IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2022 - 48

Feature
In another paradox, " the paradox of the frame, "
Feenberg refers to a fact which the history of technology
endorses, but which is counter-intuitive. The
common sense about the relationship between the
" efficiency " and the " success " of a technology is that
a given technology first reaches an appropriate level
of " efficiency " and then, as a result, it " succeeds " to
gain the customer's attention; while the history of
technology shows that the success of a technology
is not always achieved by the efficiency of that technology.
Although all technologies have some level
of efficiency, there have been several technologies
that first succeed to attract the attention of society
and then, using this success, improve their technical
efficiency and enjoy many innovations [9].
What happened to two messaging applications in
Iran is a good example to use to explain this novel
thesis of Feenberg's. " Viber " was one of the first popular
messaging apps in Iran with numerous users,
until 2014. But Viber was founded by two friends
from the Israel Defense Forces [12], [17] and everyone
knows that Iran and Israel have been enemies
for more than 40 years. This fact about Viber was
spread rapidly in Iranian media, and due to political
considerations, the Iranian government disrupted
Viber services [7], [21]. Following these interventions,
the number of Iranian users of Viber declined,
and they started searching for a new messaging
app instead. Among the rivals, Telegram won the
day with some governmental support, despite its
lower efficiency and technical quality as compared
to world renowned messenger services like Viber,
WhatsApp, and Line. The success of Telegram
in attracting Iranian users was so great that even
the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting service
(IRIB), as a governmental media, introduced Telegram
as its main channel of communication for its
audience. In spite of all its technical shortcomings
and the early criticisms of the users about its inefficiency,
the promotion of Telegram as a substitute
for Viber resulted in its unprecedented popularity in
Iran. After this success, Telegram was able to introduce
many technical improvements and is now one
of the most efficient messenger services in the world.
Therefore, according to Feenberg's proposition,
Telegram first succeeded to draw the attention of
" politics " (one of the HEs in Iranian society), and
this success led to the increasing improvement of its
efficiency despite its technical inefficiency in comparison
with Viber.
48
The paradox of frame, according to the above
explanation, can be considered to be an endorsement
of Law's idea about the role played by social
factors like politics and the various interests of social
groups. However, in " the paradox of action, " Feenberg
alludes to a fact that seems to be neglected in
Law's approach. Law, in heterogeneous engineering,
has few words to say about the mutual interaction
of HEs and technology and has only focused on
the one-sided influence of the former over the latter.
However, by pointing to the Newtonian reciprocity
of action and reaction, Feenberg helps us to understand
the isolated world in which technology and
its builders exist, and in which they have reciprocal
effects on each other. As an example, man has no
way to escape from the effects of technological interventions
of nature as an HE [9].
As this mutual interaction continues, the distinction
between means and ends fades. Feenberg
explains this unresolved tension in " the paradox of
the means. " Feenberg believes that technology can
deviate its users from their early goal and direct them
instead to another end. Thus, a technology which
was meant to be used as a means to somehow fulfill
predetermined goals is now tied to human ends and
even more: the means are the end [9]. This means
that the relationship between technology and its
users is mutual and intertwined, as they cannot be
easily distinguished as two separate realities. So as
an augmentation to Law's idea, it can be said that
HEs and technology are in fact one entity.
The axiological analysis of the relationship
between society and technology is a problem which
is not considered sufficiently by previous approaches.
Feenberg [10] believes in the possibility of the emergence
of alternative technologies due to the coexistence
of technology with different ideologies and
cultures. By proposing some ideas under " the paradox
of value and fact, " Feenberg provides a rich
framework to have a better understanding about
ethical concerns in the development of a given technology.
Whether values are embedded in technology
or not is a question that obtains in the philosophy of
technology. Some philosophers and sociologists have
tried to answer this question. Winner's [24] highly
cited work on the intertwinement of technological
products with politico-ethical values,7 the significant
7In his article, " Do Artifacts have Politics? " Winner refers to the Moses overpass as
the manifestation of a design influenced by racist political values. For more details
on this example, see [24].
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