SynTalk

Are you thinking of going back to paradise? Does technology exist, autonomously, without us? Is it the new vector ruling the world? Where did the idea of newness come from? Does technology come (more) from arts & crafts than science? Do both socialism and capitalism go together with technology? Was Industrial Revolution science driven? Might religious change drive technology? Similarly, do new technologies change social relations? How is organic evolution different from the technological? Are hybridization and differentiation possibilities much greater in technology? What does not change? Do we need a ‘Darwin of machines’? Is there always a gap between the users’ tactics and the engineers’ strategy? Can technology make us ‘stupid’? However, is technology neither good, nor bad, nor neutral? How did acoustics go from the paradigm of music to engineering? Are wars the mother of all inventions? Can technology be forgotten? Must there be more social actors? What is the future – Will we still have hammers? Would we blow ourselves up? Will the digital and genetic come together? &, would we have a new ‘model’ of dog every week? SynTalk thinks about these & more questions using concepts from economics (Prof. Praveen Jha, JNU, New Delhi), media studies & semiotics (Dr. Carlos Alberto Scolari, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona), & history of science (Dr. Roland Wittje, IIT Madras, Chennai). Listen in...