Society and Technology College
Zaf Kamar, Society and Technology College
Have you ever thought about any of these questions?
- If you could genetically engineer the perfect baby through enhanced in-vitro fertilization techniques, would you make this individual choice? Should society allow these individual choices, when some IVF parents have obviously made poor decisions (e.g., the octo-mom)?
- When will the global economic recession end and what kind of economy will be left in its wake?
- Will pandemic diseases like swine flu be more manageable in our modern age than in past pandemics?
- Will new energy technologies emerge to replace petroleum, which is growing scarcer and causing climate change?
- Will a post-consumerist society emerge that will reduce our collective footprint on the planet and lead us to a new understanding of our collective obligations to each other?
- What will the U.S. and the world be like in fifty years?
If so, the Society & Technology Residential College may be right for you. The residential college program is a wonderful way to enter both the academic and social life of Bucknell. You will live on a special hall in Smith with other Soc-Tech students and make new friends with the diverse range of students interested in these issues from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and areas. If you choose Soc-Tech, you will sign up for one of the two sections of the Society and Technology College, all titled “The Future is Now.”
As social scientists, we view these questions as crucial ones. In Soc-Tech, you will evaluate how predictions have been made in the past, and whether our increasing command of technology has improved our ability to predict our own future. You will also examine how such predictions have influenced our past decisions and how our success with these past predictions may influence the decisions we currently face. We will also consider how to cope with the inherent uncertainty in these predictions. We will ask such broad questions as whether humans can accurately predict complex weather systems, climate change, the economy, social change, and the future of medicine. In other words, can humans actively shape their futures, or are we prisoners of the fates? How should governments make policy based on uncertain predictions? What are the ethical questions raised by these enquiries?
For those of you who might be concerned that “The Future is Now” will be too technical, let us assure you that is not the case. We intend to deal with the broad, social issues that confront us in our modern age, rather than the technical details. We bring our unique perspectives to these issues: the rational eye of the mainstream economist and the critical eye of the political economist. We will also offer you a unique opportunity this fall—rather than taking one foundation seminar with fifteen other students, we are developing a true Soc-Tech learning community this fall. The two of us will team teach our two classes, sometimes working with a handful of students in small groups and sometimes working together with students enrolled in both seminars. In essence, you will have two faculty, two advisors, and all of your hall-mates will be your classmates. This will be a really unique opportunity. We hope that this arrangement will enhance both your living and your learning activities.
We will also take a field trip during the fall semester. In past years, we have taken trips to Washington, D.C. and to Pittsburgh; we plan to organize a field trip this year to an interesting venue related to our interest in predicting the future. We will use those experiences to broaden our exposure to the effects of technology on our modern world and to build a sense of community with the other students living in the Soc-Tech wing of Smith Hall.
Among the other unique opportunities that we plan for this fall will be some collaborative activities with students and faculty in the Environmental College, including, perhaps, a field trip, some hall activities, and some joint classes.
