RESOURCE USAGE UNIT II

Session 8 Resources for production

The production in one sector is dependant on that of others, and this mutual interdependence has been illustrated by example. Historically, we could say that domestic production came first followed by agriculture and then industry. All three sectors of production need resources and we have identified five fundamental resources. Each resource plays a different role in the production process. The different 'ideal' roles are qualitatively outlined as labor, capital, environment, material and energy. These resources are heavily interdependent on each other and man has to transform these resources sometime permanently, for his use.

Session 9 Resource usage and their interdependency

The problem of accounting for resource expenditure is not merely that of accounting for the immediate production process. All resources need to be transformed and adapted to the particular process before use. This requires a further expenditure of resources. Within capital is contained an earlier expenditure of resources and this must also be accounted for. A total expenditure can be worked out by tracing all these different expenditures. Only the significant branches of the tree-like path need to be traced. To what extent and how we do it is much dependent on why we are accounting. In a world of limited resources and large scale production, a science of resource accounting is very necessary.

Session 10 Generalizations from the 2nd law of thermodynamics

we could state the following characteristics about entropy. Low Entropy High Entropy High quality energy Low quality energy Low probability states High probability states Ordered systems Disordered systems High information content Low information content Most spontaneous processes or events tend to increase the amount of Entropy in the Universe. Life systems seem to create order out of chaos and hence create negative Entropy.

Session 11 Shadows cast by entropy

The second law of thermodynamics implies that we increase the net store of entropy in the universe by our activity. This means that although we create order, more disorder results (i.e. entropy) as a by product. What we experience as environmental pollution is a manifestation of this created entropy. Life systems also generate entropy, but are able to minimize it and export it to the outside such that its manifestations are not destructive. It is therefore necessary as technologists that we study life systems so that we could minimize the disorder, so readily created in industrial activity.

Session 12 Awareness of a social cost to technology

Rapid growth of Technology in last few decades created problems in many directions. Good effects of new technology has to be estimated with due consideration for bad effects. Prior estimation of ill effects should be done without leaving it to the chance appearance of critiques and social agitators. Though the logical basis of scientific knowledge is inadequate there is no other substitute. A society which is aware of social implications and corrects use of technology is necessary.

Session 13 Some socio economic problems with technology

One of the most important category of problems created by developing technology are the socio-economic ones. We understand the social oppression in relation to Technology. Number of new concepts introduced are to be understood in the context they are used. One dimensional world' was coined by Marcuse, and others to indicate a society where antagonistic classes are brought together by economic stability and cultural ties. In other words whole society will be with a single ideology and single interest. Everybody is brought under the influence of the establishment. This is one explanation of the technological society.

Session 14 Some solutions to technology related social problems

Technology related social problems have given rise to a debate between two camps. What type of social organization can reduce such social problems has become the point of debate. Collectivists have put forward number of reorganizations in the socio political system that could eliminate several problems related to modern technology. These reorganizations are based on workers councils and participatory democracy.

Session 15 Is technology neutral?

The debates about technology are ultimately about the truth claims of rival world-views. Where there are conflicting world views (which, in turn, generate different systems of values) they will be reflected in differing attitudes to technology in general and to any given technological innovation/practice in particular. Every technology too, is an embodiment of a particular value-system and so, if left to itself, will tend to push people towards the adoption of those values. The popular belief in the "neutrality" of technology is a myth: and it leads to an idolatry of technology that, in our view, is ultimately dehumanizing. Since technology is a form of ethical action, engineering should properly be taught as a branch of Moral Philosophy. But perhaps this is too radical a suggestion for those educators still caught up in the mystique" of technology.