Technology and Society: The Nexus of Homo Faber--Critical Foundations for Engineers

Chapter Overview 
Introduction: The Foundations of Our Technological Humanity 

SECTION I FUNDAMENTALS: WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE THINK
CHAPTER 1 Homo Faber: Technology as Human Nature
1.1 The Cosmic Context: Energy, Information, and Complexity 
1.2 The Human Difference: Brains, Language, and Networked Intelligence 
1.3 The Artificial Environment: A Survival Strategy 
1.4 Early Responses to Nature’s Indifference 
1.5 Three Pillars of Understanding Human Societies Through Technology 
1.6 Two Ways to Study Technology: Internalist and Contextualist Approaches 
1.7 Homo Faber: Technology as a Defining Human Characteristic 

CHAPTER 2 Language: The First Technology 
2.1 Technology and Storytelling 
2.2 Learning and Adaptation 
2.3 Thinking and Oral Language: The Creative Explosion 
2.4 Language and Perception of Reality 
2.5 The Evolution of Language Technology 
2.6 AI and Language: The Latest Transformation 

CHAPTER 3 Progress, Utopia, and Dystopia: Technological Change Through Time 
3.1 The Knowledge Underlying Technological Advancement 
3.2 The Historical Emergence of Progress 
3.3 Utopian and Dystopian Views of Technology 
3.4 In Practice: The Costs of “Progress” 
3.5 Changed Versus Improved: Questioning Progress 

CHAPTER 4 The Commons: From Individual Choice to Collective Survival 
4.1 From Individual to Collective Action 
4.2 The Traditional Commons: Lessons from Land and Sea 
4.3 Ostrom’s Solution: Design Principles for Sustainable Commons 
4.4 Digital Commons Under Siege 
4.5 Social Capital and Digital Cooperation 
4.6 Professional Practice: Building Better Systems 

CHAPTER 5 The Cognitive Architecture of Decision-Making 
5.1 From Ancient Insight to Modern Science 
5.2 The Dual-System Model 
5.3 Six Modes of System Interaction 
5.4 Heuristics: Mental Shortcuts and Their Consequences 
5.5 Self-Regulation and Choice: Executive Function 
5.6 Resource Depletion and Decision Quality 
5.7 Mindset Switching and Cognitive Costs 

CHAPTER 6 Decision-Making: Emotions, Values, and Digital Space 
6.1 Prospect Theory and the Value Curve 
6.2 From Cold Cognition to Hot Cognition: The Emotion Revolution 
6.3 Digital Exploitation of Emotional Decision-Making 
6.4 The Appraisal-Tendency Framework 
6.5 Designing for Ethical Decision-Making 

SECTION II ETHICAL THEORIES: TOOLS FOR PROFESSIONAL JUDGMENT 
CHAPTER 7 Engineering and Values: Morals Versus Ethics 
7.1 Technology and Values: The Foundation of Responsibility 
7.2 The Visible and the Voiceless: Stakeholders in Engineering Practice 
7.3 Morals Versus Ethics: Understanding the Critical Distinction 
7.4 The Three Major Areas of Ethics 
7.5 Classical Versus Modern Approaches to Ethics 
7.6 Ethics for Professionals 

CHAPTER 8 Virtue Ethics: Character Versus Conduct 
8.1 Overview of Normative Ethics 
8.2 Ethics of Character: The Foundations of Virtue 
8.3 Stoicism: Virtue Ethics in Practice 
8.4 The Rise, Fall, and Revival of Virtue Ethics 
8.5 Virtue Ethics in Contemporary Engineering Practice 
8.6 Three Philosophers, Three Paths to Virtue 

CHAPTER 9 Ethics of Conduct: Rules and Consequences 
9.1 Deontology: The Ethics of Duty 
9.2 Consequentialism: The Ethics of Outcomes 
9.3 Ethical Egoism: Greatest Happiness for One? 
9.4 Comparing Ethical Approaches 

CHAPTER 10 Codes of Ethics: From Theory to Professional Practice 
10.1 Business Ethics and Global Challenges 
10.2 The Nature and Structure of Professional Codes 
10.3 Purpose and Functions of Ethical Codes 
10.4 Legal Compliance Versus Ethical Responsibility 
10.5 Why Codes Emerged: Lessons from Self-Regulation’s Failures 
10.6 Codes as Accountability Tools 
10.7 Codes in Action: When Theory Meets Practice 
10.8 Applying Codes in Practice: A Worked Example 

CHAPTER 11 Misconduct: Power, Authority, and Ethical Decision-Making 
11.1 The Power of Group Influence: Understanding Conformity 
11.2 Authority and Obedience: When Following Orders Overrides Judgment 
11.3 Personal Development and Moral Reasoning 
11.4 Protecting Your Standards: Why Good Intentions aren’t Enough 
11.5 Building Your Defences: Curiosity, Diversity, and Humility 
11.6 Case Study: Edward Snowden and the Ethics of Whistleblowing 

SECTION III TECHNOLOGY: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS 
CHAPTER 12 Technological Complexity: The Prism Framework 
12.1 The Challenge of Technological Complexity 
12.2 The Functional Taxonomy Approach: Classifying Technology
12.3 The Five Lenses in the Prism Framework 
12.4 Applying the Frameworks: Practical Considerations 
12.5 Connecting Frameworks to Responsibility 

CHAPTER 13 Feenberg’s Framework: Essence and Control 
13.1 Foundations: Understanding Essence and Behaviour 
13.2 The Four Theories of Technology 
13.3 Understanding Your Audience—And Yourself 
13.4 Implications for Engineering Practice
13.5 Contemporary Applications and Debates 
13.6 Limitations 
13.7 Moving Forward: From Assessment to Orientation 

