Tech & Civ 2 Final Laney
Name five environmentally important moments in U.S. history.Why are they important moments?
1)awareness of environmental issues 2)recources are no longer limitless in america 3)get rid of scary forest 4)naturalist art movement 5)fires in ohio or somewhere
What was the Truman Doctrine?
A doctrine established by Truman that said the US would provide military and financial aid to countries under internal or external threats from authoritarian forces
What was the USIA (United States Information Agency)?
An agency that specialized in propaganda in order to get foreign countries to side with the US during the cold war
Who was Hermann Oberth?
Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and engineer. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.
Beckwith told us that one observer of the Space Age referred to Sputnik as "a technological Pearl Harbor." Explain this sentiment.
Because it seemed like an attack on us that the Russians had a satellite that they could spy on us with from space
What happened to Yugoslavia during the Cold War and after?
During the cold war Yugoslavia broke away from Russia and became a founding member of the nonaligned movement of 1961. After this the country became very unstable and was plagued with political strife and war.
How did the dissolution of the USSR affect Eastern Europe? (provide 2 examples)
Fallout from the dissolution of the USSR Destroyed the economy of its previous land and many areas in eastern Europe where the USSR was a powerful influence. It symbolized the end of the cold war and many areas in this region received less aid from the US
Why were so many start up firms able to compete with old guard, established companies like IBM?
IBM had the open floor model and didnt think desktop computers would catch on
Both IBM and Apple claim that they take a democratic approach to personal computers. What is the difference between their approaches? What is the difference between proprietary and open source software?
IBM:open floor model so that others could see it and make their designs compatible and like theirs, freedom in its openness and compatibility Apple: made it more user friendly
What did the following entry in Robert Goddard's diary mean? "Cherry tree is down. Have to carry on alone."
It was his inspiration to try and make space travel possible. He had to go and trim a cherry tree since his mom was sick
How did Stalin's death affect the Soviet Union and the Cold War?
It was seen by President Eisenhower as a chance to start over and attempt to make peace with the people of Russia. However the leaders that followed Stalin were either not in a strong enough position for peace or did not want it. This caused the Soviet Union to stick to its anti-American sentiments and the cold war kept going.
Who was Sergei Korolev?
Lead soviet engineer for rockets during the space race
What is MS-DOS?
Microsofts operating system
What roles did Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin play in the dissolution of the USSR?
Mikhail Gorbachev was the last President of the USSR and declared his office extinct giving power away to the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin. Gorbechev in an effort to try and stabilize the USSR and improve its economy set into place many acts and laws that made the USSR very unstable and desperate for change. This paved the way for the dissolution of the USSR. After this Yeltsin took over the new country of Russia and made it a completely new country from the old USSR.
What is OPEC?
Organization of petroleum exporting countries
What was the Marshall Plan?
Plan to help rebuild Europe and help its economy after WWII in order to contain communism
Who was Yuri Gagarin?
Russian Soviet Pilot and cosmonaut. First human to journey into outerspace
Who was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?
Russian and soviet rocket scientist and pioneer/one of the founding fathers of aeronautics
Who was Alan Shepard?
Second person, first american to travel in spaace
What reasons have historians provided for why the U.S. government decided to drop the bomb?
Show the US's strength to Russia and the rest of the world, swift end to the war, save many lives, test run on the after affects of the bomb
Who was Klaus Fuchs?
Spy who stole nuclear secrets from the US and canada and gave them over to russia
Why was silicon valley so ripe for the explosion in the computing industry?
Stanford university took it under its wing
What technological advantage did the Soviet Union have over the United States at the beginning of the Space Race?
The Russians had had captured German rocket technology
Lecture: My thesis stated that the Cold War confrontation was unique because it was about ideas, values, and belief systems and its reach was global, affecting most human activities. Explain using examples from the lecture
The U.S's capitalism and the U.S.S.R's communism were polar opposites of each other. Both countries thought that the others economic system was why the world was in such bad shape. The reach of this cold war was indeed global because the US and USSR both tried to get as many allies on their side as possible in case a war were to break out. in addition the US took to winning people over with plans that seemed to be meant to boost the local economy of certain areas but they were really making buffer states to contain communism
What was the role of the mass media in the aftermath of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
The media conveyed the power and pure destruction that the atomic bomb carried. the US often didn't like this so it took to censoring out things it didn't like
What does "duck and cover" refer to?
The plans instigated in schoolrooms to protect oneself from a nuke or a bomb. brought on by the growing fears and tension of the cold war
What was the first and second "Red Scare" in the United States?
They were the intense fear of communism and it possibility to spread to the US. it was stirred further by the McCarthy witch hints that ran rampant in this time period.
What was Project Plowshare?
US project to use nukes for peaceful constructive purposes; deep water fall out
What was the Berlin Airlift of 1948?
