Technology Transfer and Cultural Exchange


Cultural exchange suggests trading ideas and artifacts. Technology transfer is more like colonization.

The more I think about exchange programs between engineering colleges or technological universities the more puzzling the notion becomes. Technology is not so much exchanged as superseded. Cultural exchange implies mutual respect, equity and respect for difference. Unlike cultures technologies are better or worse as measured by their overall efficiency and power. The question becomes how do representatives or agents of technology in those roles participate in mutually respectful cultural exchange? Of course actual students or faculty members may not represent the technologies they practice but insofar as the program they participate in is centered on technology training it seems that cultural exchange is ruled out. In this case the program becomes tourism, a visit to see how others do things without any genuine expectation of anything more than the satisfaction of curiosity.

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Posted: Thu - December 4, 2003 at 12:49 AM      

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