Technology and Society
Domain 2 - Technology and Society (title provisional). This domain examines how technology shapes, and is shaped by, people, cultures, economies, and environments. Expect questions on impact analysis, stakeholders, sustainability, regulation, and technology transfer.
Core rules and concepts
- Technology and society co-produce each other: social choices influence design, and designs reshape behavior and institutions.
- Impacts should be classified by intent (intended/unintended), timing (short/long term), scale (local/global), and pathway (direct/indirect).
- Stakeholder analysis identifies users, workers, communities, future generations, and ecosystems - not only buyers.
- Sustainability uses life-cycle thinking: material extraction, production, use, disposal, and externalities such as pollution and carbon.
- Legal and ethical tools include patents and copyright, privacy rules, safety standards, environmental regulation, and technology transfer agreements.
Worked example
A school considers banning single-use plastic water bottles. A strong answer does not stop at “plastic is bad.” It compares stakeholders: students need affordable hydration; custodians face litter; bottlers lose sales; communities near disposal sites bear waste burdens. It uses life-cycle evidence: bottles have low production impact but high litter persistence, while reusable bottles have higher upstream impact but lower repeated waste. It then proposes a trade-off - filtered refill stations plus a bottle policy - and names the criterion used to judge success. That reasoning demonstrates impact analysis rather than opinion.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving one-sided benefit lists and ignoring externalities.
- Confusing adoption with invention; a useful device can fail socially.
- Assuming technology is neutral and has no political or cultural effects.
- Forgetting rebound effects, such as efficiency gains increasing total use.