Research Catalog

Title

Visions of technology : a century of vital debate about machines, systems, and the human world / edited by Richard Rhodes.

Publication

New York : Simon & Schuster, c1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Rhodes, Richard
• Rhodes, Richard, 1937-

Description

399 p. : ill.; 24 cm.

Summary

Visions of Technology collects writings on events from the Great Exposition of 1900 and the invention of the telegraph to the advent of genetic counseling and the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. The book contains a worried editorial from 1931 by the journalist Floyd Allport, who presciently noted the community-destroying effects of technological advances such as the private car and the telephone, and reproduces any number of warnings from the likes of Aldous Huxley, Vannevar Bush, and Edward Abbey that humankind's scientific imagination far outstrips our moral capacity. It also includes Henry Ford on the horseless carriage, Robert Caro on the transformation of New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer on science and war, and Loretta Lynn on the Pill.

Series Statement

Sloan technology series

Uniform Title

Sloan technology series

Subject

• Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld
• Geschichte 1900-1997
• 1900-1999
• Technology > History > 20th century
• Technology > United States > History > 20th century
• Technology > history

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• I. The new technology: 1900-1933. America in 1900 / Mark Sullivan -- Messages without wires / Guglielmo Marconi -- A very loud electromagnetic voice / P.T. McGrath -- Wilbur Wright's affliction / Wilbur Wright -- A horseless carriage was a common idea / Henry Ford -- Praying to the dynamo / Henry Adams -- The American will not live near his work / Charles M. Skinner -- The profession of engineering / Herbert Hoover -- A reservoir of suffering humanity / Richard Rhodes -- The charge of the four hundred / Anonymous -- The discipline of the machine / Thorstein Veblen -- A good reason for everything that he tries / Richard C. Maclaurin -- Forty doses of chemicals and colors / Mark Sullivan -- The wonderful culebra cut / David McCullough -- Dignity versus intoxication / Roger Burlingame -- Predictions: the flying-machine of the future / Waldemar Kaempffert -- A rapid succession of improvements / George Eastman -- Every woman an engineer / Ellen Swallow Richards --^
• A high-priced man / Frederick Winslow Taylor -- Producing wealth but grinding man / Samuel Gompers -- A babe still in the cradle / Arthur D. Little -- A city build by experts / Frederic C. Howe -- Predictions: atomic bombs / H.G. Wells -- Paving propaganda / Morris Llewellyn Cooke -- Making history / Henry Ford -- The line-gang / Robert Frost -- Gasoline dripping from the trees / Max W. Ball -- Billy Mitchell takes to the air / Brigadier General William Mitchell -- The mechanization of war: I / William L. Sibert -- The mechanization of war: II / Orville Wright -- Breaking crust / Thomas P. Hughes -- Birth control / Margaret Sanger -- The radio age: I / Clayton R. Koppes -- The insidious dangers of radio advertising / Printer's Ink -- In the hands of the technicians / Thorstein Veblen -- Rossum's universal robots / Karel Capek -- On the line / Henry Ford -- You must grind your bearings / Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. -- The railroads have reached capacity / Charles Pierce Burton --^