US response to the soviet blockade of west Germany. US airlifted in supplies such as food and clothing. this won them the admiration of the people living there
A large number of Engineers and Physicist were needed to create the electronic computer. What event created so many Engineers and Physicist and why were so many needed?
WWII, cold war, and Manhattan project
What is "A Day Without Space" in the Air Force?
a fear that space is no longer neutral territory and people will start to use it as a battle ground as well
What was the Non-Aligned Movement?
a movement of countries that decided to not align with either the USSR or Us during the cold war
What is the Highway Beautification Act?
an act that made all scrap, junk, and auto yards build a fence to keep it away from the public eye; make it more beautiful
What was the "War on Poverty"? What were some of the projects under that umbrella?
attempt to help out Americans and put some money in their pockets during a touch economic time. food stamps, social security, elementary schools
What is the difference between basic and applied science research? Why would it be difficult for politicians to get buy in from their constituents for basic research?
basic science: research is to increase the knowledge base of a particular field of study. applied science:uses the knowledge base supplied by basic science to devise solutions, often technological, to specific problems. basic research does not benefit the general public as much as applied does
Why do you think Woodruff believes that Germany and Japan are the unquestioned winners of the Cold War?
because the marshal plan helped to rebuild these countries and help their economy so that they wouldn't be in a bad position again and repeat the mistakes of their past. japan got nuclear power
Why did the US government think it needed to address racism during the Cold War? What was the goal and outcome of federal antiracism measures in the 1950s and 1960s?
because we just got done fighting a war that we justified getting into because of damn racism
What major events occurred in the history of oil in the 1970s?
british pulled out of the gulf, people expected america to take its place but we didnt, puppet king, US imports more oil than it exports, oil embargo was placed on america
How did people "recycle" in the late 19th and early 20th century?
by throwing their garbage outside for others to pick through and sell back to companies
How did computer designers eliminate the need for mathematically trained programmers?
computers can now do it for us faster and easier
Who was Edward Teller?
father of the hydrogen bomb
Why was ENIAC important?
first large scale general purpose electrical computer
What led Robert Goddard to believe that the Germans had copied his work?
he was a very secret and cautious man as well as the poor situation concerning the spread of patents in the usa
Luscko argued that it is our attitude toward waste that is our real garbage problem. What does that mean?
instead of looking for a solution we started to just keep the mindset of "out of sight out of mind"
The micro-electronics market could have remained a small part of our lives until what invention?
integrated circuit
Who was Alton Newell?
invented the newell shredder and started a company making them
What were the advantages of transistors over Vacuum tubes?
it allowed for computers to be made smaller and more reliably than when vacuum tubes were used
How did the development of computers begin?
it began with simple adding/subtracting machines that helped with scientific arrhythmic. most were only used once
According to Dr. Luscko's lecture, how did computers become so ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives?
it can technology progressed and became very useful during WWII and so we decided to put more into them. they offerred liberation, and boundless cultural, social, and political growth
How did European attitudes impact the environment on the American continent?
it created a new way of looking at nature that helped to make us realize the impact we were having on our environment and resources
How did corporate culture affect technological innovation in the computer industry?
it made it much more competitive and greatly sped up the rate of advancement
How did the Manhattan Project affect science and scientists?
it posed the question of who should be in charge of scientific progress and technology. the scientist? if not then who? should scientists and engineers be responsible for what they make
Why is the changing cultural and political context surrounding the use of the shredder important?
it shows that people are actually starting to care about what happens to the trash and not just that it is gone
What was the 'green revolution'? Why did it not succeed?
it was met with criticism about the security of the food, the environmental impact that it would have , and the health impact
What was the Moynihan Report and what was it criticized for?
it was racist as shit
Why doesn't every scrap yard have an automobile shredder?
its against the law in some states and they are fairly expensive
What is "bricolage"?
keeping broken items in case they can help fix non broken items
What implications did the hybrid military-civilian nature of postwar science have for the production and sharing of knowledge?
knowledge sharing was limited and almost nonexistent in order to protect the secrecy of the atomic bomb
What is "Big Science"? Examples? Pros and cons? How was science conducted/funded before?
large scale gov. funded projects that occurred during WWII pros: big budget, staff,machines, and labs cons: undermines scientific method, doesnt allow for much if any info sharing
What were the unique circumstances that led to Western agricultural development?
mass production of cash crops, good climate, had the tech to take advantage of their crops
Why does the danger of war lie increasingly in the actions of minor powers?
minor powers look to become stronger and gain more recources/weaponry. they gain this by siding with other larger countries. larger countries gaining access to too many resources could change the power sphere of an area.
