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Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences

Edward Tenner

3.54 · Rating details · 370 ratings · 53 reviews

In this perceptive and provocative look at everything from computer software that requires faster processors and more support staff to antibiotics that breed resistant strains of bacteria, Edward Tenner offers a virtual encyclopedia of what he calls "revenge effects"--the unintended consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity that ...more

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Paperback, 448 pages

Published September 2nd 1997 by Vintage (first published 1996)

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Jun 04, 2011 Mero rated it it was ok

Shelves: technology

Edward Tenner's book is rather dated by now (1997!), but in everything but its discussion of software and the internet it still seems relevant. It is an informative collection of instances in which new technologies, upon their adoption, have been found to result in unintended consequences. Consequences which happen to have undermined the very reasons for having pursued the new tools. Tenner cites cases across five broad areas: office efficiency and safety, medicine, environmental resource Edward Tenner's book is rather dated by now (1997!), but in everything but its discussion of software and the internet it still seems relevant. It is an informative collection of instances in which new technologies, upon their adoption, have been found to result in unintended consequences. Consequences which happen to have undermined the very reasons for having pursued the new tools. Tenner cites cases across five broad areas: office efficiency and safety, medicine, environmental resource management, animal, plant, and pest introductions into ecosystems, and sports technology. Some of the cases have become common knowledge by now, such as how forest fire management tends to increase the intensity of fires or how antibiotic soaps can create incredibly dangerous and unstoppable diseases. There are scores of well known cases of revenge effects like these listed in Tenner's book. A few that I found to be interesting:
*Beach jetties, which are installed to limit beach erosion, tend to massively increase the erosion of all of the surrounding beaches.
*Office technology implemented for the purposes of increasing efficiency and paring down employee costs usually results in having to hire teams of expensive specialists and technicians to maintain the new hardware or software. It also tends to disrupt the work that people should be doing by introducing a plethora of new minor tasks that have to be individually nursed. For example, the replacement of secretaries with fast communication, sorting, and planning tools saved money on wages, but it required the hiring of programmers, system administrators, and other (higher wage) employees. It also forced managers and professionally trained individuals to devote a much larger part of their day on the tasks that secretaries once handled.
*In sports, new equipment that increases the safety of a sport tends to allow the game to be played much rougher before people get hurt - which ultimately makes accidents far more deadly when they happen.
* Almost all of the carp in the United States were introduced through a program that promoted carp as a tasty, sustainable and cheap food source. This proved not to be the case (they were not tasty) and then the carp got into US rivers and lakes and destroyed most of the ecosystem that supported the natural fishstock and waterfowl, ultimately reducing foodstocks.

Tenner does a terrible job of being explicit about any sort of over-arching take away from this book but there are a few themes that can be picked out across the chapters:

1) Technology tends to displace or lessen the impact of discrete problems and replace them with chronic ailments that have to be constantly nursed. This effect is, interestingly, credited with creating the feeling amongst the general public that life getting continually worse despite the fact that by most objective measures people live longer, healthier, more affluent, better lives than they once did.

2)That what is underestimated in nearly every aspect of technological improvment are the damping effects that come from the environment's response to the new technology.

3) That "intensification" of a technology almost always results in a revenge effect (such as increasing the safety, speed, or size of a thing without thinking about how those factors might change how it is used.)

These themes, however, are anything but explicit in Tenner's book. He mentions them in the first and last chapters, but the rest of the book reads like a recitation of interesting research findings with no particular clear ordering or framework to tie them together. Tenner's bibliography, however, is impressive and contains a very good list of works for readers actually interested in frameworks that explain how technology and culture interact. Why Things Bite Back ultimately never addresses the question posed by the book's title in any satisfying way. Instead it appears that Tenner has consulted with the literature of others who have grappled with this question and merely repeated the interesting evidence used in justifying their theories, but not the theories themselves. Why do these revenge effects matter and why do they happen? Tenner is silent on this matter and offers no good or coherent explanatory framework, which is a shame considering the title suggests one will be offered. ...more

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Sep 21, 2016 Marshall rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, technology

