Aramis, or the Love of Technology (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Packet switching works well for moving data -- why not use it for moving humans? In a nutshell, the French Aramis transit project proposed packet switching as a solution to human transport problems (though, so far as I can tell, neither the author nor any reviews I have yet read have made this connection).

With all the brouhaha about moving bytes around on the information superhighways, moving people around real cities has become less glamorous -- after all, the current mythology is that telecommuting will render the automobile obsolete, right? With the prevailing American tendency to think in terms of technological manifest destiny, stories about superior technologies failing miserably are usually glossed over in an obsession with teleology (history is an inevitable march toward greater perfection).

In contrast, this book describes an extraordinarily well-designed and highly superior semi-personal robotic transit system developed by the French government -- and then squashed by the French government. It is written in a style that only a Gallic scientist could conceive (for example, in a passage about project complexity, Latour writes: ...The monkey is readily identified as a creature of desire...). Because of such stylistic excrescences, I personally I found this book somewhat difficult to read at times, but I recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the history of technology, cross-cultural studies, telecommunications -- or the burgeoning application of packet switching principles to mass transit. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

It may have been a wild goose chase, but Aramis: Or, The Love of Technology ... comes out the way a game bird should, juicy and delicious. -- The New York Times Book Review, M. R. Montgomery

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674043227
• ISBN-13: 978-0674043220
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,669,334 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hi-tech novel of Social Adoption of Technology, December 31, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Aramis, or the Love of Technology (Paperback)

This is a very disturbing but at the same time very thought-provoking book on the adoption of a hypermodern new means of public transportation. Aramis was a small car version of the driverless subway which is now commonly known because of applications in Lille (France) and Orlando (USA)
Latour disguises as a student of engineering sciences and writes a kind of whodunnit on the final question: 'who killed Aramis"? Because he lends his voice to the engineer, to his professor of Sociology,
to the Aramis system itself and to himself as an author, the book shows different views on the same reality.
Highly documented with texts that would be dynamite if they had been published during the development of the Aramis train system itself.
Latour shows why Conservative governments never would adopt really revolutionary developments in public transportation.

At times a difficult book, but hilarious too, and a reader for every technology-minded post-structuralist and post-marxist thinker...

Stefaan Van Ryssen

5.0 out of 5 stars All about the intersection, October 4, 2009

By	Dr. Ronald Fountain (Shaker Heights, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Aramis, or the Love of Technology (Paperback)

This is an amazing book about the intersection of social and technical systems and how it works, or doesn't. Latour is an outstanding thinker and a writer of equal capability. A glass of brandy and listening to Hayden while reading this work helps to make sense of it.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cool!, August 16, 2006

By	Bungler Jane (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Aramis, or the Love of Technology (Paperback)

Well, like it or not - you have to read it. Clear books are boring propaganda. Insightful thoughts are never quite clear. For the clear read your bank statement.