The Titanic. The first major technological disaster of the twentieth century. What exactly went wrong? Could this tragedy have been avoided? With the new technologies we have today, we have found out to almost the tiniest detail about the events of the sinking of the Titanic. With this new information, and knowing the technology was available at the time to avoid this accident, we can then explore the reasons why it had to happen. Human neglect had to play a huge role in this event. And in that case, why? I will be analyzing these ideas in relation to articles read in class throughout the paper.
In the article Technological Momentum, Hughes suggests that technology shapes and is shaped by society. I believe this stands true in the case of the Titanic. The fact that an inadequate number of lifeboats road on the Titanic because of the desire for glass-enclosed observation lounges, suites, and palm courts for the wealthy travelers is an example of this. The technology for more lifeboats was there but was not used because of societys desire to not use them. The boat itself (technology) was designed to hold the riches people on the planet (society). Its grand facilities included a swimming pool, a squash court, and a Turkish bath, among other things. This shows how technology (Titanic) is shaped by society. Society was then shaped by technology when the technology failed. If any one of the numerous actions that couldve saved the ship would have taken place, then part of society wouldnt have perished that day, and the rest of society wouldnt have mourned that next morning and there on out. We wouldve then never learned the invaluable things we did because of this tragedy.
In response to Berrys question, even if we can build it, should we build it, in my opinion, generally the answer to this is yes. Granted, there are times when the consequences of creating something outweigh the benefits, and in which case, the answer would obviously be no. But each time something is built, it must first be researched, developed, constructed, and tested. Even for the simplest project this process must be followed, and each time it is, something new is learned. With the Titanic the question arises, if we could build it, should we? And even after the fact and after weve seen the consequences, I believe the answer is still yes, and we should have still built it. After this great tragedy and the hundreds of lives lost, I believe we learned an extraordinary amount about many different aspects of the situation. In my opinion, some time or another, this had to happen so that we can understand the seriousness of travel and the importance of safety for future generations. As far as the Berry article, he is explaining how since he doesnt need a computer and gets along very well without one, no one else should use one either. This idea is very ignorant for the fact that there are many more professions out there that what Wendell Berry does for a living and for certain jobs you absolutely need computers to get work done. A dam operator for example must use a computer to regulate and maintain a dam and would be impossible to do without one. You could argue that this job is unnecessary and eliminate the need for computers by eliminating this job, but you have to agree that electricity, at least in this day and age, IS a necessity. You could also argue that the jobs that use computers should not even be done at all, but this brings us back to the question, if we could build it, should we? And if we can do a job and learn from it, of course we should do it. Back to the Titanic, even though Berry doesnt want to build a ship that transports thousands of people and supplies across oceans for various relative important reasons doesnt mean we shouldnt do it.
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Mesthenes basic idea in the article The Role of Technology in Society is that technology brings social change by creating new jobs, and by generating new problems for individuals and societies. This is obviously true in the case of the Titanic because you can imagine how many jobs that the invention, construction, and implementation of this ship created. You need designers and engineers to invent it, you need hundreds, if not thousands of construction workers to build it, and you need hundreds of people to actually run the ship, let alone the hundreds of other people who invested in the project, etc. So this ship obviously created jobs, and as far as generating new problems for individuals and societies, I think it created many problems including the problems the engineers faced in the design and construction of the Titanic, as well as when the ship actually wrecked and sank. And after encountering all these problems, we all learned something new and important from them. The question also arises, was our ability to organize and operate a complex technology such as the Titanic correspond with our ability to invent it? I believe this question basically asks, were we ready to build and operate the Titanic and in my viewpoint we were, and we werent. We were because we obviously had the technology to physically construct the ship and operate it, but we werent because the people actually running the ship were not mature enough to handle the situation. They should have taken things more seriously like the ice burg warnings for example, or using the pumps in all 16 watertight compartments instead of sealing them off, among many other things. By these people doing this or a number of other simple tasks, we could have avoided this situation all together.
The men in charge of the ship did not do anything to avoid this disaster even though they couldve. In relation to the Brody article, Great Expectations: Why Technology Predictions Go Awry, I believe that the existing technology could have also prevented this from happening. Binoculars existed in 1912 and if the watchmen had them, they couldve seen the ice burg from a lot farther distance and could have turned in time before they hit the ice burg. Lifeboats also existed and if enough of them were properly installed and the men were trained on how to use them, a lot more, if not all the lives could have been saved. The pumps in the 16 watertight compartments was a technology that also existed that if had been utilized could have delayed or possibly saved the ship from sinking. These are just a few of the technologies that existed that could have stopped this tragedy from happening.
Can we count the costs of this disaster? One possible way to measure it is in human life. A relatively large amount of human life was lost in this event and as it states in the Florman article, It is mans destiny to be defeated by the forces of nature. Though both nearby ships could have either helped save lives or ignored the distress call, this disaster was inevitable, which like I described earlier is not necessarily a bad thing. It helped us in a huge number of ways. The Carpathia did come to the Titanics aid in a heroismatic fashion and the Californian ignored the distress calls, but neither had any control over the situation. It was basically bound to happen so I condone neither ship for its actions. Dont get me wrong, the Californian should have by all means gone to the scene to help save lives but the Californian had no power over actual accident itself.
After analyzing this event and seeing it from many different angles, I believe that a combination of greed, pride, conceit, and the desire for the biggest and the best all had a major part in the Titanic tragedy. The captain is an example of all of these things in this event. He wanted to get to New York faster than any other ship had before because he was greedy, had too much pride in the ship, was conceited in the fact that he thought the ship couldnt be sunk, and he wanted to be the biggest and the best in the world. Even though ignorance was also a major part in this event, the ignorance arouse out of these other things, and many other people on the ship, if not all, felt the same way as the captain. They had the belief that, if it can be done, it must be done.
Ultimately, human ignorance and error were the reasons for this technological failure. People got caught up in the idea of the ship and didnt think hard enough about the importance of safety of the passengers and crew. We could sit here and say, well if we could have just done thisor if we had just done that all day, but when it comes down to it, even though this tragedy couldve been avoided, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
