Using Narratives for Communicating the Nature of Technology

Abstract

Humans have entertained themselves with stories since the beginning of civilization. Researchers have attributed many reasons for humans indulging in this seemingly leisurely activity. One of the reasons is transferring cultural knowledge through generations. As humanity moved across different sets of cultural values, its narratives changed accordingly. The narratives of religious cultural values are characteristically distinct from narratives of cultural values that represent modernity and so are narratives expressing the culture of science. What are the characteristic features of narratives that carry the cultural values of technology? How can these narratives help in communicating the nature of technology? These are some of the questions we explore by analysing technology narratives from the history of airplanes.