Better Living Through Technology

Where to begin? There was a lot here for me to chew on, particularly with the Chapter reading from Web Theory. I took a lot of notes on that one. (Trying to get into the habit of annotating whatever I read and getting it into Endnotes.)

I thought that Web Theory gave a good introduction to the, conscious or unconscious, theoretical positions of the rest of the readings. The key idea was the technological determinist perspective, i.e. that technology has the capacity to fundamentally transform the society. Certainly this was a part of the perspective of early theorists of the history of human development (i.e. Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, etc.). This perspective sees a natural progress and evolutionary development for culture and society based on technical achievements that take us to the next level. (Sounds a bit like a video game, doesn't it?)

To be honest, I was a bit surprised that they found such a positive twist early on. Much of my reading on technology prior to 1995 is decidedly pessimistic about the advance of technology, and it seems that popular culture reflected this, from Star Wars (the heros were more “natural” and used less advanced technology) to Wars Games (the hero must save the world from technology run amuk). People seemed to fear that the machines would take us over and we would become the cyborg. Feminist nightmares had men turning women into robots in Stepford, and even technology-friendly popular culture had androids dreaming of being human on the bridge of a starship while menaced by a collective of cyborgs. This was supported by articles I’d read in the popular press that seemed to say users of the technology were social misfits doing dangerous things.

Perhaps though, I wasn't looking far enough back. The readings begin in the 1940's and do seem to reflect the overall positive view of science (Better Living Through Chemistry!) and technical progress.

Bush points out that science has enabled our society to extend our physical effect on the world and control the material environment. In this article he argues that we should turn that same innovative effort towards improving the capture and taming of a growing body of knowledge - the material products of the mind. He makes the case for this by pointing out how Mendel's work was lost for so long because the methods by which to disseminate it to those who could build upon it were imperfect and then takes us on a tour of the kinds of innovations of science that might be able to achieve this goal. (Interestingly, it seem to me that he focuses on film, and the products of photography as a storage medium for this knowledge; his mention of computers seems to relegate them to mere mechanical input device that will eventually be able to read the film and do calculations.) I was rather impressed by how close his vision of the "mechanized private file and library" is to the environment in which we now exchange information on the Internet as was his vision of association of information to linking and searching online.

The key here however, is that Bush's perspective is an example of technological determinist one. He argues that technology, when properly applied, will have the capacity to fundamentally transform society by giving us "access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages". It is certainly a positive one as well. There are no pessimistic visions or dire warnings over the use of any technology (not even when he mentions the physicists role in producing "strange destructive gadgets" (what an euphemism for the atomic bomb!).

The Menlo Park report by D.C. Engelbart takes Bush's challenge and run with it. He envisions the solution as an improved interface between man and the machine, one that connect the individual in every direction (networks) to information and communication possibilities.
I have to mention that the first line of the abstract seems a bit grandiose to me, "an project taking a new and systematic approach to improvin[g] the intellectual effectiveness of the individual human being." But Engelbart is a pioneer in the world of computing and much of what we use today began at Menlo park. The results were networked computers, graphical user interfaces and the mouse we use everyday to navigate our screens. He was involved early on with ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. I found this article fascinating to read, knowing what would follow from this project. Again, this article highlights a technological deterministic approach - the power of technology over culture.

I'll have to stop here, since I'm still reading McLuhan, Rodgers and Williams.