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The instrumental conception of technology is Mary Tiles' and Hans Oberdiek's description of the theory that technological artefacts are value neutral.〔Mary Tiles and Hans Oberdiek, ''Living in a Technological Culture: Human Tools and Human Values'' (New York: Routledge, 1995), p.30〕 They attribute this belief to optimists, for whom technical instruments belong to the “the factual realm” and only acquire a positive or negative value through their development and use by humans “for good or evil”.〔Tiles and Oberdiek, ''ibid.'', p.14〕 This belief was encapsulated in David Sarnoff's statement made in an acceptance speech for his honorary degree from the University of Notre Dame: :"We are too prone to make technological instruments the scapegoats for the sins of those who wield them. The products of modern science are not themselves good or bad; it is the way they are used that determines their value".〔Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, ''The Medium is the Massage'' (San Francisco: Hardwired, 1967), p.11〕 According to Lelia Green, the notion technology is neutral assumes technological advances occur “in a vacuum”, the result of individual bursts of inspiration, or ‘Eureka’ moments, as the popular mythology of technology suggests.〔Lelia Green, ''Technoculture'' (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2001), p.1, 2, 7〕 It also assumes technological development is inevitable, she adds,〔Green, ''ibid.'', p.3〕 and for a technology to be neutral, it must be on a fixed “trajectory” following an “internal logic”.〔Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, "Introductory Essay: the Social Shaping of Technology" in Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman (eds.), ''The Social Shaping of Technology (2nd Ed.)'' (Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999), p.10〕 ==Example: personal computing== Manuel Castells’ account of the development of the personal computer adheres to the instrumental conception of technology. He claims technology develops independent of other social forces, since “economic, industrial and technological paths, while related, are slow-moving and imperfectly fitting in their interaction”.〔Manuel Castells, ''The Rise of the Network Society (2nd Ed.)'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), p.59〕 He argues Ted Hoff’s microprocessor invented in 1971 came out of “knowledge and ingenuity” developed at Intel and in Silicon Valley since the 1950s. This made possible the microcomputer, which was able to function in networks as a result of advances in telecommunications. Thus, he states, computer technology “did not come out of any pre-established necessity: it was technologically induced rather than socially determined".〔Castells, ''ibid,'', p.60〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Instrumental conception of technology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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