Technology's Storytellers: Reweaving the Human Fabric

Technology's Storytellers

Technology's Storytellers Reweaving the Human Fabric

john M. Staudenmaier) S. ].

Published jointly by The Society for the History of Technology and The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England

First MIT Press paperback edition, 1989 © 1985 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means {including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Baskerville by The MIT Press Computergraphics Department and printed and bound by The Murray Printing Company in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Staudenmaier, John M. Technology's storytellers. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Technology-History. 2. Technology-Social aspects. I. Title. T20.S 73 1984 306'.46 84-23412 ISBN 0-262-1923 7-3 (hardcover) 0-262-69135-3 (paperback)

To my mother and father, and to the Lakota people of Pine Ridge, South Dakota

Contents

List of Tables vzzz Foreword by Brooke Hindle zx Introduction xzzz Preface to the Paperback Edition Acknowledgments xxvzz

xxzzz

1 The Society and Its Journal: The Emergence of Shared 1 Discourse The Scciety 's Constituencies 2 The Formation qf a Viable Intellectual Focus 5 Scholarly Ancestry 8 Methodological Profile qf the journal 12 The Communal Character qf Historical Research: An Interpretative Model 18 Land, Time, and Technology: Dimensions qf Historical Terrain 26

2 Emerging Technology and the Mystery

of Creativity

An Overoiew qf the Theme 37 The Process qf Technological Change 40 Emerging Technology and Its Technological Ambience Historiographical Status qf the Systems Approach 79

3 Science, Technology, and the Characteristics Knowledge 83 The Relationship between Science and Technology

35

61

of Technological 86

Contents

Is Technology Applied Science.