Examines contemporary ideas about how technology shapes and is shaped by society and culture, historically and today. Considers theories of technological determinism, technology and religious thought, the role of innovation in industrialization and economic growth; the problems of regulating risky technologies; the impact of Information Technology, and the shaping of Canadian science and technology policy. Restriction: Not open to students who have taken HIST 2925. 

Explores the struggle between vitalistic and mechanistic conceptions of life in the development of biology, the emergence of evolutionary theory and its social and religious consequences, and the technological influence of the life sciences on the rise of modern medicine and genetic engineering. No scientific background expected. Restriction: Not available for credit to students who have taken HIST 2915.