false 45880 0 0 907122 0226359271 9780226359274 0 <![CDATA[American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm, 1870-1970]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179351521m/907122.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179351521s/907122.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/907122.American_Genesis_A_Century_of_Invention_and_Technological_Enthusiasm_1870_1970 3.80 15 American Genesis tells the sweeping story of America's technological revolution. Unlike other histories of technology, which focus on particular inventions like the light bulb or the automobile, American Genesis makes these inventions characters in a broad chronicle, both shaped by and shaping a culture. By weaving scientific and technological advancement into other cultural trends, Hughes demonstrates here the myriad ways in which the two are inexorably linked, and in a new preface, he recounts his earlier missteps in predicting the future of technology and follows its move into the information age.</div>]]> 45880 3.73 26 2 1992 762004 0226359344 9780226359342 1 <![CDATA[Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178133219m/762004.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178133219s/762004.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/762004.Human_Built_World_How_to_Think_about_Technology_and_Culture 3.67 9 Human-Built World, thankfully, Thomas Hughes restores to technology the conceptual richness and depth it deserves by chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential.

Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture, and to explain how we might begin to develop an "ecotechnology" that works with, not against, ecological systems. From the "Creator" model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry, Hughes nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises and problems it has offered. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, optimistically hoped that technology could be combined with nature to create an Edenic environment; Lewis Mumford, two centuries later, warned of the increasing mechanization of American life.

Such divergent views, Hughes shows, have existed side by side, demonstrating the fundamental idea that "in its variety, technology is full of contradictions, laden with human folly, saved by occasional benign deeds, and rich with unintended consequences." In Human-Built World, he offers the highly engaging history of these contradictions, follies, and consequences, a history that resurrects technology, rightfully, as more than gadgetry; it is in fact no less than an embodiment of human values.</div>]]> 45880 3.73 26 2 2004 80574 0679739386 9780679739388 0 <![CDATA[Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170984281m/80574.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170984281s/80574.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80574.Rescuing_Prometheus_Four_Monumental_Projects_That_Changed_the_Modern_World 0.0 0 Rescuing Prometheus, which focuses on four projects that are bewildering in their enormity, yet were completed successfully.

The SAGE air-defense project transformed computers from mathematical labor savers into decision-makers by proxy, and spawned the first elements of "postmodern management." Then, the Atlas missile program brought together the disparate elements of the military-industrial-university complex and demanded new, less hierarchical control over individual subprograms. This new way of thinking brought engineers such as Dean Wooldridge and Simon Ramo to prominence.

Hughes follows these developments in systems engineering closely as they were applied to ARPANET and Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel Project. Along the way those projects encountered both the simplifying synergy and maddening political slowdowns involved with not just a handful of problems, but entire communities of messy problems. Readers discouraged by seemingly inflexible barriers to solving complex social and technical problems can take heart after reading Rescuing Prometheus. This book shows that while we still can't fix the world, we're building better tools to do so every day. --Rob Lightner

]]> 45880 3.73 26 2 1998 2406570 0262022621 9780262022620 0 <![CDATA[The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2406570.The_Social_Construction_of_Technological_Systems_New_Directions_in_the_Sociology_and_History_of_Technology 3.00 1 77639 3.10 10 3 45880 3.73 26 2 1987 688542 0262082853 9780262082853 0 <![CDATA[Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After (Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology)]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177232817m/688542.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177232817s/688542.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/688542.Systems_Experts_and_Computers_The_Systems_Approach_in_Management_and_Engineering_World_War_II_and_After 0.0 0
This groundbreaking book charts the origins and spread of the systems movement. It describes the major players<--including RAND, MITRE, Ramo-Wooldrige (later TRW), and the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis--and examines applications in a wide variety of military, government, civil, and engineering settings. The book is international in scope, describing the spread of systems thinking in France and Sweden. The story it tells helps to explain engineering thought and managerial practice during the last sixty years.]]> 45880 3.73 26 2 2000 5387555 1597404934 9781597404938 0 <![CDATA[The Development of Large Technical Systems]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5387555.The_Development_of_Large_Technical_Systems 0.0 0 45880 3.73 26 2 2008 688543 1597402265 9781597402262 0 <![CDATA[The Development of Large Technical Systems]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177232818m/688543.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177232818s/688543.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/688543.The_Development_of_Large_Technical_Systems 0.0 0 368260 0.0 0 0 45880 3.73 26 2 2006