coal mining companies, or other companies that use electricity utilities.
Such types of integrations were common during the First World War and the Second World War (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
The limit of control that defines technological systems also manifest through a self-check system where human intervention not only manifests through the design of the technological system, or its innovation, but also in the feedback system, where users may make improvements to merge the technological functions of the system with their intended goals (Hughes 1979).
In so doing, people create limits to the technological system by correcting the existing system errors. The involvement of people in the control of the technological system depends on their degree of autonomy with the system.
This autonomy is often subject to the bureaucracies that surround the application of the system (Hughes 1979). Bijker & Hughes (1987) say that old systems are often easier to control, as they are less adaptable to change.
Therefore, like old people, old systems are often rigid, but similarly, unlike people, older systems may not easily fade away and become frail. Comparatively, large systems often exert a lot of pressure on smaller systems, thereby exerting a sphere of control in this regard.
Hierarchy
Hierarchy is a common attribute of technological systems. This attribute emanates from the preference by inventors and organizers of technological systems to design technological systems in a hierarchical manner (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
This hierarchical structure may define the interacting physical artifacts of a system, or the same artifacts may manifest as a system that shares different subcomponents (Hughes 1979). The same model may also manifest through the interaction of organizations.
For example, in an electric power system, interacting physical artifacts may be turbines or generators (Bijker & Hughes 1987). More specifically, these physical artifacts may have subsystems of their own.
The understanding of technological systems as hierarchal systems may however fail to show the true picture of technological systems.
For example, important components of an electric light or power system, such as social costs and other external factors, may not materialize in the understanding of the entire system (Hughes 1979).
Similarly, engineering books may only concentrate on technical systems without incorporating the social or intangible aspects of the engineering system (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
Therefore, students who use such books often get a distorted picture that system development circumscribes perfectly, while it does not.
This distortion may also characterize the technological system as it often focuses on the technical aspects of its development, thereby neglecting the social aspects of the same model. Albeit hierarchy may not be perfect, it still forms an integral characteristic of technological systems.
Consequences of Technological Systems
Problem Solving and Goal Fulfilling
Scientists designed technological systems to solve problems and fulfill specific goals (Hughes 1979). Most of the designs that characterize technological systems concern the reorganization of the “real” world through technology.
Such designs may portray technological systems as postdated solutions to a problem. For example, the creation of electrical utilities created the demand for electrical products, which people could use when electricity consumption was low (Bijker & Hughes 1987).
Through such creations, technological systems have provided many solutions to social and economic problems. Therefore, the problem-solving task is the main preoccupation of technological systems as they seek to redefine the material world, to improve its efficiency and productivity.
Social Control
Businesspersons, police, and politicians appreciate the importance of technology in bringing social order (Nye 1991). Indeed, technological systems provide useful tools of social control.
Again, a parallel exists between technological systems (as a tool of control) and electrification because there are numerous examples that show how electrification acts as a tool for social control as well.
For example, streetlights prevent muggers and thieves from going about their criminal activities, freely. Electric bells that most people install on clocks also help people to know the right time by ringing when they are set to do so.
Furthermore, electric burglar alarms are useful in detecting forced entry into premises, thereby proving to be helpful in preventing trespass and thefts of property (Nye 1991).
Similarly, authorities may use electric loudspeakers to warn people about impending disasters, or inform them about an important issue (Nye 1991).
More examples of how electrification supports social control manifest in the control of traffic through electric traffic lights and the installation of electric fences to control livestock and intruders.
Comprehensively, technological systems are useful to the society by bringing social order and solving some of the most pressing problems in human life.
Conclusion
The re-organization of the world, through technology opens new opportunities for development and the advancement of human goals. This paper highlights the positive aspects of technological systems that have aided human development.
However, it is also important to appreciate that technological systems also have their ethical and moral considerations.
Therefore, even though some societies, have fully embraced these technological systems, others are still aware about their devastating effects on the society (such as warfare and environmental destruction).
Therefore, it is crucial to understand that, albeit technological systems may provide immense benefits to humanity, they may also have a negative effect on humanity in the same regard.
References
Allen, J 2000, ‘Information systems as technological innovation’, Information Technology & People, vol. 13 no. 3, pp. 210 – 221.
Bijker, W & Hughes, T 1987, The Social Construction of Technological Systems, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Brady, W 2011, History of Information Technology. Web.
Hughes, T 1979, ‘The Electrification of America: The System Builders’, Technology and Culture, vol. 20 no. 1, pp. 124–161.
Lee, G & Bai, R 2003, ‘Organizational mechanisms for successful IS/IT strategic planning in the digital era’, Management Decision, vol. 41 no. 1, pp. 32 – 42.
Nye, D 1991, Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.