This is a book about the "revenge effects" of technology. In technology there are trade-offs (gain a certain benefit at the cost of something else) and side-effects (a trade-off that has impacts other than what was intended). Revenge effects are when you try to solve a problem using a technology and that technology ends up just making the problem even worse. Some examples: antibiotics fight diseases while simultaneously strengthening the microbes that cause disease. Titanic, the ship that was so This is a book about the "revenge effects" of technology. In technology there are trade-offs (gain a certain benefit at the cost of something else) and side-effects (a trade-off that has impacts other than what was intended). Revenge effects are when you try to solve a problem using a technology and that technology ends up just making the problem even worse. Some examples: antibiotics fight diseases while simultaneously strengthening the microbes that cause disease. Titanic, the ship that was so unsinkable that it led to over-confidence that ended up sinking it.

A lot of what this book talks about is supposed to be revenge-effects, but are actually trade-offs. For example, much of what it discusses is the increased vigilance so many technologies require, and yet technology is supposed to free us from toil. Except that the examples this book gives aren't of technologies that are designed to free us from toil, but to improve our lives in other ways. Like all the health technologies, remembering dosages, maintaining sophisticated equipment, training doctors, etc. The point is to alleviate suffering, not toil.

In fact, this book is packed with so much data noise that I kept forgetting the point he was trying to make. There's way too much research here. It kept feeling like he discovered things that weren't relevant for this book, but he thought they were interesting so he squeezed it in there anyway. I kept tuning out, like I was sitting in some boring lecture.

I think the subject matter is interesting though. Technology is often thought of in terms of solutions to problems, not in ways that they create new problems. Not all change is progress, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who knows this. People are so enamored with their damn gadgets.

This book is not at all anti-technology, or pessimistic about its potential to improve our lives. Usually, it's extremely optimistic. But the best way to get the most out of our technologies and our innovation is to think through all the potential effects these technologies might have, and that's really what this book encourages. ...more

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Aug 31, 2019 Dennis Littrell rated it really liked it

A reminder that life is always two steps forward and one step back

In medicine we conquered (to some extent) the catastrophic only to succumb to the chronic. This is an example of what Tenner means by things biting back. My house has very good water pressure. I can put a lot of water on the lawn in a hurry. Unfortunately, the pressure is so great that the water hose cannot be set down on the lawn with the water on since it will jump and squirm and shoot about until something anchors it. The other ...more

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Nov 01, 2019 Pietro Condello rated it liked it

The concept of unintended consequences is fascinating because it affects so much of modern life: natural resources, technology, politics, healthcare. Revenge effects are ideas or technologies that are devised to solve a particular problem, but end up either making it worse, or create additional problems in their wake.

Although Tenner's concepts on technology are a bit dated given he wrote the book in 1996, the rest is still quite relevant.

Sudden, acute catastrophic hazards that were once discrete ...more

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Aug 13, 2018 John rated it it was ok

This was more of a descriptive catalog and less prescriptive than I’d hoped. I was already painfully aware of the problems, and was hoping for approaches to avoid and mitigate the hurt that I am bound to inflict in my life as an engineer.

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Mar 03, 2019 Rebekah Theilen rated it really liked it

This ended up being more of a skimmer for me. There was nothing wrong with the book, but after awhile I began to lose interest in all the different ways he was saying “Technology has done some amazing things for us, but it also comes with consequences”.

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Oct 07, 2019 Michael rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history-technology, all-audible

Tenner's _Why Tings Bite Back_ is now a quarter century old. While many books that address present concerns in technology age quickly, becoming quaintly outdated, his consideration of technology revenge effects remains fresh and compelling.

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Jan 15, 2018 Michael rated it it was amazing

great abook about the unintendedd consequnces of technology. Read before 2000

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Jul 17, 2017 Peter Tillman rated it liked it

Recommended to Peter by: David Pogue

Shelves: did-not-finish, sci-tech

Started well, then got political. I quit then. DNF.

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Nov 08, 2017 Janice Sheufelt rated it liked it

20 years old, but probably even more relevant than ever. As in a more recent book, Pandora's Lab, all "progress" and technological advancement has a cost.