• A bridge too low / Robert Caro -- Large cities have come to stay / Robert Ridgway -- Unstable ages / Alfred North Whitehead -- The meaning of power / Henry Ford -- Immense decrease in the death rate / Mark Sullivan -- Comfort / Aldous Huxley -- Applied science / Herbert Hoover -- The automobile boom / Thomas C. Cochran -- The decentralizing power of the automobile / Robert and Helen Lynd -- Flying feels too godlike / Charles Lindbergh -- A diminutive moving picture / The New York Times -- The inevitability of the machine / Charles A. Beard -- Engineer, professional / Encyclopedia Britannica -- 10,000 automobile frames a day / Sidney G. Koon -- Leisure worth having? / Floyd H. Allport -- Predictions: townless highways / Benton Mackaye and Lewis Mumford -- Operators / Carter Glass -- O brave new world! / Aldous Huxley -- A scientific snake dance / Loring M. Black.
• II. Depression and war: 1932-1945. In defense of machines / George Boas -- Energy from air-conditioning / Willis R. Gregg -- The first human hope industrialism has offered / Archibald MacLeish -- Streamlining / Roger Burlingame -- The machine our servant / Lewis Mumford -- Consistent optimism / Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. -- Lighter than air / R.H. Harrison -- The causes of the causes / S.C. Gilfillan -- Predictions: rockets through space / Richard van Riet Wooley -- Overalls / James Agee -- Invention is a great disturber / National Resources Science Committee -- The burning of the Hindenburg / Herb Morrison -- Predictions: fifty years from now in 1988 / Arthur Train, Jr. -- One ounce of European gold / Paul B. Sears -- The world of tomorrow / E.B. White -- Technology is relatively neutral / Temporary National Economic Committee -- Air power will replace sea power / John Philips Cranwell -- How they comb their hair / Orrin Dunlap -- A radioactive superbomb / Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls -- Machinery has destroyed the peace / Roy Helton -- Beneficial inventions and diabolical purposes / Orville Wright -- Science at war: I / V.B. Wigglesworth -- Science at War: II / J. Robert Oppenheimer -- Plastics go to war / Joseph L. Nicholson and George R. Leighton -- Rations / Harland Manchester -- The business of the future / Edwin H. Land -- Progress and the servant problem / Allen G.B. Fisher -- The radio age: II / Bernard B. Smith -- Timber! / Roy A.H. Thompson -- Predictions: geosynchrony / Arthur C. Clarke -- Manhattan project success / Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves -- A common problem / J. Robert Oppenheimer -- Predictions: ICBMs / Vannevar Bush.
• III. Postwar boom: 1945-1970. A vision of hypertext / Vannevar Bush -- Weighing up DDT / V.B. Wigglesworth -- Atomic morality / Vannevar Bush -- Flying blind / George A. Lundberg -- Appropriations / George B. Dyson -- Solving the problems of war / Board of Consultants to the Secretary of State's Committee on Atomic Energy -- Naming of parts / Henry Reed -- T-R-A-N-S-I-S-T-O-R / Ralph Bown -- Bottled sunshine / Suzanne White -- Murphy's law, 1949 / Robert A.J. Matthews -- A dime a dozen / Vannevar Bush -- The real power / George Orwell -- Varieties / David Riesman -- Three laws of robotics / Isaac Asimov -- Detroit versus the hot-rod / Gene Balsley -- Predictions: century in the balance / James Bryant Conant -- Taking thought / B.V. Bowden -- Too cheap to meter / Lewis L. Strauss -- The pill: I / Bernard Asbell -- Happy and unhappy endings / B.F. Skinner -- Global effects / John von Neumann -- Fellow traveler / Pravda -- Space vegetables / James G. Fulton --^
• Natural Luddites / C.P. Snow -- Reinventing invention / John Jewkes, David Sawers and Richard Stillerman -- Fist fights and females / Ernst Alexanderson -- Blind date: I / J.C.R. Licklider -- Blind date: II / Norbert Wiener -- The first laser / Theodore H. Maiman -- Glitches / John H. Glenn, Jr. -- America is process / John A. Kouwenhoven -- The most important passion / Dwight D. Eisenhower -- A vast wasteland / Newton N. Minow -- Weightlessness / John H. Glenn, Jr. -- Silent spring / Rachel Carson -- How like sailors they were / John Steinbeck -- Doomsday in the war room / Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern -- Science and technology / Jacques Ellul -- Downloading (prehistory of) / Norbert Wiener -- King Lud / Mario Savio -- A story to tell / Loudon Wainwright -- Moore's law / Gordon E. Moore -- Culture to the Nth power / Herbert A. Simon -- A new duty / Barry Commoner -- Pax Atomica / William G. Carleton -- Conservatives / F.H. Clauser -- Regicide / Melvin Maddocks --^
