Ursula M. Franklin - The Real World of Technology

The Massey Lectures Series

The Massey Lectures are co-sponsored by CBC Radio, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The series was created in honour of the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, former governor general of Canada, and was inaugurated in 1961 to provide a forum on radio where major contemporary thinkers could address important issues of our time.

This book comprises the 1989 Massey Lectures, The Real World of Technology, broadcast in November 1989 as part of CBC Radios Ideas series. The producer of the series was Max Allen; the executive producer was Bernie Lucht. The author included a new Preface, four new chapters, and a Coda for this 1999 edition of the book.

Ursula M. Franklin

In 1948 Ursula M. Franklin received her PhD in experimental physics in Berlin. She came to Canada the following year and began a distinguished scientific career. She joined the University of Torontos Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, becoming a full professor in 1973. Dr. Franklin is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She has received honorary degrees from many Canadian universities. In 1984 she became the first woman to be honoured with the title of University Professor by the University of Toronto. In 1987 Dr. Franklin was awarded the Elsie Gregory McGill memorial award for her contributions to education, science, and technology. In 1989 she received the Wiegand Award, and in 1990 was awarded the Order of Ontario.

As a Quaker, she has been actively involved in work for peace and justice, international understanding, and womens issues. In 1995 the Toronto Board of Education named a new public school in her honour. In recognition for her humanitarian efforts, Franklin was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2001.

ursula m. franklin

{ REVISED EDITION }

Copyright 1990 Ursula M. Franklin
Preface to the 1999 edition, chapters 7-10, and
Coda copyright 1999 Ursula M. Franklin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in 1990 by CBC Enterprises/les Entreprises Radio-Canada
Published in 1992 by House of Anansi Press Ltd.
Revised Anansi edition published in 1999

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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Franklin, Ursula M., 1921
The real world of technology
(CBC Massey lectures series)
Rev. ed.
ISBN 0-88784-636-X
1. Technology Social aspects. I. Title II. Series.
T14.5.F73 1999 303.48'3 C98-933052-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920453

Cover design: Bill Douglas at The Bang
Text design: Tannice Goddard

We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP)

Printed and bound in Canada

It has been a decade since The Real World of Technology was originally prepared for the CBC Massey Lectures, a decade during which technological changes have driven major global political and economic changes.

Revisiting The Real World of Technology in order to illustrate the new reality of a technological world as well as its trends and impacts, I feel it is best to let the 1989 lectures stand unamended and to add four new chapters on some of the more recent facets of the emerging picture to this edition. Much to what was said a decade ago about the real world of technology remains valid since much of what appears new can be seen as an extension of earlier developments. Many dominant trends and problems discussed in 1999 can be explained as the consequences of previously delineated configurations and dynamics. I will continue to define technology as practice as the way things are done around here and will emphasize how the practices and their contexts have changed.

The first new chapter (chapter seven) will deal with communications technologies, both ancient and modern. From the invention of writing to the use of the Internet, the way in which knowledge is kept, transmitted, or shared has structured the perception of what is real, as well as what is possible or desirable.

The next new chapter explores and illuminates some novel aspects of the new electronic technologies as they reshape our use and experience of time. Chapter nine will then offer a model of the technologically changed configurations of space and their political consequences.

Finally, chapter ten will focus on the impact of these new technological practices on human ties, on work and community, on governance, citizenship, and the notion of individual and collective responsibility.

Throughout these new chapters I want to stress how new technologies, new ways of doing things, have pushed against the physical and social boundaries of space and time. These activities have altered profoundly the relationships of people to nature, to each other, and their communities.

It is with profound gratitude that I acknowledge again the support of my family and my communities, particularly the hospitality of Massey College and the friendship of its Master, John Fraser.

I would like to dedicate this edition to my three young grandsons, who may never know how much I worry that the world in which they will live may be one of justice, peace, and beauty.

The CBCs annual Massey Lectures are a time-honoured Canadian tradition, and each Massey lecturer must have had days, as I did, when this tradition felt like a weighty burden. The opportunity to deliver the 1989 Massey Lectures as six public talks lightened this burden for me and added greatly to the pleasures and the rewards of this assignment. The extensive discussions after each lecture, the correspondence resulting from these exchanges, and the letters I received after the radio broadcasts showed me just how broadly-based and profound are the concerns in this country about the social and moral impacts of technology. The comments reflected a considerable diversity of approaches, a readiness for new perspectives, and a remarkable willingness to listen and to engage in discourse.

These responses strengthened one of my images of a peaceful world: a society that might work somewhat like a pot-luck supper, where everyone contributes and everyone receives, and where a diversity of offerings is essential. (Just imagine a pot-luck to which everyone brought potato salad!). In such a world there would be no one who could not contribute their work and care and no one who could not count on receiving nourishment and fellowship. I hold this vision with increased confidence.