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Dec 21, 2017 Darryl Updegrove rated it really liked it

Shelves: engineering

some parts better than others.

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Jun 05, 2019 Michael rated it it was ok

Shelves: lost, land, craft, american-gothic, ichthyology-esque, working, ecology-esque, 2019-reading-list

Typo, page 231: “Questions that begin with seatpans and backrests, forward and backward tilts, micro-switch clicks and wrist supports turn out to be have answers that are psychological, organizational, and even political.”

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Dec 26, 2010 Ushan rated it liked it

Shelves: engineering

This is a study of technology gone bad - a pastiche of Robert Sheckley's "Watchbird", Murphy's Law and those ancient Greek stories about gods punishing mortals for their hubris. Better emergency medicine in the second half of the 20th century meant that wounded soldiers or civilian accident victims, who would have died before, now survive for decades permanently disabled, physically or mentally, and require either paid caretakers or family members to care for them. Antibiotics cause This is a study of technology gone bad - a pastiche of Robert Sheckley's "Watchbird", Murphy's Law and those ancient Greek stories about gods punishing mortals for their hubris. Better emergency medicine in the second half of the 20th century meant that wounded soldiers or civilian accident victims, who would have died before, now survive for decades permanently disabled, physically or mentally, and require either paid caretakers or family members to care for them. Antibiotics cause antibiotic-resistant germs to appear, and pesticides - pesticide-resistant pests. Bigger hard drives and larger RAM beget operating systems and applications with features of questionable utility that fill them all. Sports safety equipment such as hi-tech climbing gear causes athletes to take more risks; preventing acute traumas, it lulls them into thinking that nothing is dangerous, and allows small injuries to accumulate, which have a cumulative impact that is just as bad. It was thought that automobility would save people time, while in fact if you add up the time spent sitting in traffic and earning the money to buy and maintain the car, the driver could just as well ride a bicycle. And so on; Tenner cites many examples from sports, medicine, ecology, computers and other fields where technology has had unintended consequences that are comparable to, if not worse than the problem it was meant to solve. He argues that "finesse" instead of "brute force" should be the main principle of technology.

All this has been told many times before Tenner; technophobic thought goes all the way to Plato, who argued in some dialogue that writing ruined memorization, if not earlier. Yet I had the impression that a larger picture eludes him. Not all personal computing power gained in the last 30 years went into animating cute icons; Pentium-based PCs can play DVDs, which 80386-based PCs were not powerful enough to do. The fact that the Green Revolution averted mass starvation predicted by people like Paul Ehrlich shows that some solutions are preferable to their absence. And "finesse" is quite in line with many examples of contemporary technology: magnetic locks on refrigerators, which solved the problem of children locking themselves in abandoned refrigerators and suffocating, is an elegant example. I once took a software safety class; the professor told us that if her friends in the nuclear power industry had their way, they would have installed automatic alarms and pumps with autonomous power sources in all refrigerators. Yet even nuclear power plant designs nowadays have passive safety features. ...more

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May 20, 2015 Leo Walsh rated it really liked it

You know the old saw. "The best laid plans of mice and man soon fall asunder.""Why Things Bite Back" a real fun exposition of clever humans doing clever things which backfire. Tenner discusses subjects near and dear to my heart -- like how computers, created to simplify rote secretarial work and thus save organizations money by eliminating support staff, but instead leads to the need to hire higher-priced IT talent. And he also discusses things I've learned about in different contexts, like the You know the old saw. "The best laid plans of mice and man soon fall asunder.""Why Things Bite Back" a real fun exposition of clever humans doing clever things which backfire. Tenner discusses subjects near and dear to my heart -- like how computers, created to simplify rote secretarial work and thus save organizations money by eliminating support staff, but instead leads to the need to hire higher-priced IT talent. And he also discusses things I've learned about in different contexts, like the higher chimneys of coal-burning plants making the immediate area's air more breathable, but sullying air remote to the plants.

You know. Blow-back.

