A technologian is someone who strives to study technology in all its breadth. Yet this does not make “technology” a new discipline or specialization. The technological field of inquiry is inherently interdisciplinary, making the technologian anyone from any discipline who seeks out how the problems studied by their discipline are related to the problems studied in other disciplines. In my research I draw upon many sources, including knowledge gained from philosophy, theology, history and sociology, as well as from literature and film. While our technological environment is something created by our technology, it is also a manifestation of our humanity. The technologian, unlike the specialist of a technical field, cannot claim to be seeking a detached or “objective” understanding of society, technology and culture. Hence, technologians also draw upon knowledge gained from their own experience, for we cannot successfully study our technological environment without learning something about ourselves.
Mark Morley is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Hamilton and former faculty member of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo where he lectured at the Centre for Society, Technology and Values.