Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

by Robert Pool (Author)
Key Phrases: reactor manufacturers, bandwagon market, nuclear plane, United States, Three Mile Island, Comanche Peak (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
This thoughtful, well-researched title by science writer Pool (Eve's Rib, LJ 5/1/94) lays out a rich, comprehensive view of the development of modern technologies, with a keen emphasis on how nontechnological factors?such as the sociological, political, and simply serendipitous?shape such complex technologies. Pool begins with a positivism vs. "social construction" epistemological debate (essential to understanding technological knowledge, he argues) and a discussion of the effects of history, economics, political science, sociology, risk analysis, management science, and psychology on the technology that has both ameliorated humankind's condition and made it worse. The progress in modern aviation, computers, automobiles, bovine growth hormone, treatment for AIDS, and nuclear power (the evolution of which is treated extensively and serves as an underlying current throughout the book) is covered carefully in a fluent style. Copious end notes buttress the solid exposition. Recommended for general science collections.?Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It's a truism that technology has driven modern history. In this wise, insightful book, Robert Pool explores the deeper truth that history shapes technology."--Richard Rhodes, author The Making of the Atomic Bomb.
"A less modest and more accurate subtitle of this superb book would read: A New, Lively, Absorbing, and Deeply Instructive Way of Thinking About Modern Technology. For anyone at all interested in understanding the complex and puzzling ways in which major new technologies came to be and ended up as they have, this is a definitive work, not to be missed." --Robert K. Merton, University Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
"A crystal clear narrative about the recent history of large-scale technology. He demonstrates persuasively that technology shapes our lives in complex ways, deserving as much thought and watchful skepticism as political affairs demand. His may be the best book available for the general reader engaging our human-built world."--Thomas P. Hughes, Mellon Professor Emeritus, The University of Pennsylvania, and Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Story telling is a fine art, and Robert Pool is a master. From a squash court under the stadium at the University of Chicago, to the flight deck of modern aircraft carrier, Beyond Engineering treats the reader to 101 tales about the creation and use of modern technologies. Like all great story tellers, Poll weaves his entertaining narrative into an exploration of some deeply serious questions. To what extent is technical knowledge objective, to what extent socially constructed? How much does the broad course of technical progress depend upon small, perhaps even random, events? In clear, simple language, Pool illuminates such critical questions in a way that should bring insight to nontechnical and to many technical readers."--M. Granger Morgan, Head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
"Robert pool brings the whole pageant of technology to life--with all its triumphs, humanness, heartaches, and accidents of history. A great read."--Brian Arthur, Citibank Professor at the Sante Fe Institute


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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (July 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195107721
• ISBN-13: 978-0195107722
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #887,211 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Thematic Study of Society and Technology, April 24, 2001

By	F. Lybrand "Black Mesa" (Chapel Hill, NC US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology (Sloan Technology Series) (Paperback)

Beyond Engineering is the brightest of the many shining stars that make up the Sloan Technology Series. It is easily the most educational, enlightening and thought provoking ("The One Best Way" by Kanigel being a close second) of the series, and will be the barometer by which I personally measure all future popular technology books. Mr. Pool looks at the way in which technology and society shape each other by looking at eight key elements of these interactions. These areas form the chapters of Beyond Engineering, with Mr. Pool frequently using many poignant technological case studies, biotechnology, steam powered automobiles, the Xerox Alto, and many others. The recurring case study which unites the book is that of the nuclear power industry in the U.S. Despite the non-chronological nature of this story, it is told thoroughly, using just the right amount of technical explanation to explain without overwhelming.

Indeed, Mr.Pool began his book as a history of the US Nuclear Power Industry, but changed his topic as several other authors beat him to it ("Nuclear Choices" by R. Wolfson and "Nuclear Renewal" by R. Rhodes). It is a good thing they did, otherwise he would not have looked at this as merely a case study, in which to frame socio-technological interaction. The eight areas that are covered; momentum, idea creation, business, complexity, choices, risk, control and trade-offs are very quickly paced and liberally sprinkled with very poignant references. His thematic review of the subject matter is similar to the author Lisa Jardine's histories of the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution. The most frequently referred to text is Kuhn's classic "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." This book could be viewed as the technological adaptation of Kuhn's scientific applications.

There are no ways in which the text disappoints, and it would be difficult to endorse it any more enthusiastically than I am. This book will be of benefit to anyone that works in technology, has a general interest in that area, is curious about nuclear power, or is simply looking for a good book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Co-evolution and Learning - Society and Technology, June 16, 2002

By	Tom Gray (Fort-Coulonge, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology (Sloan Technology Series) (Paperback)

`Beyond Engineering' is subtitled `How Engineering Shapes Society'. It is that but it is much more. It is a book about technology and society. It is part a descriptive history and sociology of technology and part a prescriptive analysis of how society can manage technology to its best purposes. It is broken into two main parts. The first describes the technological process and shows how technologies are selected for mass utilization. The second uses this analysis and discusses the issues that have now arisen with the ascendancy of technology and its central place in society.

