VPM1904: Science (Politics), Technology (Greed) & the Society (Polarized)

Have you seen the movie "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?" A world where primates, not Homo sapiens, are at the top of the food chain. It takes place ten years after a lab's race to develop a cure for the Alzheimer disease resulted in genetically altered apes with heightened intelligence and a plague for the planet's humans. The "Simian Flu," as it was called, reduced humanity to a meager million. Science or a fiction? Well! Twenty-five million people died just under five years between 1347 and 1352 due to plague. An estimated 400 million of Europe's population died of plague between 1000 and 1352. For perspective, in 1300 AD Earth's total population was 300 to 500 million and Europe's total population was 87 million. Today, our planet's and Europe's populations have fostered to 8 billion and 450 million, respectively. What if the plague returns in this interconnected planet with more than eight billion people where heightened conflict and denial of scientific theories persists? Science, technology, and society may hold the fate of humanity. The overall aim of this course is to examine the science-technology-society axis through the ages: a complex interplay among science, society, culture, religion and politics.The aim of this course is to use the historical information to understand how science and technology affect social relations, and conversely how the culture of a society shapes the science and technologies it produces. Some of the questions this course will address are:-Do different technologies produce or result from different economic systems like feudalism, capitalism, and communism? -Can specific technologies promote democratic or authoritarian politics? -Do they suggest or enforce different patterns of race, class or gender relations? -How have the fields of science and technology evolved over time, and what does the future hold? -How should societies manage those fields to achieve just and sustainable communities?

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