INTRODUCTION

About Me

Achyut Paudel
Assistant Professor
Paschimanchal Campus, IOE

MSc. In Earthquake Engineering (Thapathali Campus)

BE in Civil Engineering (Pulchowk Campus)
 TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT AND
SOCIETY
1. Technology
2. Development Approach
3. Brief history of Human Civilization
4. Environment
5. Water and air pollution
6. Climate Change
Chapter -1, “Technology”
 Contents
 Definition
 Impacts of Technology on Environment and Society
 Benefits of Technology due to inventions
 Appropriate Technology
 Intermediate Technology, Labor Based and Labor Intensive Technology
 Shifts in Employment Due to Technological Advancements
 Role of Technology to unmask old social problems , society’s control of
technology.
 Impacts of technology on culture, tradition and social values
 Technology is irreversible
 Agricultural Age, Industrial Age and Information Age
 Characteristics of Information Society
 Information as power and wealth
 Technology : Definition
 Technology comes from Greek words techne & logos.Techne means

art,skill,or the way ,manner, or means by which a thing is gained. Logos

means study. So, literally, technology means study about the way things are
gained.

 Technology is defined as the purposeful application of information in the

design, production ,utilization of goods & service and in the organization of

human activities.
 Characteristics of Technology
 Technology is knowledge based
 Technology is fundamental to survival
 Technology is accumulative
 Technology extends our capabilities
 Technology is future oriented
 Technology is irreversible
 Technology is useful servant but bad master
 Impacts of Technology in Society
Positive Impacts
 New Technology Based Employment Opportunities;
 Race amongst nations to provide the best technological advancement
 Increased Competition
 Increase Living standards of People

Negative Impacts
 New forms of crimes such as Intellectual Property Theft, Hacking, Cyber crime.
 Obesity ( getting fat) due to lack of physical exercise
 Over Dependence on Technology
 Less time for family
 Less Exercise
 New forms of health problems due to time spent in front of a computer , exposure to industrial
technology , radiation
 Exposure to radiation from cellular networks
 New forms of accidents, flight crashes, road accidents, industrial accidents
Impacts of Technology in Environment
 Increased Energy Consumption
 Increased Pollution
 Reduced fertility of soil as a result of dependence on fertilizers, insecticides
and pesticides.
 Increased Natural Resource Exploitation
 New forms of waste: toxic waste, radioactive waste and electronic waste.
 Long term effects such as global warming, climate change , ozone layer
depletion.
 Benefits of Technology
 Health Sectors
 Education Sectors
 Communication Sectors
 Business Sectors
 Agriculture Sectors
 Benefits of Technology
 Health Sectors
 Advancement technology Leads to end of many diseases and discoveries
of many medicine help to prevent new form of diseases.
 Medicine research has become advance.
 Personal records of patients are maintained that helps to treatment and
diagnosis of the diseases easier.
 Advanced technology , tools & equipments are invented in the medical
sector that helps in the easy of treatment process.
 Education Sectors
 E- learning and online education has made education simple & systematic
for an individual to receive knowledge and improve skill.
 The use of computers & technology in classroom has opened up, a whole
new method of teaching and effective learning.
 Immediate response to queries & tests has made the whole education
process a lot faster.
 Benefits of Technology
 Communication Sector
 The speed of talking to one another is instantaneous
 The clarity of communication has also improved with improvements in
audio & video quality.
 The world has become a smaller place since no one is out of reach
anymore.
 Information can be transferred from any part of the world quickly due to
development of social networking's, mobile networking etc.
 Business sector
 Quality Products are provided to the customers with competitive price.
 Companies have become more profitable with the help of various
advanced machines and equipments
 Mass production
 Global collaborations & partnerships are easier to start and maintain, this
will benefit to involved in any international business.
 Agriculture: Food Production has greatly improved. Farming has been fully
automated. A few farms can feed the whole country.
 Appropriate Technology
 Appropriate Technology is the technology designed to be suitable to the
needs and resources of a particular group of people.
 The goal of appropriate technology is to increase the standard of living for
the developing world with out environment damage.
Examples of successful appropriate technologies are :
1) Building Construction :use of Natural Ventilation instead of ACs
2) Agriculture: Use of compost manures
3) Water supply : Use of SODIS (Solar Water Disinfection) method
(treatment through sun light) ,rainwater harvesting
4) Energy sector : Bio-gas, Micro Hydropower
5) Transportation: Human powered Bicycle
6) Sanitation : Ecological Sanitation
Characteristics of appropriate technology
 Requirement of fewer resources
 Meets actual need of people
 Lower cost technology
 Use of renewable energy source
 Less impact on environment
 Labor intensive
 Environmentally sound
 Locally controlled
 Small scale technology
Other examples of appropriate
technology
 Solar Powered Light bulb
 Rocket Stove
 Lifestraw Water Filter

A very revolutionary portable water filter that has helped rural africa
decrease water borne diseases by upto 50% . The filter is so effective
that water of almost any quality can be used for drinking.
 Intermediate Technology
 Technology based on basic skills that are available in
developing countries and that require a simple, easily
learned and maintained technology.
 “ Although somewhat similar to Appropriate
Technology, Intermediate Technology is primitive in
nature whilst Appropriate Technology can be
sophisticated enough to meet the scenario.”
 Examples:
 a pedal-powered maize Sheller rather than a commercial
mill.
 Labor Based , Labor Intensive
Technology
 Labor Based Technology : The term labor-based technology is
used to describe a technology that applies a labor/equipment mix
that gives priority to labor, supplementing it with appropriate
equipment where necessary for reasons of quality or cost.