Tenner goes on to discuss things I wasn't aware of. Like how America's ill-tasting carp, the bane of fisherfolk flike myself, were actually imported and farmed by American farmers as a cheap, easy-to-raise, tasty food fish. And the history of plant importations that backfire... like kudzu for food which has, in turn, begun devouring the southeast. Or how eucalyptus trees, imported to California en masse for timber ended up not only producing unusable lumber due to the conditions in the American south west, but actually increase the fire hazards due to their volatile oils.

The downside of this book is that it is a catalog with very few analytic pegs to hang one's hat on. But the individual incidents are quite amusing.

What I really appreciate is that Tenner is neither a "doom and gloomer" nor a Pollyanna chirping "technology will save us all." Instead, he ends by indicating that, by and large, human cleverness has improved our lives, and odds are will continue to do so. Lives should continue to become safer, more convenient and our use of materials more efficient. But we will always end up producing effects no one could ever foresee.

This book is a bit old, but did not feel dated to me (except when discussing computer operating systems -- Windows 95 -- and hardware, of course, or making casual references to the Twin Towers). But the core still applies, and always will.

I'd recommend reading this in conjunction with Duncan Watts's more contemporary "Everything is Obvious (Once You Know the Answer)" which explores similar ground, but instead focuses on how we often finger point to the clever "culprits," accusing them of creating the blow-back.

Overall enjoyable, light and yet fascinating science read. Part history, part technology, it should be on any engineers or technophile's shelf. Just as a reminder of that "mice and men" bit. Which turns out to be quite relevant. ...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Yuichiro rated it really liked it

This book challenges its readers to rethink the assumptions we place in our technological world. There are many examples given in the book, but there is one I thought that was quite interesting. There has been a study done with physicians and level of patient care. There are initiatives coming from both government and private sectors to create much documentation concerning patient information. The assumption is that the providers can give better diagnosis and create less errors with more ...more

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Nov 06, 2015 Dominick rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, criticism

Interesting. Tenner's thesis is that "revenge effects" often (if not always) accompany innovation: no matter what it is, any new way of doing things will have not only unintended consequences but often ones that specifically counter the very achievement being aimed for--e.g. the so-called "paperless office" actually leading to more paper use, or better antibiotics leading to more virulent bugs--are the revenge effects. The book is formidably researched. Tenner covers a lot of ground, from things ...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Elizabeth rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012

Though I expected this book would take a deterministic stance (based on how it is marketed? when it was written? I'm frankly not sure), I was pleasantly surprised by how Tenner's account instead provides a lucid historical trajectory of the many technological changes that characterize the 20th century. He aims to demonstrate that such change -- though often understood as a type of teleological progress -- is often, equally, negative. Coining the term revenge effects, Tenner describes the ...more

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Dec 21, 2007 Tracey rated it liked it

Shelves: libraryread, pop-science, pop-sociology

Continuing with my interest in human factors and technology, I checked this out from the library.

Tenner discusses the "revenge effect" - where improvements in technology cause related problems - such as building seawalls to protect beachfront property causing the property on the edges of the seawall to erode even more quickly. He looks at these effects in terms of medicine (antibiotic resistant bacteria), the environment (kudzu and killer bees), the computerization of the workplace (carpal ...more

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Apr 23, 2008 Thorn is currently reading it

the story so far...

i'm enjoying this book a great deal. the 'history of science-and-technology'-thing is sooo my schtick. i've owned this book for a number of years; high time i got around to reading it.

the book itself is a bit other-than-expected, in that it does read like a bit like an academic monograph. it is more readable than the average one of those, though. so far it appears to center on an author-generated construct. but it's an interesting construct that is anchored in reality; and i ...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Miska rated it it was ok

This is a book that must be read to the end. The beginning and most of the book goes to excruciating detail about various things and convinces one of revenge and other effects. But only in the quite last chapter where conclusions are drawn do we get a peek at possible solutions. The details are sometimes quite surprising and even entertaining. How can a well-intentioned action turn into a truly bad result and how can it happen all the time all over the world? These are questions the book shows ...more

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Oct 27, 2016 Andrew rated it liked it

Why Things Bite Back is about the revenge effects of technology. When you try to improve life with technology, there are certain trade offs. For example, although antibiotics have reduced deaths caused by common bacteria, it has actually created many superbugs that have become immune to them. Antibiotics have inadvertently made bacteria more deadly to all humans.

