UCBerkeley>   QUESTIONING EFFICIENCY:
HUMAN FACTORS AND EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY
     
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  Midterm Paper Topic:(5 pages max, double spaced, with 12 point type)
On the basis of lectures, readings, class discussions, and other contemporary examples, discuss how aspects of Fredrick Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management are consistent or inconsistent with the stages of technology we identified in class. Cite specific passages from Taylor and the Heidegger readings - "Memorial Address", "Age of the World Picture", and "The Question Concerning Technology" to make your argument. Due 3/22 , please pass in during class



Final Paper Topic (hard copy ONLY to be handed in class May 8th)
5 Pages Double Spaced Single Sided

Cite specifics from class readings, and/or discussions, and/or your team experiment, that is relevant to answer some or all of the following questions:

Briefly review how efficiency relates to technology and discuss pros and cons of efficiency. Then, discuss how the drive toward efficiency might be resisted through a focal thing or practice, using at least one example not discussed in class. Compare and contrast this focal thing or practice with a contemporary non-work activity like playing a multiperson computer game. In what ways is this activity an example of a focal practice and in what ways is it not? To what extent does the activity resist the tendency to turn everything into an efficient, available, commodity?