Momentum

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Momentum is the undergraduate research journal of the Science, Technology and Society (STSC) program at the University of Pennsylvania. Initiated in the spring semester of 2012, the journal seeks to showcase the wide variety of work done both by students in the STSC major and minor and by other students throughout the university whose work is related to our program. See the Aims and Scope page for a complete coverage of the journal: https://repository.upenn.edu/momentum/aimsandscope.html
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Subject: technological systems ×

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  • Publication
    Nor Any Drop to Drink: A Systems Approach to Water in America
    (2012-04-18) Gerstein, Hilary
    The water crisis has been a “hot topic” in recent years. By synthesizing some of the existing literature on this subject, this thesis aims to encourage Americans, particularly those people less familiar with the topic, to start thinking about water issues in a new way, specifically by thinking in systems. Drawing from Donella Meadows, Thomas Hughes and concepts such as complex adaptive systems, it frames the problems with bottled water, and the drinking water distribution system, more generally, in a particular way. More specifically, this paper analyzes the water distribution system by breaking it into two main parts––the municipal water supply and the bottled water industry––and also analyzes these components as a whole system. In addition, the paper highlights health, safety, environmental and social justice issues surrounding the nation’s failing water system. Because the water system crisis can be interpreted as a symptom of larger problems faced by society, thinking in systems for this particular case is a meaningful exercise applicable to understanding other sustainability issues.
  • Publication
    The Political Nature of TCP/IP
    (2012-04-18) Larsen, Rebekah
    Despite the importance of the Internet in the modern world, many users and even policy makers don’t have a necessary historical or technical grasp of the technology behind it. In the spirit of addressing this issue, this thesis attempts to shed light on the historical, political, and technical context of TCP/IP. TCP/IP is the Internet Protocol Suite, a primary piece of Internet architecture with a well-documented history. After at technical overview, detailing the main function of TCP/IP, I examine aspects of the social and developmental record of this technology using STS theoretical approaches such as Hughesian systems theory, Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), and Langdon Winner’s brand of technological determinism. Key points in TCP/IP evolution, when viewed from an STS perspective, illuminate the varied reasons behind decisions and development of the technology. For example, as detailed in this paper, both technical and political motivations were behind the architectural politics built into TCP/IP in the 1970s, and similar motivations spurred the rejection of OSI protocols by Internet developers two decades later. Armed with resultant contextual understanding of previous TCP/IP developments, a few possible directions (both political and technical) in contemporary and future Internet development are then explored, such as the slow migration to IPv6 and the meaning of network neutrality.