#esp2017

Human-made objects are connotative of their designers’ personal values because of their target audiences and dedicated functions.

In The Evolution of Useful Things, many examples of innovations and their intent are discussed, one such model of this development is the fork.  Originally, humans used knives to tear apart their food, which led to the use of two knives, one for securing the food, mainly meat, while the other cut it.  This eventually progressed into a fork with tines used to spear food and bring it to the mouth without causing such a mess.  In Defensive Architecture,  various designers constructed architectural displays in order to deter homeless persons from utilizing public devices.  The article proceeds to give various examples of alterations to the city’s structure in order to disclude those who have come to use it as their home.

Thesis  Human-made objects reveal the circumstances that a designer has considered during the design process as shown by their contemporary forms and functions.

Summary  In The Evolution of Useful Things, Henry Petroski describes the appearance and operations of everyday objects and how they have changed over time, such as the fork and the paperclip. He discusses the motivations of the designers who create those artifacts, which, by discovery of failure or a better alternative, lead to fulfilling a certain need demanded by their users. In addition, Petroski demonstrates how the eras and the people living within them are included in an inventor’s motivations.

Thesis Statement: Objects developed by humans often illustrate the preconceptions and prejudice conveyed by society regardless of their developers’ intentions to be biased or not.

The readings discussed very similar topics predominantly about racist, bias, and discriminatory actions displayed indirectly or directly displayed by artifacts and technology. The article “Racist” Technology Is a Bug – Not a Crime directly expressed the notion that technology itself cannot be racist. This article says technology does not have intent and most of the racially oppressive things caused by technology are caused by glitches or “bugs.” The article 8 Examples of racist technology incriminates technology by giving examples of how technology has been discriminatory using words like “the S630’s technology seems to favor white faces” without giving true reasoning behind why the technology cannot differentiate between Asian and other races. The Evolution of Useful Things gives detailed reasoning about how everyday materials can separate us by socioeconomic status like how different forks are used based on your amount of wealth.

Perception of the many aspects of technology varies among people. I feel that if an individual feels that an object is discriminatory against their race, culture, beliefs, or class and have substantial reasoning then an object must be oppressive. The Evolution of Useful Things states “Basalla admits that, whereas natural things arise out of random natural processes, made things come out of purposeful human activity. Such activity, manifested in psychological, economic, and other social and cultural factors, is what creates the milieu in which novelty appears among continuously evolving artifacts.”  (p.26). This quote supports the argument that items are mostly made to be helpful but in that process can be used to discriminate against a person’s economic, cultural and other issues. Most developers also develop their items and because of who the designers are society creates their own target market and discourages other users from using an item. One example of this is Michael Jordan’s shoe line. Michael Jordan is an African American basketball player and because of his race and status society assumes that only African Americans should only wear those shoes. If a non-African person were to say they felt discriminated against they would have the right to feel that way because society has created this notion that certain things are for certain people. In conclusion, Objects developed by people often are perceived as discriminatory and if an individual feels that an object is oppressive then with the substantial reasoning that object is oppressive.

Sebel Fusi

Technical Communications

7-6-17

Humans portray and perpetuate their personal ideals in the objects that they engineer, and ignorantly marginalize or oppress other groups of people due to their lack of exposure and empathy towards human variation in society.

The readings discussed in class all have a common theme of describing how discrimination is expressed through the objects that we create. As humans, we strive to develop and enhance our ideas to improve our ways of life. However, there is an inherent ignorance in these improvements due to the diversity of people. Therefore, many pieces of technology and architecture are interpreted as oppressive and racist, which is caused by their creators’ unique interpretations of the world.

Summary: Architecture is a very creative career but can be heavily limited due to many cultural and social factors, or rather, be diverted to work in a certain way. Just as spikes on the ground or sprinkles to keep homeless people from sleeping in front of buildings, it can be used to target a section of society that already is targeted. Wanting to display only the nice view of it is part of being human.

Thesis

The artifacts conjured up by engineers and designers are an accurate reflection of who they are and what they are influenced by.

Summery

The two readings are demonstrating how things we encounter in our daily lives, and therefore have not put much thought into, give a deeper meaning about its creator. It says something about how he was brought up and his previous and current circumstances. Thinking deeper along this train of thought allows one to see how the regional, social, and economic context of a person can affect who we are psychologically and intellectually. This shows that although humans may be born equal, varying circumstances can dramatically sets individuals apart from each other. This results in, for instance, soap dispensers that don’t consider a whole race of individuals or an eating utensil common to one individual but foreign and therefore useless to another.

TEA Formula

Thesis: When an engineer is designing a product, they take their own core values and beliefs into account because of their own perspective of the world as well as their personal culture.

The few readings we had from our textbook depicted the same core idea: engineers have different perspectives on the world, often leading to different creations. As supported by the readings, many of these differences come from a different perspective of the outside world. For example, in the reading “8 Times Technology proved to be racist,” it spoke on the fact that the Apple Watch could not read through darker skin tones when using the heart monitor. This was because of the creators lack of a different perspective. It was highly probable that they were not purposefully eliminating a whole group of people from using their device, they just never considered the darker toned community when creating the device. It was created most likely by mostly caucasian men. Similarly, the culture of a person can also affect the design process. For instance, the reading “The Evolution of Useful Things” gave the example of forks being developed in western culture, while chopsticks were developed in eastern culture. These two things served similar purposes, but they are vastly different. People of the eastern culture developed chopsticks because they cooked much of their food in pots. They needed something that could be “an extension of their fingers” in order to grab hot things without touching it. However, in the western part of the world, forks were developed for the use of being able to cut meat without it spinning or having to touch it. Both created unique ways of eating without having to touch food, but each was created according to the cultural needs of the people. Be that as it may, perspective and culture are unique and different for each and every individual. Many times, culture affects perspective, and perspective, culture. When a person tackles a problem, many times it is done taking learned knowledge and experience and applying it to the situation. It is the same when it comes to engineering. A person sees a problem, and they relate it to their experience. If a group of culturally and politically diverse people were all given the same task, say to create a new and improved wallet (much as we did our first week of ESP) each individual would come out with a unique design. Why? Because each individual has a background unique to them. A middle class woman would most likely want somewhere to store her phone and makeup, while an inner city lower class citizen may want some form of safety mechanism. Engineering is all about perspective and culture. It makes each and every man made object unique, and drives innovation forward.

Roberto Arroyo

Mr. Rocha

Technical Communication

6 July 2017

The Human Influence

Thesis:      Objects created by humans reflect upon their cultural values that sometimes create discriminations between groups of people because of the object’s purpose that has been given.

Summary:    The readings consisted of many instances where objects showed discrimination. One of the readings contained an argument where a soap dispenser was thought to be ‘racist’ because it did not dispense soap for a colored person. However, the case was that the sensor only read certain light-reflections; also, to fix the problem some coding would have to be done. The reading were demonstrating instances where things are thought to racist because of their actions.