CHAPTER 14 The Diffusion of Technology: How Innovations Spread 
14.1 The Diffusion of Innovations Framework 
14.2 Philosophical Orientations Toward Technology: Drengson’s Framework 
14.3 Connecting Philosophies to Adoption Patterns 
14.4 Implications for Engineering Practice 
14.5 Limitations, Power, and the Question of Choice 
14.6 Moving Forward 

CHAPTER 15 The Landscape of Society and Technology Studies (STS): Frameworks for Engineering Practice 
15.1 “Will They Use it?”—Adoption and Acceptance 
15.2 “Who Decides What it Becomes?”—Social Construction 
15.3 “How do I Implement it Without Breaking Everything?”—Sociotechnical Systems 
15.4 “Why is this so Hard to Change?”—Momentum, Path Dependence, and Lock-In 
15.5 “Where does Innovation Actually Come From?”—Innovation Systems 
15.6 “How do I See the Whole Picture?”—Actor-Network Theory 
15.7 Reading the Map: A Comparative Overview 
15.8 Limitations and Critical Awareness 

SECTION IV TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNITY: HOW WE LIVE TOGETHER
CHAPTER 16 Understanding Community: From Material to Abstract Connections 2
16.1 Archaeological Approaches: Community Bounded by Physical Reality 
16.2 Tönnies: From Natural Groups to Modern Society 
16.3 Communication Technologies: Enabling Community Across Distance 
16.4 Language, Reality, and Truth: Lessons from Ancient Athens 
16.5 Contemporary Implications: Trust in the Digital Age 

CHAPTER 17 Abundance: Technologies of Production 
17.1 The Story of Production: From Prehistory to Preindustrial Society 
17.2 The Industrial Revolution: When an Idea Transformed the World 
17.3 Taylorism: Scientific Management 
17.4 Fordism: Mass Production and Mass Consumption 
17.5 Consequences for Community 
17.6 From Assembly Lines to Algorithms 

CHAPTER 18 Technologies for Order: Bureaucracy, Rationalization, and Weber’s Iron Cage 
18.1 Social Capital: The Foundation that Rationalization Both Needs and Erodes 
18.2 Surveillance and Social Order 
18.3 Three Theoretical Perspectives on Surveillance 
18.4 Max Weber and the Process of Rationalization 
18.5 Bureaucratization: Efficient Organization and the Iron Cage 
18.6 The Iron Cage in Contemporary Society 
18.7 Recognizing and Responding to the Iron Cage 

CHAPTER 19 Discipline and Truth: Foucault, The Panopticon, and Regimes of Power 
19.1 From Spectacle to System: How Societies Create and Enforce Values 
19.2 The Panopticon: Architecture as Technology of Control 
19.3 Foucault’s Revolutionary Understanding of Power 
19.4 Digital Panopticons: Contemporary Applications 
19.5 Professional Responsibilities 

SECTION V IN FOCUS: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
CHAPTER 20 Surveillance Capitalism: Data, Power, and the Information Society 
20.1 The Information Society 
20.2 What is Surveillance Capitalism? 
20.3 When the State Meets the Corporation 
20.4 You as Data: Foucault Meets the Algorithm 
20.5 The Illegible Standard 
20.6 Alienation in the Information Age 
20.7 Resistance: Regulation, Design, and Pushback 
20.8 Implications for Engineers 

CHAPTER 21 Privacy and Cybersecurity: The Architecture of Trust in Digital Society 
21.1 Privacy: A History of an Idea 
21.2 What Is Privacy? Competing Definitions 
21.3 Information as Plastic: The New Problems 
21.4 Security: The Material Conditions of Privacy
21.5 Canadian Privacy and Cybersecurity Frameworks 
21.6 When the Architecture Fails: Breaches and Their Consequences 
21.7 Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Democratic Society 
21.8 Engineering Responsibility: Building the Architecture of Trust 

CHAPTER 22 Misinformation, Disinformation, and the Crisis of Shared Reality 
22.1 The Information Ecosystem: From Oral Tradition to Algorithmic Curation 
22.2 Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation: Definitions and Taxonomy 
22.3 The Architecture of Vulnerability: How Misinformation Exploits Human Cognition 
22.4 Filter Bubbles, Epistemic Bubbles, and Echo Chambers 
22.5 The Lie in History: Information, Harm, and the Question of Scale 
22.6 The Lie Made Visible: AI-Generated Content and the Crisis of Evidence 
22.7 Misinformation in Canada: Platforms, Policy, and the Fragmentation of Shared Reality
22.8 Building Resistance: Individual, Community, and Systemic 

CHAPTER 23 The Algorithmic Society: AI, Automation, and Decision-Making 
23.1 From Data to Decisions: The Rise of the Algorithm 
23.2 The Algorithmic Society: When Algorithms Govern 
23.3 Algorithms in Practice: Criminal Justice and Bureaucracy 
23.4 AI Governance in Canada 
23.5 The Path Forward: Engineering Responsibility in the Algorithmic Society 

CHAPTER 24 Robots, Cyborgs, and Biotechnology—The Boundaries of Homo Faber 
24.1 Robots—When the Maker Makes Makers 
24.2 Cyborgs—When the Made Becomes the Maker 
24.3 Biotechnology—Remaking the Maker 
24.4 Can Homo Faber Hold? 

CHAPTER 25 The Future of Work—Technology, Economy, and Human Purpose 
25.1 The Economy as Technology 
25.2 Automation, Productivity, and the Future of Jobs 
25.3 Platform Labour and the Gig Economy 
25.4 The Crisis of Meaning: When Homo Faber Stops Making 
25.5 Responses: Ubi, Reskilling, and the Question of Purpose 
25.6 Engineering Responsibility in the Future of Work 

Conclusion: Civilization: What Season Were You Born Into? 
Endnotes
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