Hubris and Hybrids

by Mikael Hard, Andrew Jamison

Human societies have not always taken on new technology in appropriate ways. Innovations are double-edged swords that transform relationships among people, as well as between human societies and the natural world. Only through successful cultural appropriation can we manage to control the hubris that is fundamental to the innovative, enterprising human spirit; and only by becoming hybrids, combining the human and the technological, will we be able to make effective use of our scientific and technological achievements.

This broad cultural history of technology and science provides a range of stories and reflections about the past, discussing areas such as film, industrial design, and alternative environmental technologies, and including not only European and North American, but also Asian examples, to help resolve the contradictions of contemporary high-tech civilization.

Genres: History

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2005

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent survey of technological advance across the past few centuries, with a bit of an emphasis on ideologies of technology. (Similar, in this sense, to Adas' Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance). Still, I really didn't like the use of the term "hybrid." Hybrids were sometimes people who saw the positive and the negative elements of technology, and sometimes people with multidisciplinary backgrounds. The book seemed more generally to valorize technological skeptics, but the "hybrid" terminology seemed to be thrown around a bit indiscriminately.

Still, this was a good read, and the bibliography was extremely useful.