Summary
“The Future History of Industrial Technology” is an article written in 2003, which tries to predict possible changes to understanding of discipline by onward change of generations. Gordon Minty, the author, starts with the idea that views on the history of industrial technology that will be brought by new educated specialists may by different from those of people who have been establishing the discipline. Basically, the article focuses on the essence of industrial technology, and, more exactly, on its emergence and its predetermining disciplines.
Article includes brief factual overview of the development of IT and its origins. Generally, it appears that IT has emerged from Industrial Arts in 1989, which had originated previously as a part of the American Vocational Association. In the text, IT is defined as “a field of study designed to prepare technical management-oriented professionals for employment in business, industry, education, and government” (3).
Minty highlights three main constituent aspects of IT. Firstly, he shows that management can be approached from different perspectives in this field. Mainly, it can be based on Mathematics or people interactions. Secondly, technology appears to be a confusing term, which may be too broad to apply it concretely. Finally, society and social sciences are described as a possible origin of IT.
The main point in this article is that the change of generations is inevitable, and it inevitably leads to changes in understanding of IT history. Without designating whether those changes are positive or negative, Minty predicts possible reconsideration of basic aspects. Those include directly the history of IT, and particularly its emergence. In addition, there is a discourse about how IT should operate in the future: should it rely more on technological or social aspects? Examples from the article, such as General Motors and Ford Motor Company, clearly demonstrate the impossibility of complete and accurate separation of managing, technological, and social aspects. In other words, only different combinations of the three are productive in business, manufacturing, governance, and education. Minty highlights the importance of studying and understanding the IT history for new students in this field in order to understand what Industrial Technology really is, how to define it, and how distinguish it from other disciplines such as engineering or management.
My Opinion and Thoughts
First of all, I think that the articles title is improper: it is more about past history of IT than its future. The only thing that fits the title is relatively small part of predictions and advices for graduates. Secondly, despite the abundance of referenced sources in the article, Minty’s predictions look highly subjective and not concrete. Therefore, in my opinion, there is no sense in making predictions which are really vague and do not give any concrete idea whether the upcoming changes will influence IT in positive or negative way, or they will not actually bring fundamental reshapes of the field. Also, by paying that much attention to the past history of IT, Minty leaves behind one very important aspect. That is, regardless of its history, is IT deep-seated discipline enough to be capable of adjusting to any of potential changes, not only in faculty generations, but also in the world.
Works Cited
Minty, Gordon. "The Future Of Industrial Technology". Journal of Industrial Technology 20.1
(2003): 1-8. Print.