In discussing the technological selection process, the author Robert Pool makes much of the power of incumbency. A new technology does not arise form nothing but is developed in a co-evolution between scientific progress and societal capabilities. It is developed by human beings who live in a particular point in history and thus have their values and practices shaped in a specific manner. Any technology that is developed will have to be compatible with the social and technical attitudes prevailing at that time. Pool shows in his discussion of the development of the Watt steam engine that the engine was developed taking into full account the attitudes of the people who would have to implement and manufacture it. Watt could scientifically demonstrate the need for tight tolerances to maximize efficiency but his engine was being developed in an era of craft workman who could not see the necessity of such tolerance. Watt was compelled to set up controlled manufacturing sites where he could build machines to the required tolerances. It would have been more efficient to manufacture the engines in place with local labour but that could not be done in the ethos of that time.

Mistakes once made in the development of technology will propagate themselves in the social and technical attitudes of the people involved in its continuing development. Pool shows how nuclear power developed within the technological attitudes of military propulsion and civilian power generation. Pool shows how attitudes in these domains shaped the technological choices and how these choices were not the best either technically or commercially. Pool's analysis of the power of incumbency and the multi-armed bandit is excellent here.

The second part of the book talks of central place of technology in our society. Technology has moved far from the time of Watt. Now, technology is so complex that no one human being can be aware of all that factors that go into the development and operation of a major new invention. The implication of this is that no one can understand and predict the operation of a major invention in all circumstances. Technological risk cannot be obviated by the building of entirely predictable systems. Rather risk has become probabilistic with designs being created to hopefully prevent failures causing major loss of life or economic loss rare.

Society must decide if the risks inherent in a technology are acceptable given the benefits tha can be derived from it. Since no complex technology is predictable this acceptance must in some manner be built around a faith in our societies ability to cope with uncertainty. Since no technology can be proved safe in all circumstances, society must be shaped in such a way that it can rapidly cope with unexpected serious failures.

This analysis shows the basic disagreement between the neo-Luddites or technological pessimists and the technological optimists. Pool discusses the work of a Yale sociologist named Charles Perrow who argues that complex technologies cannot be so maintained. They are rife with un-understood emergent properties that render them unmanageable. They are so complex that they cannot be understood by any one person and therefore must be managed centrally and hierarchically by enforcing detailed operation procedures that are the result of long term research by multiple specialists. On the other hand they are prone to unexpected failures and so must be managed locally by workers who can respond to serious contingencies. According to Perrow this is a contradiction that shows that some technologies cannot be managed so as to prevent losses due to accidents. Perrow calls these `normal accidents'. This is a statement of technological pessimism and is one that calls foe the aggressive use of the `precautionary principle' in rejecting technologies that cannot be proved safe. Since this is true of most modern technologies it seems as if society must give up the benefits of modern technology in order to remain safe.

However there are many large complex technological systems that function safely. Pool uses the research of Berkeley political science professor Todd a Porte to show this. La Porte discovered may organizations that were managing large scale technologies in a very safe and efficient manner. The characteristic of these organizations is that they combine the properties that Perrow said wee incompatible. The combine a centralized hierarchical control of best practices with distributed local control able to cope with contingencies. La Porte shows how these function in the operation or the US air traffic control systems, military organizations such as aircraft carriers, large chemical manufacturing companies such as Dupont. These overlay a central concern with best practices with an educated workforce who are expected to montitor their own activities, communicate and learn.

This insight demonstrates the technological pessimism inherent in analyses like Perrow's can be overcome. Society can shape itself to be able to benefit from modern technology. Since this benefit will derive from the actions of an educated, self-initiating, learning middle class, technology can also indirectly create social good.

This is book well worth reading. One fault in the book is that Pool does not outline his argument anywhere. In no one pace does he give a clear summery of his ideas. An introduction and a final summary would have improved the book. Nevertheless this is a book this it found to be full of insight. It one that is well worth reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Discourse - a wakeup call, November 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Beyond Engineering: How Society Shapes Technology (Sloan Technology Series) (Paperback)

I think this book is a wakeup call for society - for all of us to re-evaluate ourselves and recognize the role we play in the evolution of technology. I think the author brings out such a valid point of the complexity of technology, and as a scientist/engineer myself, I find it refreshing, and not a burden, to think up new ideas and view my field in light of what effect society could/would have on it, instead of just what effect it could have on society. I personally think some of the detail on nuclear power could have been avoided without the reader missing the point (but I guess you can't disregard the hand (publisher) that feeds you). I also draw attention to another book, Biomimicry by Janine Benyus, which makes the point that nature provides a model for scientific innovation. If nature was our map, then the complex picture of technology that Pool paints could be a lot clearer and brighter.