The reflection prompt for this learning activity, as to ‘who/what is driving technological change – is it the inhabitants of the landscape or the technology itself?’ is a bit of a which came first – the chicken or the egg? kind of question.
I’d first consider why a particular technology is created. Usually, society has a particular ‘need’ that requires fulfilling. In this case, society would be the driving force behind the creation of many technologies. Developments would be made by experts in the fields of technological research and development, engineering, science and academia, as appropriate. But of course, technological advancement and development does not always occur following such a linear ‘need to solution’ pathway. Oft at times, technological advancements are made as a random discovery. Consider the discovery of penicillin for example, which was made by chance by Scottish researcher Sir Alexander Fleming. Interestingly, in an article, Kalvaitis states that published reports have credited Fleming as saying,
One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on Sept. 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that was exactly what I did (2008).
The “information landscape” (O’Connell et al., 2021, module 2.2) or “infosphere”, as referred to by Floridi (2007) is currently populated by a distribution of “digital immigrants” and “digital natives”. These terms have been coined to denote the generations born either prior to, or into, the current digital environment of constant online connectivity that defines modern-day reality. As the “digital natives” continue to increase in numbers, and “digital immigrants” steadily cease to exist, society will soon enough become comprised of only those who have lived through no alternative form of technological existence. The problem is that information as it exists in today’s society, is “easy to manipulate”, often lacking in “authority” and “authenticity” (O’Connell et al., 2021, module 2.2). I would argue that this supports the idea that we as a society are losing control and that it is the technology itself that is largely driving the agenda.
Ironically, Artificial Intelligence, in its design has been created as a “learning machine” to “create or modify algorithms without human intervention” (Exposure Labs, 2020). So, it is essentially an issue we as a society has brought upon ourselves with the creation of this technology. Will we as a society every be able to catch up to the ‘technological beast’ that we have, in fact, created? O’Connell et al. (2021, module 2.2) highlights that governments are struggling to keep up with technological changes in the information landscape. Sadly, I fear that society will always be trailing behind.
References
Exposure Labs. (2020). The social dilemma. https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/faqs/
Floridi, L. (2007). A look into the future impact of ICT on our lives. The Information Society, 23, 59-64. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=85db181f-aa54-430d-a0f9-9c95209a63c4%40sdc-v-sessmgr01
Kalvaitis, K. (2008). Penicillin: An accidental discovery changed the course of medicine. Helio. https://www.healio.com/news/endocrinology/20120325/penicillin-an-accidental-discovery-changed-the-course-of-medicine
O’Connell, J., Derouet, L. & Korodaj, L. (2021). 2.2 The nature of information [Learning module]. ETL401: Introduction to teacher librarianship. Interact 2. https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContentEditable.jsp?content_id=_4449688_1&course_id=_57504_1