Technology As Applied Science

Jason Van Buiten McClellan History 28 April 2007

E-ZPass and Technological Systems as Applied Science New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania contain some of the busiest roadways and tool plazas in the United States. In fact, the seven independent toll agencies in these three states make up two-thirds of the nation’s $3 Billion a year toll industry. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s an effort was made to reduce the incredible congestion by creating a smoother and easier way to pass through tolls. In 1991, the E-ZPass IAG was formed to create an interoperable system involving the cooperation of the seven toll agencies: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, The New Jersey Highway Authority (operator of the Garden State Parkway at the time), the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York State Thruway Authority, and the South Jersey Transportation Authority. (http://www.e-zpassiag.com/ ) EZPass was first deployed on the New York State Thruway in August of 1993. (http://www.state.nj.us/turnpike/nj-ezpass.htm ) Today, E-ZPass is used on almost every major highway in all 3 states, and various similar and compatible systems have arisen in other states, such as MassPass, I-Pass, Smart Tag, and M-Tag. E-ZPass might seem like a pretty simple system: A device that you keep in your car that wirelessly communicates with the toll booth as you pass through it, so you don’t have to stop to pay with change. In fact, even a

seemingly simple system like E-ZPass is a much more complex than it appears, containing numerous subsystems and database, involving several different technologies, and requiring many different groups of people to work together. The E-ZPass system can be used to create a template for what a technological system is, and where the boundaries of that system are. We can use these criteria for a system to explore the nature of technological systems, and discuss the extent to which technological systems are applied sciences. The E-ZPass technological system is made up of four main subsystems: The transponder, the antenna on the toll booth, the lane controller, and the host computer system. Certainly, other systems are part of the process: cars are needed to drive through the lanes, unique license plates are needed so cars can be tracked if they don’t pay the toll. Highways, a complex system in itself, are what caused the need for the E-ZPass system in the first place. Where do we draw the line? Any related system that is a complex technological system in itself, and would exist whether or not E-ZPass existed, and is not entirely contained within the E-ZPass system, we will consider being outside the boundary of the E-ZPass technological system. The first and most obvious of the four subsystems that make up the E-ZPass technological system is the transponder. The transponder is the device that is placed inside the car’s windshield to communicate with the toll booth as it approaches the toll. The transponder is battery operated, and uses RFID (radio frequency identification) to transmit radio signals in both directions. It

contains a microprocessor and operates in the 900 Mhz band. The RFID contains basic information, such as an account number. The second subsystem is the antenna. Antennas are placed above each toll lane and constantly emit radio frequencies that will “wake-up” the transponder. The range of an E-ZPass antenna is 6-10 feet. These two subsystems interact and cooperate in order to complete the transaction as you drive through the toll. The third subsystem is the actual toll lane, involving the booth, the screen that tells you whether the transaction is successful, a camera to record your license plate is the transaction is not successful, and, in some cases, a traffic gate. These are all sub-subsystems that could be considered within the domain of the overall E-ZPass system. The fourth subsystem is the host computer system – the database that holds all the information needed to make the transaction. Accounts numbers, prepaid balances, credit card numbers and license plates are all stored here and accessed in the 2-3 seconds it takes to drive through the lane. (http://auto.howstuffworks.com/) Now that we’ve tediously analyzed how the entire E-ZPass system works, we can use the information to explain the nature of systems in general. How do we determine what subsystems are part of the system, and what is considered to be outside the boundaries of the system? If you were to consider all subsystems to be part of the system, you could create a tree of subsystems that would probably end up covering every major technological system in the world. For instance, E-ZPass needs highways, which need cars, which need gas, gas comes from gas stations, which are owned by large companies, which are bought and sold on the stock market. We’ve gone from E-ZPass to the Wall Street in only 6 steps. It is easy to see

that we need to create a boundary somewhere. For the E-ZPass, we determined that there were 4 subsystems that could be considered to be within the boundaries of the system. If we apply the same rules to technological systems in general, we have created the following criteria: • • •

The subsystem must be a technological system within itself The subsystem must be entirely contained within the parent system (ex. Highways serve other functions that to move cars through tolls, so they are not included in the E-ZPass system) The system must be a direct subsystem (If we allowed an infinite number of levels of subsystems, we could have an infinite number of subsystems. For this reason we will allow only 1 level of subsystems) By using these criteria, we can understand the nature of systems better. We

will know where they end and related systems begin. A good analogy is a family. We can consider the parents to be the subsystem and children to be the subsystem. There are related systems, just like families have more relatives. Every system has related systems, but to what degree are they still part of the original system? Every system is related to every other system, just like everyone on earth has a common ancestor. But every system is not a part of every other system, just like we are all not part of the same family. In this way, the nature of systems is very similar to the nature of families. Finally, how is science involved in technology and technological systems? Since the Industrial Revolution, it is obvious that most complex technological systems are applied science. But it has been thoroughly discussed in this course that it wasn’t always this way. For all of human history until the 18th century, technology was just technology, with little to no science used to develop it. We are constantly told that our lifetimes are just a tiny speck on the timeline of history. But the issue can be viewed in an entirely different way.

How much life has actually been lived? The Population Reference Bureau estimates that anywhere between 6%-50% of the people that ever lived, are alive right now, with the range depending on a large number of factors. (www.prb.org) But even taking the conservative side of that estimate, when combined with the fact that life-spans are at an all time high for human history, we can say that, most likely, somewhere around half of the human experiences that have ever happened will happen in this generation. Are we really just a tiny blip on the timeline? If you consider human history to be the actual total amount of time lived by humans (human history = time x population), then surely at least half of “human history” has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Let’s combine this perspective with the fact that life is changing at a much more rapid pace than it ever has. For most of human history (using the traditional definition), people lived the same way – in a Paleolithic lifestyle, or a Neolithic lifestyle. From 200,000 years ago until 12,000 years ago, how many technological systems existed? There were no inventors, no entrepreneurs, and no rapid, abrupt changes to way people lived. This rapid advancement of culture and introduction of numerous technological systems every day is a phenomenon that has only been occurring since the Industrial Revolution. It would not be unreasonable to guess that for every technological system that existed on earth from 200,000 BC to 10,000 BC, the same number of technological systems will be invented in 2009. Considering population increase and the rate at which inventions happen compared to the Paleolithic era, this is probably a conservative estimate. When using the new perspective on what “human history” means, and considering the rate at which technological systems come into being, we realize that the vast majority of all technological systems ever created are, in fact, applied sciences.

The E-ZPass, while not fascinating in itself, can be used as an example to determine the boundaries of technological system in general, and the nature of those systems. Are all technological systems applied sciences? If not, how many? While it is true that for most of human history, technology was not applied science, if we consider the fact that most of the human experiences that have ever happened in history have happened since the Industrial Revolution, and the vast majority of all technological systems have been invented since the Industrial Revolution, this new perspective quickly shows us that the vast majority of technology that has ever existed is, in fact, applied science.