• Labor-Intensive Technology: Technology in which a large

amount of labor is used. For example, window-cleaning or brick-
laying are labor-intensive jobs.
 Characteristics of Information Society
 Information is used as an economic resource.
 Organizations make greater use of information to:
 increase their efficiency, to stimulate innovation
 to increase their effectiveness and competitive position, often through
improvements in the quality of the goods and services that they produce.
 Greater use of information among the general public.
 People use information more intensively in their activities.
 To inform their choices between different products to explore their
entitlements to public ser-vices, and to take greater control over their own
lives.
 Development of an information sector within the economy.
 The function of the information sector is to satisfy the general demand for
information facilities and services. A significant part of the sector is
concerned with the technological infrastructure: the networks of
telecommunications and computers.
Role of Technology to Unmask old social
Problems
 Unmasking of cast discrimination & superstitions with the help of modern
technology.
 Unmasking of chronic social problems by regular advertisement and
awareness programmes using modern technology like television, internet etc.
 Drastically exposing the cases of violence against women.
 With the help of mass media , social drama & awareness created by women
human right activists, the tradition concept has been slowly changing.
Impacts of Technology on Employment
 Creation of job due to technological advancement for data analyzer,
software engineer, computer engineer etc.
 Growth of industries lead to industrialization due to which many people
became workers in a very large numbers.
 Technology has impacts on worker’s lives, workers have to upgrade their
skills to keep pace with changes in work & computer based technologies.
 Quality of Product and Service.
 Many people have lost their jobs as a result.
 Shifts in Employment due to
Technological Advancement
 Most production processes now uses machines
which are faster , precise, very inexpensive and
can work around the clock. Many people have
lost their jobs as a result.
 But new jobs opportunities have also been
created. The value of information has
increased. Information is valued more than a
physical product.
 New jobs for System Administrators, Data
Analyzers, Software Engineers , Computer
Engineers, Data entry personnel's etc have
emerged.
 Human Powered Ploughing has also been
replaced by tractors in agriculture.
 Agricultural Age
 Between the 18th and the 19th century , the tools
of farming basically stayed the same and few
advancements in technology were made.
 The agricultural revolution was a period of
agricultural development between the 18th
century and the end of the 19th century, which
saw a massive and rapid increase in agricultural
productivity and vast improvements in farm
technology.
Key Developments in Agricultural Age
 Plow & Moldboard : for digging
 Seed Drills : to sow seeds
 Machines that harvest : Sickles, reapers and harvesters
 Field system was invented which allowed a number of crops to be
harvested from the same field in the same year. This retained the
fertility and increased fertility
 Land is the main source of wealth.
 Industrial Age
 The Industrial Revolution was the Period of transition to new
manufacturing processes.
 This transition included
 going from hand production methods to machines,
 new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes,
 improved efficiency of hydro power,
 the increasing use of steam power and the development of machine
tools.
 It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal.
 Production is the main source of wealth.
 Information Age
 The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or
New Media Age) is a period in human history characterized by the shift
from traditional industry that the industrial revolution brought through
industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization.
 It is the age or society where creation, distribution ,uses, integration and
manipulation of information is carried out to develop society with respect to
economical, cultural & increase productivity with competitive way.
 This is the age or society in which majority of service worker are engaged
with the creation, Processing & distribution of information as Programmer,
engineers etc.
 During the information age, the phenomenon is that the digital industry
creates a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high-tech global
economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing
industries and the service sector operate in an efficient and convenient
way.
 Information /Knowledge is the main source of wealth.
 Impacts of Technology in Tradition
and social values
 Technology has had some positive as well as negative impacts in tradition &
Social values.
 It has helped to clear out superstitions that were prevalent mostly in health
practices.
 Although the major factor affecting tradition is the generation change. But
Technology has had a part in that. The new generation lived with
technology , they’ve had luxury all their lives and have had access to
information , education and their way of thinking is different. New
generations tend to divert away from traditions and norms.
 Technology also has had a part in inducing family conflicts as people have
very less time to spend with their families. People are unhappy as a result.
 Religious Preachers have found new ways to preach religion like TV, Social
Media, Internet.
 Social Isolation: Addictive use of internet can lead to social Isolation,
increased depression etc.
 Ways of life & value has been changing in context of dress habit, speaking
style, taste, choice, ideas, values, recreational activities and so on.
 Technology is Irreversible
 Technology is irreversible & it moves ahead with time.
 Newer technologies are adopted; older are discarded.
 The path has never been backwards.
 A few examples:
 Speed of internet never going to decrease.
 Pigeons will never deliver our mail again.
 Cars will even get smarter.
 Industries will continue to go autonomous.
 Cell phones are getting smarter day by day.
 In agriculture, people will not go back to human power.
 Information as Power & Wealth
 Old economics law defines wealth in terms of land , products & capital
but new source of power is information.
 Information(knowledge) is not subjected to law of conservation. it is
synergetic or cumulative. (eg. of dollar and ideas)
 Information is the Currency of today’s world.
 Those who control information are the most powerful people in the world.
 Amount of information lies higher in the hierarchy where power is
concentrated.
 Information Power gives the knowledge to fight & win in many
circumstances.
THANK YOU