However, Tenner's book lacks organization. He goes from one topic area such as pests to another such as sports, pointing out all the ...more

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Apr 28, 2010 ReImagine Science rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended-reads

Science and technological endeavors are the source of many improvements to human survival and ability - yet the risk of unintended consequences will always be present (think of asbestos, or thalidomide). Avoiding unpredictable and dangerous consequences is not likely unless we all become Luddites. Quick response, transparent communication, and the fast development of effective remediation is the key - all of which are facilitated by collaboration, removal of barriers to communication, and a ...more

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Sep 16, 2007 Nathan rated it liked it

Recommends it for: People who feel like their computer hates them.

Shelves: science, science-social-theory-etc

Why Things Bite Back really is a study of "unintended consequences". Tenner illustrates how modern inventions and human achievements have had negative, unforeseen side-effects that often take on a hefty dose of irony in their context. Anti-biotics, for example, that result in new generations of anti-biotic resistant bacteria. I'm pretty sure Stephen King already turned this concept into a horror novel, yet as is often the case, reality is a little scarier. Good luck if you're reading this on an ...more

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Jun 23, 2013 Harvey rated it really liked it

- from the jacket: "From football padding that actually makes football more dangerous...to 'low tar' cigarettes that compel smokers to smoke more, from antibiotics that breed new, resistant strains of bacteria..." "If computers really eliminate paperwork, why is the office recycling bin always overflowing?"
- from the New York Times: "A layman's compendium of the perverse consequences of technology...lively, and provocative reading."

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May 16, 2011 Mark Terry rated it liked it

Details the "revenge effect" of many technologies in which the effect is opposite that intended. For instance, light cigarettes intend to reduce risk, but increase risk because the tendency is to smoke more of them to get the same nicotine - producing more exposure to other hazardous chemicals. There were many good examples of unintended consequences. Ultimately though, I found it a good thesis in which there were many examples that were stretched to fit.

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Jun 01, 2012 Michelle rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: Young scientists

This book is written by someone who fears technology. As a tech-loving scientist this book made me angry BUT I must say that despite the unfairly biased descriptions of tragedy and failures I did leave this book sobered by the impact one can have from a few oversights. The cheapshots in this book were just that cheap but the shots themselves hit home. A boring and grueling read that is a must for budding scientists.

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Jan 14, 2013 Mysteryfan rated it it was ok

Shelves: technology

While the book is a little dated, its basic premise is still valid. Technology tends to replace acute life-threatening problems with slower-acting and more persistent problems. He used examples from medicine, the environment, computerized offices, and sports. The writing could have been better but the topic was interesting.

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Dec 11, 2008 Jeremy rated it it was ok

Shelves: science-writing

This book starts with an interesting idea and then proceeds to dig its own grave with way too much research (stained glass and zebra mussels were never more obtusely rendered) and long winded, dull prose. Tenner has his heart in the right place, but god only knows where his writing is at. Other people have articulated these ideas in far more intelligible and interesting ways. Best avoided.

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May 30, 2015 Ricky Catto rated it did not like it

Shelves: audiobooks

warning: Don't invite the author of this book to your dinner party. What a downer. I understand the book is about how we mess things up while were trying to do other things but I mean, we do manage to do other things. We haven't come here just to ruin everything. Not that interesting. Wouldn't recommend.

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May 02, 2008 Marie rated it it was ok

Revenge effects that I never even thought of are discussed in excruciating (but somehow not boring) detail ... but few, if any, solutions are offered. As such, I found this book unsatisfying.

The main thing I took away from this is a depressing sense that EVERYTHING has revenge effects.

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About Edward Tenner

Edward Tenner

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Edward Tenner is the author of Our Own Devices and Why Things Bite Back, former college teacher and executive editor in book publishing, now an independent writer and speaker on technology and society and contributor to major newspapers, magazines, and web sites.