iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
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Technology and science: some interactions
Joseph Kouneiher | University of Nice Sophia Antipolis/IUFM, France

Technology is an intrinsic part of a cultural system and it both shapes and reflects the system's values. We use technology to try to change the world to suit us better. The changes may relate to survival needs such as food, shelter, or defense, or they may relate to human aspirations such as knowledge, art, or control. But the results of changing the world are often complicated and unpredictable. Indeed, in the past Science and Techniques meant different things. People working in these two domains used different skills, even if sometimes we found people developing a two side skills (think of Newton and Galileo etc..). However, by the end of the 20th century, a relationship between the two domains become a reality. Even the methodologies underlying the two domains become almost the same. Even more, each one of them needs the other to stabilize its evolution and confirm their assertions. The Nobel Prize of this year 2012 is a good example. Thanks to some special technologies we succeed to isolate a photon, rendering the thought experiences of quantum mechanics a macroscopic reality, and confirming de facto some proprieties of the quantum vision of our world. We can say the same thing about the GPS and general relativity. Consequently, today we start to hear about a unified methodology underlying sciences and technologies. In teaching, for example, an “investigative approach” based on the laboratory investigation behavior to understand the phenomena is required to a constructive teaching. So, underlying teaching science and technologies there is a unified scheme, and we are invited to imagine a different approach to handle the transmission of knowledge with some insistence on the following points: a) Understanding of the global system b) Capacity to think analytically and creatively within disciplines. c) Ability to tackle problems and issues that do not respect disciplinary boundaries. d) Knowledge of and ability to interact civilly and productively with individuals from quite different cultural backgrounds—both within one’s own society and across the planet. e) Fostering of hybrid or blended identities In this paper we focus in the link between technology and science: past and present, and we will try a conjecture for the future. Starting from this perspective we analyze and suggest some new approaches for teaching technological sciences and scientific technologies. This duality is from now a reality and it is here to stay. But could we imagine the next auto-duality which is at the heart of mathematics: proof of mathematics by a machine calculus.