The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.17 (651 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0226902110 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
About the AuthorLangdon Winner is professor of political science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the author of Autonomous Technology.
rodboomboom said Stop and Think About It!. A popular morning radio broadcast here in Detroit has a great bit periodically entitled this, "Stop and think about it." Winner passionately writes with this theme in mind when it comes to technology.As technology as we now know it seems steamrolling always into new area never ventured and most react with "can't stop progress," this book delivers the good gift of "we'd better start, stopping and thinking more carefully about it." The "it" is the impact of technologies upon society.Discussions of risk analysis, tradeoffs, environment and ecology, and of course, economics and politics and social science. recognition and reflection In The Whale and the Reactor, Langdon Winner asserts that technology is inseparably connected with politics, in that the technological decisions we make are often decisions significantly shaped and motivated by political forces. Some of these politically shaped technologies are obvious, such as those created for and used by the military. However, most are much more subtle. Winner provides an example early in the book about the bridges over parkways in Long Island, New York, describing how they are only nine feet tall. He then claims that these bridges were actually politically designed and built to ac. "This is a Great Book!!" according to Nicholas M. Kothari. We have just finished this book in our Book Club here in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The debate that we spawned from the material was intense and exciting.This book clearly defines an interesting problem that is hidden underneath a complex facade of consumerism and innovation. Winner chooses not to offer alternatives to our pursuit of unlimited technology, but instead, he describes certain aspects of technology, such as politics, that should be taken into consideration as society blindly accepts technology on a product-by-product basis. How are we being limited?? This is an important question to ponder as yo
In its pages an analytically trained mind confronts some of the most pressing political issues of our day."—Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Isis. "The questions he poses about the relationship between technical change and political power are pressing ones that can no longer be ignored, and identifying them is perhaps the most a nascent 'philosophy of technology' can expect to achieve at the present time."—David Dickson, New York Times Book Review"The Whale and the Reactor is the philosopher's equivalent of superb public history
Langdon Winner is professor of political science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the author of Autonomous Technology.