Book
Why things bite back : technology and the revenge of unintended consequences
Record details
- ISBN: 0679425632
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Physical Description:
print
xiv, 431 p ; 21 cm. - Edition: 1st ed.
- Publisher: New York : Knopf, 1996.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-329) and index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Technology -- Social aspects Technology -- Economic aspects |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Legislative Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legislative Library, Vaughan Street | T 14.5 Ten (Text) | 36970000018665 | General Collection | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
A science historian takes a close-up look at the unexpected ramifications of technological development, examining the paradoxical, ironic consequences of the things we do to supposedly improve our lives. 25,000 first printing. Tour. - Baker & Taylor
Explores the irony of progress in technology, including how advances in medicine, telecommunications, mechanics, transportation, and computers have had natural regressive consequences for society and the economy - Blackwell North Amer
Technology has made us healthier and wealthier, but we aren't necessarily happier in our zealously engineered surroundings. Edward Tenner is a connoisseur of what he calls "revenge effects" - the unintended, ironic consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity that have been hallmarks of the progressive, improvement-obsessed twentieth century. In seeking out these revenge effects, he ranges far and wide in our cultural landscape to discover an insistent pattern of paradox that implicates everything from black lung to bluebirds, wooden tennis rackets to Windows 95. His insatiable curiosity embraces technology in all its guises: televised competitive skiing, which is much less exciting now that state-of-the-art cameras have eliminated the blur and lost motion of older broadcasts; low-tar cigarettes, which may encourage smokers to defer quitting altogether; justified margins, which became de rigueur just as psychologists and typographers were realizing that uneven right-hand edges are both more legible and more attractive; the meltdown at Chernobyl, which occurred during a test of enhanced safety procedures; and much, much more.
While Tenner is fascinated by these phenomena in their own right, Why Things Bite Back is not merely a compendium of technological perversities. There is a historical and, indeed, ethical agenda behind his "new look at the obvious." After all, Murphy's Law as originally uttered by a frustrated military engineer was meant not as a fatalistic, defeatist principle but as a call for alertness and adaptation. Tenner heartily concurs. Things do go wrong, with a vengeance, and assigning cause can be as tricky as unscrambling an egg. Reducing revenge effects demands substituting brains for stuff - deintensifying our quest for more, better, faster, in favor of finesse. And in Tenner's estimation, humanity is perfectly capable of this adjustment. - Book News
Tenner (Princeton U.) examines the unintended consequences of mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical advances in the 20th century. He looks at aspects of a pattern of paradox and "revenge effects," detailing phenomenon such as low-tar cigarettes that discourage quitting, and the occurrence of the Chernobyl meltdown during a safety test. Of interest to technophiles, technophobes, and general readers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