Why did global enthusiasm for "Third World" development projects decline in the early 1970s? Provide an example for what had happened
more government money was put into winning the space race and cold war so america had less resources and care to help out the third world countries
What brought on the devastating Dust Bowl in the 1930s?
overuse of land, large drought, replacing of trees with grains and small crops
What factors contributed to the erroneous picture of the computer's future?
people didnt think their would be a big demand for them, vacuum tubes often failed, science lead tech away from things that might have a mass market
What is Alex Roland's argument for the United States to keep the atomic bomb, and what is Theodore Taylor's argument for banning nuclear technologies altogether?
protection and you already built it it was dangerous and if you had it you might use it
How did the early Cold War affect science education?
science education was made to be important because they knew we would need to be able to keep producing tech in the future in order to stay as powerful and safe as we were
What was so revolutionary about the Apple II?
self contained desktop computer
What is the Overview Effect?
shift in awareness that people who have gone to space get when they look at our planet
What is BASIC?
simple high level programming language that it designed for beginners
What was America's "modernization theory"?
spruce up the country and all aspects in it. give third world countries the ability to have our methods and resources to help themselves with farming.
What did we do with cars before the invention of automobile shredders? Why was that no longer feasible?
stack them in junk yard or leave them in fields. we cant do this anymore because cars are produced and abandoned at too quick a rate
What were some of the strengths and weaknesses of Robert Goddard's approach to the development of rocket technology?
strength: liquid fuel; two or three stage rocket using solid fuel
What role did the social sciences play in governing the United States during the Cold War?
studied relationships between black and whites; wrote shit about social interaction and how it effected the econonomy
What was the "long telegram"?
telegram from George F Kenner that re-inspired the idea of containment
Early US environmental history was largely dictated by European attitudes, yet some aspects are quite different in Europe than in the United States. Why is that?
the Europeans ran out of space in their environment
What is the difference between using farmland intensively versus extensively?
the amount of labor and industrialization that is needed on order for it to work well
What is "fluff" in context of automobile shredders?
the biits of a car that are not recyclable metal and cause a large amount of toxins to be created
What was the "curse of the cold war"?
the curse of the cold war was Berlin and how it was ripped apart and separated
What caused the failure of the Soviet manned lunar program? What does this tell us about the role of nontechnical factors in technological change?
the program failed because the US beat the soviets to the punch. It shows that in a work of technology and science it doesnt always matter as much as the human element of the tech
What happened to the Soviet manned space program and the image of the Soviet Union after the success of Apollo 11?
their reputation wasn't as good. they lost some face loosing to the Americans even though they had a head start in the space race. the soviet space program pretty much shut down except to blasting satellites into orbit
In what ways were women omitted from the history of ENIAC?
they mainly wrote technical manuals that did not get published by men
What is the role of the British in the history of oil?
they went and pretty much took over the oil fields of the saudi arabian peninsula and then began to monopolize middle eastern oil companies
How were the first computers different from special-purpose experimental equipment?
they were able to do much more than one specific type of calculation needed for one type of problem
What do we learn about the role of women in computer history from Jennifer Light's article?
they were always seen as lesser computers even if they did the same amount of work
What happened to women who were recruited during WWII to work in jobs formerly held by men after the war? What were they told to do?
they were pretty much kicked out of jobs or replaced and told to go back home; that or they became secretaries
Why should we care about the history of oil?
to know why we are in our current situation with the middle east
What was the main point of the Apollo program? Why did the United States do it?
to land an american safely on the moon and get them back. to win the damn cold war
What is the role of national parks in U.S. environmental history?
to preserve the environment and local species of some areas and remind america about how nature can be
Why do we have an "Earth Day"?
to remind us of the importance that our environmental impact is having on earth
Why did the superpowers focus their efforts on development instead of other forms of assistance for so-called Third World countries during the Cold War?
to secure their places in the modern world and show their strength in case of possible invasion
What happens to US policy around oil during the Cold War?
we go and help out these oil rich countries in order to make sure that the soviets cant get their hands on it
What does Rand mean by "The end of the satellite age could mean the end of the modern global age as we know it"?
we rely on satellites for everything so if we loos those then we would have to move into an age where something else takes its place
What does Lisa Ruth Rand mean by "If we were to lose all satellites, or even "most of them," the biggest drama will take place on the ground"?
we rely on satellites for so many things in the world today that without them we would not be able to do a fraction of our daily routine
Why did efforts to impose the Western model of agricultural development on other countries have negative social and economic consequences? What were some of those consequences?
we tried to help them out and westernize them but sadly they could not do cash crops like us bc 1) who would buy them 2) they didn't have the tech in order to make them worth it 3) they needed to eat
What was Charles Lindbergh's role in Goddard's rocket development efforts?
worked together to make rocket/jet propelled planes the future of aviation
Who was Rachel Carson?
wrote silent spring and helped to advance the environmental movement
