Good morning co-managers, what Im going to talk about for todays discussion is a topic where

you my listeners and me as a reporter will go on a journey to dig deeper on a subject where
theres no sufficient information available but somehow we are gonna try our best to make a
meaningful discussion about it. So, I kindly ask everyone to lend me their ears and be a critic of
my report.
To start with, what comes up to your mind when you hear the word Technocriticism?
Flash the first slide
I bet its a whole lot of words hold your thoughts for a moment cos at the course of this
discussion we will find out together if your what youre thinking is a part of the concept of
tecghnocriticism.
Technology is a central part of our lives and it brought us to higher living standards and greater
comfort. But an unquestioning reliance on technology can create a culture where people expect
technological solutions to all problems. Technology can put decisions in the hands of the
technologists, degrade public discussion, and divert attention, discussion, and funds. It often
alters power relations between people, generally amplifying the power for some. We need to
understand and anticipate to some degree the effects of specific technology. And this is where
Technocriticism comes in.
What is Technocriticism?
Flash the second slide
Technocriticism is a branch of critical theory devoted to the study of technological change.
First it is a branch of critical theory. Critical theory of technology combines insights from
philosophy of technology and constructivist technology studies. Critical theories of technology
argue that technologies are not separate from society but are adapted to specific social and
political systems.
Technological change is the overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology
or processes. In essence technological change is the invention of technologies (including
processes) and their commercialization via research and development (producing emerging
technologies), the continual improvement of technologies (in which they often become less
expensive), and the diffusion of technologies throughout industry or society (which sometimes
involves disruption and convergence). In short, technological change is based on both better and
more technology.
Technocriticism, it treats technological transformation as historically specific changes in personal
and social practices of research, invention, regulation, distribution, promotion, appropriation,
use, and discourse, rather than as an autonomous or socially indifferent accumulation of useful
inventions, or as an uncritical narrative of linear "progress", "development" or "innovation".
Technological transformation is a complete or major change in somethings appearance. Thus in
technocriticism, technologies are not neutral tools, because they are implicated in the sociopolitical order they serve and contribute to shaping, nor can they be characterized by a singular

essence of technology because they evolve historically along with other aspects of society.
Historically specific is when something is focused on a specific time in history.
The act of consciously or subconsciously disregarding, even ignoring an individual in any social
setting where the person being shunned is considered and treated as insignificant; unimportant;
unappealing either poor or ugly or too skinny or too fat or disfigured with the inability to make
the someone "look" good (therefore "distancing" for appearance sake) also lack of other values
as in wealth or fame, the lack thereof not of a benefit to those actively shunning.
Technocriticism studies these personal and social practices in their changing practical and
cultural significance.
It documents and analyzes both their private and public uses, and often devotes special attention
to the relations among these different uses and dimensions. Recurring themes in technocritical
discourse include the deconstruction of essentialist concepts such as "health", "human", "nature"
or "norm".
There are two types of Technocriticism "descriptive" or "prescriptive" in form.
If forced, one might categorize them into social and group theories. Additionally, one might
distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive.
Descriptive forms of technocriticism can be discerned in elements of scholarship described
instead as the history of technology science and technology studies, or especially technocultural
theory.
Descriptive theories attempt to address the definition and substance of technology, the ways it
has emerged, changed and its relation to the human/social sphere. More substantively it
addresses the extent of which technology is autonomous and how much force it has in
determining human practice or social structure. Critical theories of technology often take a
descriptive theory as their basis and articulate concerns, examining what way the relationship can
be changed. Basically descriptive form providing facts about how a language is actually and
rather than rules that tell people how it could be used. Its nonrestrictive, not limiting or
controlling.
Descriptive forms of technocriticism include some scholarship in the history of technology,
science and technology studies, cyberculture studies and philosophy of technology.
There are a number of theories attempting to address technology, which tend to be associated
with the disciplines of science and technology studies (STS) and communication studies. Most
generally, the theories attempt to address the relationship between technology and society.
Prescriptive form on the other hand is making or giving directions, rules, or injunctions.

Prescriptive forms can be found in the various branches of technoethical discourse.

To name a few these are media criticism, infoethics, bioethics,
Other branches are neuroethics, roboethics, nanoethics, existential risk assessment and some
versions of environmental ethics and environmental design theory. Technoethics consists in the
deliberative engagements of the multiple and contending stakeholders to the problems of
technological development.
While technocultural theory and technoethical discourse are distinguishable from one another
and irreducible to one another, technocriticism often analyzes associations, tensions, and
interdependencies between their many dimensions and deployments.
Figures engaged in technocritical scholarship and theory are
Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour (who work in the closely related field of science studies), N.
Katherine Hayles(who works in the field of Literature and Science), Phil Agree and Mark Poster
(who works in intellectual history), Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler (who work in the
closely related field of media studies), Susan Squier and Richard Doyle (who work in the closely
related field of medical sociology), and Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger,
and Michel Foucault (who sometimes wrote about the philosophy of technology).
As a conclusion we can say that:
Technocriticism can be juxtaposed with a number of other innovative interdisciplinary areas of
scholarship which have surfaced in recent years such as technoscience and technoethics.
Cyberculture or computer culture is the culture that has emerged, or is emerging, from the use of
computer networks for communication, entertainment, and business.
The social conditions brought about by the widespread use of computer networks for
communication, entertainment, and business.
Technoscience refers specifically to the technological and social context of science.
Technoscience recognises that scientific knowledge is not only socially coded and historically
situated but sustained and made durable by material (non-human) networks. Technoscience states
that the fields of science and technology are linked and grow together, and scientific knowledge
requires an infrastructure of technology in order to remain stationary or move forward.
Technoethics (TE) is an interdisciplinary research area that draws on theories and methods from
multiple knowledge domains (such as communications, social sciences information studies,
technology studies, applied ethics, and philosophy) to provide insights on ethical dimensions of
technological systems and practices for advancing a technological society. Technoethics views
technology and ethics as socially embedded enterprises and focuses on discovering the ethical
use of technology, protecting against the misuse of technology, and devising common principles
to guide new advances in technological development and application to benefit society.