(minimum 750 words; no maximum)

Philosophers of Technology have often argued that technologies are value-laden rather than being merely value-neutral. One reason for thinking so is because the act of building or making always presupposes value-judgments about what we think is worth building or making in the first place. Put another way, what we make or build often reveals what we think is worth doing: making and building reveal what we take to be a problem, and whether that problem is worth solving.

In Paper 1, you wrote about how introducing new technologies into different cultures require their people to adapt or change their lifestyles, including the sphere of life we might call the political (that is, how and where they work, how they think, how they live, how they form organizations and institutions, etc.). In Paper 3, you will do the same kind of analysis but with your senior project in mind.

Give an account of your own values infrastructures (see the reading by Cook) that explain your intentions behind the design of your senior project. Assume that your senior design project is going to be adopted in a country outside the US and Canada. Consider the potential for conflict at the level of differing values infrastructures between you as a designer and the adopting population as end users.

In your write up, be sure to:

1. Describe what you are building for your senior project.

2. Explain: why you are making it?; how are you making it?; for whom are you making it?

3. Assume that your design will be adopted in a country outside the US and Canada. Pick one country only.

4. Give an account of your own values infrastructures that best explain your intentions behind your senior project. Consider the intentions behind your design and the intentions of your targeted end users. Can you anticipate or foresee unintentional consequences in your design? Can you foresee whether your design will be used ethically or unethically? Are there any ways you would not want your design to be used at all?

Grading

Write an essay that addresses the questions above. When you respond to these questions, you should be specific and cite specific details from the readings, class lectures, and your own research. You may provide references from your own research, but only in addition to material provided by the course. Also, you should make sure to cite your sources in your response and include a reference list at the end of your essay. Citations must be from reputable sources. Sites like Wikipedia, about.com, etc. are NOT considered acceptable sources.

Higher credit will be given for responses that show evidence of a systematic and comprehensive understanding of the topics involved.

You are encouraged to review the rubric for this assignment and make sure that you answer each question in detail and with specifics.

Correct use of English is a fundamental requirement for your papers to be graded. If errors in English make it difficult for a grader to understand your sentences, or excessively slow down the grader to mark your technical errors, your paper will be returned to you for further work on its English, and your grade for the paper will be deferred until it is resubmitted with corrected English. If your assignment is returned for an excessive number of grammatical errors, you will be allowed to rewrite and resubmit it within two weeks of the original return date. If not resubmitted by the date set by your instructor, you will receive a zero (0) for the writing assignment.

Formatting

Standard font, preferably Arial in either 11pt or 12pt.

MLA, APA, or any other format is acceptable provided that it is consistent through the entire paper. Please, no cover sheets.

Rubric

Reflection Paper 3

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