The best technology, best for whom? Best for what? Best
according to what criteria

Road Not Taken:

fill out the historical record and lays to rest the convienient
fictions of tech progress.

reawakens to a broader and largely available realm of
posisibilities

casts existing technologies in critical light.


Machine tooling is unique:

different material, temperature, irregularities in the
workpiece, tool-wear, machine malfunctions.



3 sets of ideas converged
1. military subsidize
2.  Technical community
3.  Management




Social Aspects of Technology:
Lessen the burden of human toil, reduce pain increase comfort,
expand the horizons of human freedom.

Scientists and Engineers are members of society and are moved
like everyone else by a myriad of motivations.

They are moved by the currents within and unique to their own
overlapping communities upon which there careers rest.

Invariably these two sets of concerns must converge.
complementing and reinforcing each other, and ultimately
collapse together to chart the single course of progress.

The power relations of society and the position of the designer
within them, define to a considerable extent what is technically
possible.

There are no leaps, nothing altogether unanticipated.  New
syntheses, though appearing to be significant departures from
tradition, are in reality rooted in it, trailing ususally
unrecorded strands of history which weave back in time along
seemingly unrelated paths.

Development a Free Lunch

Technological Revolutions are not the same as social revolutions
and are more likely, in our times to be the opposite.  They are
made to happen.

Proprietary information used to commercial advantage.
STANDARDS




DIFFUSION

The social and economic consequences of technological changes
are a function of the rate of their diffusion and not the date of
their first use.

Usually there is an air of optimism when something is first
used.

Atomic Energy


Many factors that influence the rate of diffusion

General economic conditions

Intensity of competion

the business climate within affected industries

government policies

Expense of capital as compared to labor


Economic Justifications rarely reflect the of production

Notoriously difficult to make objectively

Personal Example :

Cost Reduction\Avoidence      65 Million for Network Software
Center.


Non economic reasons

Hunches, faith, ego, delight, and deals

Technical graduates 

fear of falling behind the competion

extend professional and mangerial authority


RAPID CHANGES PROBISED TO RENDER ANY SYSTEM DESIGNED TO BE
QUICKLY OBSOLETE.



STANDARDS

Demand for compatibility for strategic purposes.

Graphics
Communication Protocols
Unix (Computer Operating Systems)

The road not taken

Sometimes it is good to learn from mistakes
eg (lost sales)

Broadens awarness of other possibilities
cast existing technologies in a critical light

Automation vs Labor

GEs counter offensive

collective bargaining - take or leave it

Extensive public relations

Disorganize the work force.