Sci&Tech History

Being in a policy area delivers me into a lot of questions about whether something is good or bad, preference (one is better than another) and regulation to support things we asses as good. One difficulties I face is how can we asses quantitative data with a qualitative point of view? In the the other [...]

This is not a Chip ‘n Dale, story, this is a story about worm (C. elagans), a tiny nematode that serves as a model organism in so many fields of research. In much C. elegans work, researchers introduce mutations or otherwise manipulate the genome to see the impact on the developing organism. Large numbers of the [...]

I’ve got this cool article from ScienceNow, an alike explanation I found in a book about happiness. The book tells about how our expression when we smiling have a physical reaction to our body. Below is the article from ScienceNow. The Importance of Being Frightened By Gisela Telis ScienceNOW Daily News 16 June 2008 Why do we wrinkle our noses [...]

What kind of metaphor do you prefer: using concepts in biology or physics? I see biology metaphor is used in east tradition, while physics is used in the west. Industry revolution is an example on how human are being digitized in a mechanistic way. Machine that record employee daily activities is more powerful than an [...]

Do you ever found Warung Telepon (warnet; telephone cafe) outside Indonesia? I guest your answer is no. I get this example from a lecture who told the uniqueness of warnet: an Indonesian technology that can’t be found outside Indonesia. Designed as a personal device, telephone in warnet has been completed with a billing device to [...]

I borrowed the title from Latour: Aramis, or the Love of Technology. The book talks about Aramis, a fascinating public transit system that never enter the real world. As Science in Action, Latour frame his story by following the actors–including design of the system, technology used, discourse among human actors, etc. The project runs quite [...]

How can ICT help people? Or maybe, we have to propose a more philosophical question, should people be helped? In blend technology, the introduction of the emerging technology should blend with and preserve at least some of the prevailing traditional production techniques (Usui 1994). The literature includes cases in which modern biotechnology, laser technology, [...]

Reading Indonesia’s technology policies documents, delivers me to words such as human welfare, justice and poverty reduction. Should technology discourse related directly to poverty, or is it better to talk about national system innovation and see poverty reduction as an impact? The first one indicated no differentiation among government agencies in Indonesia. Every agency want [...]