• For a coming extinction / W.S. Merwin -- Booby-trap technology / Paul Goodman -- More injury to more people / Harold P. Green -- Predictions: zero population growth / Donald J. Bogue -- Blue jeans and Coca-Cola / Alva Myrdal -- The whole earth / John Allen -- Continuity / Bruce Mazlish -- Tyrannies / Emmanuel G. Mesthene -- Contra industrial tourism / Edward Abbey -- "Plastics" / Jeffrey L. Meikle -- Square rooting / Gene Shalit -- The richness of technology / T.J. Gordon and A.L. Shef -- The Internet primeval / J.C.R. Licklider -- So it goes / Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. -- The curve of technological competence / T.J. Gordon and A.L. Shef -- Predicting the unpredictable / Robert A. Nisbet -- Benefit versus risk / Chauncey Starr -- Emergent Japan / Nigel Calder -- Primary instincts / Vannevar Bush -- Setting standards: two lists/ Nigel Calder -- True devotion / Vannevar Bush -- Mugs and zealots / Nigel Calder -- The technological imperative / Lewis Mumford.
• IV. Yesterday, today and tomorrow: 1970-. At the dam / Joan Didion -- Following orders / Daniel C. Drucker -- Daily deliberate protection / Gil Elliot -- Revolutionary toolmaking / Gerard Piel -- How to solve America / L. Rust Hills -- Predictions: super-super SSTs / Spiro Agnew -- White bread and technological appendages: I / Theodore Roszak -- White bread and technological appendages: II / Gerard Piel -- Small is beautiful / E.F. Schumacher -- Solving social problems / Amitai Etzioni -- The pill: II / Loretta Lynn -- Five-dimensional technology / Daniel Bell -- Practical virtue / Isaiah Berlin -- Solving unsuspected problems / Elting E. Morison -- Closing the distance / Joseph Weizenbaum -- Power / Langdon Winner -- Murphy's law: corollaries / Arthur Bloch -- Going solar / Jerome Martin Weingart -- Sharing the blame / Harvey Brooks -- Catch-22 / David Collingridge -- The growth of anything whatever / Cyril Stanley Smith --^
• Girls just want to have computers / Nancy Kreinberg and Elizabeth K. Stage -- Taking a meeting / Michael H. Jordan -- Objectified human compassion / Elaine Scarry -- Smoke and mirrors / Edwin T. Layton, Jr. -- Chronicle of a disaster foretold / Roger M. Boisjoly -- Bad charts / Edward Tufte -- Simple and complex technologies / John Manley -- Facts and plain-speaking / Samuel C. Florman -- Four generalizations / Eugene B. Skolnikoff -- Surroundsound / Graham Nash -- A modern baby / Nancy Smithers -- Biospherics / Joel E. Cohen and David Tilman -- Multiples / Howard Reingold -- Getting the lead out / Norman Balabanian -- Digging deep / David E. Nye -- Downloading / Gregg Easterbrook -- Influence / Hans Bethe -- 137 million lives / Kevin M. White and Samuel H. Preston -- Deep blues / Frank Rich -- Beyond social construction / Fredrico Capasso -- Autism on the net / Harvey Blume -- Beauty and truth / Louis Brown -- Omega point / Jaron Lanier -- The end of the beginning / Freeman Dyson --^
• R.U.R. revisited / Marvin Minsky -- Stuff / Ivan Amato -- Society evolving / Bran Ferren -- Predictions: robotic sex / Joel Snell -- The future as a story / David Remnick -- Surefire predictions / Julian L. Simon -- Envoy: quo vadis? / Edward O. Wilson.
• The new technologies: 1900-1933 -- Depression and war: 1932-1945 -- Postwar boom: 1945-1970 -- Yesterday, today and tomorrow: 1970-

ISBN

0684839032 (hardcover)

LCCN

^^^98037209^

OCLC

• 39765298
• SCSB-10469103

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library