Beach Haven

​THE HANDBOOK OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES            
Edited by Edward J. Hackett, Olga Amsterdamska, 
​​Michael Lynch, and Judy Wajcman
The MIT Press, 2008, 1065 pages
 
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Every so many years (somewhat random as best as I can tell) leading practitioners of the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), also known as Science, Technology and Society, put together a compendium of academic papers that represent major trends in the discipline at the time of publication. The version covered by this review is the third edition.
 
The major sections include thoughts about the academic discipline as a field of study, social and science practice, politics, institutions, economics, and emergent technosciences. I started reading the volume before starting my post-graduate work at Virginia Tech. Because of the size (page count) and variation of thought it takes time to wade through the papers contained. The last third or so I had to balance with my school reading that took way more of my time.
 
The topics are varied enough that those not specifically seeking STS insight will still likely find something so long as the reader has some interest in non-fiction. Some of the writings are more academic and jargon-filled. Others use more plane language. Like most academic papers, none are too difficult to follow, but having some context in the field helps some.

​CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY
Edited by Craig Calhoun, Joseph Gerteis, James Moody, Steven Pfaff, and Indermohan Virk
Blackwell Publishing, 2007, 496 pages

 
The work by Calhoun et al is an anthology, and covers a range of writers. It is set up sections more or less by topic. In each section the editors give some introductory thoughts on the topic, and then post extensive portions of applicable published works by sociological thought leaders. Sometimes the papers are shared in whole, other times in part, but the works themselves are the central offering more than the interpretation of the editors.
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Shared in the volume is a fairly broad cross section of the base theories of sociology. Many of the works contained are extensively cited throughout academia. 

​CAPITALISM AND MODERN SOCIAL THEORY
By Anthony Giddens
Cambridge University Press, 1971, 261 pages

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Subtitled An analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber, it is a review of some of the major thoughts expressed by the three referenced authors. Giddens reviews some life history of each of the theorists, and offers interpretation and context. He shares snippets of the actual writings, but is focused more on explanation than quotation.
 
The work reads like a text book. The history surrounding the authors’ lives are helpful in understanding some of their philosophical direction. Other thought leaders preceded these three men and had an influence on them, but Giddens sees much of what they write as original and foundational to many future publications of successor sociologists. Their philosophies differ in many ways from each other.

​​A HISTORY OF MODERN COMPUTING
By Paul E. Ceruzzi
The MIT Press, 2003, 445 pages

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One could wonder how much of ‘modern computing’ could be understood in context. This question is a serious issue among historians as a more full look at all the social factors related to technology change, like any other change, only come with time. For example, most technology takes applied directions different from how originally envisioned by its creators. The morphing of ARPANET into the Internet, growth of the world-wide web, human-machine interfaces, migration from tubes, to transistors, to silicon chips, to new investigations into quantum processors, are all examples of technology change not envisioned by those who created the predecessors. Perhaps one of the latest look into technology is in the area of artificial intelligence (AI).
 
With that said, Ceruzzi took the intrepid step to attempt the task of defining technology change while examining circumstances that at least influenced, if not defined, the evolution. I say change deliberately avoiding the word advancement because that word implies progress toward a specific goal. In fact much technology change represents a haphazard combination of salient and reverse-salient approaches to specific needs. Many of the needs were not needs until the technology changed and inspired the need. For example, today most people would claim ‘dependence’ on their smart-phone, but many of us remember where cellphones didn’t exist, yet alone their ‘smarter’ descendants.

THE CLOSED WORLD
By Paul N. Edwards
The MIT Press, 1996, 440 pages


Most Significant Arguments

In The Closed World there are two themes that stand out most to me. The first is that of metaphor. It is everywhere in the narrative. There are specific even chapters that focus on metaphoric meaning in language around technology (especially computers), and also how leaders viewed the technology they were creating (or funding) metaphorically to help make strategic decisions.

I was more interested in the area of systems. On page 107 Edwards proposes three versions of a closed-world. The west, the USSR and the globe. The last of these three rings truest to me because in either of the other two, the closed worlds of the west and the USSR were not making decisions in a vacuum. Each made decisions based their perspectives on what the other was doing, or would do in a given circumstance. In other words, neither of those systems were independent actors. Each were acting in a system that included the other. Only the third “system” seems accurate to me.

Comparison with Other Readings

On page 109 Edwards speaks to two “leaky containers” in the west and USSR world view and strategic technology. He was describing the “discourse” between these two systems as less defined and changing. In a way this sounded to me a lot like Oudshoorn and Pinch’s arguments around users and non-users. If the west was isolating itself technically, politically, and economically from the USSR, and vice-versa, then each was defining the other (or themselves) as non-users of the opposing system. Edwards even uses the idea of zero-sum game theory later to describe the strategic approach of early US policy architects like McNamara. Yet, just as the line between users and non-users in the earlier works were “complicated” since people might move between those categories, so too are the leaky containers in that changes in technology and strategy moved based on perceived decisions by the other "player" in the zero-sum game. Just as Oudshoorn and Pinch argued that non-users matter, Edwards makes the case that the opposing “closed world” mattered.

Strengths and Weaknesses

In this work, Edwards often focuses on individual contributors to the history. I’m not sure how to think about that approach. On the one hand, these are significant contributors and each example given points out people who seriously influenced the historical and technological progression. Most histories include significant individual contributors. On the other hand focusing so often on a handful of specific people might lead to the impression that few others were involved. For example there are a number of times when Edwards mentions multiple organizations working in parallel on similar issues, but he only mentions specific people in certain organizations. By doing that, the organizations the specific people mentioned are affiliated with seem more influential than those groups only identified as a group. That “importance” of one group over another might be intentional based on the author’s ideas about the relative influence of each group, but perhaps other authors would disagree about the level of influence among the groups.

​THOMAS JEFFERSON AND HIS UNKNOWN BROTHER
Edited by Bernard Mayo
University Press of Virginia, 1981, 59 pages


​This short treatise contains the text of letters written back and forth between the former U.S. president and his brother, Randolph. The letters are dated between 1789 and 1815. These are original documents and the text has all the flaws of the actual letters on archive.
 
It is clear in the letters the difference in education between the two brothers. The topics include health status of various family members. A number of the letters mention a watch that belonged to Randolph that had been loaned to a family friend and his anxiety at wanting it back. It is eventually returned. He also often asks Thomas for some puppies from several dogs the two of them have invested in. At one point a series of writings concern a spinning jenny Thomas procured on behalf of Randolph. There are discussions on the logistics of getting it from Monticello to Randolph’s estate. Thomas convinces his brother to first send a young slave girl to Monticello to be trained on how to work the device. After some months he pronounces the girl proficient. The slave and device are at last sent to Randolph. There is also some back and forth around seeds for planting, where to get them and when best to plant them.
 
All in all the letters seem mundane, but there are insights into the thinking of the time and place. Dogs, devices, seeds, watches, and slaves are clearly spoken of (and thought of) in equal terms of ownership and use. 

THE QUOTABLE DAD
Edited by Nick & Tony Lyons
Main Street, 2004, 292 pages

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Don't let the number of pages impress or intimidate. This book is a compendium of quotes by famous dads on topics connected with fatherhood. Each page is a single quote so the reading is not a heavy lift. The quoted include authors, comedians, presidents, musicians, sports figures, and actors. Some are entertaining, others reflective. 

The book was a present to me from our twins. At least it may be from both of them or just from Emily with Jake adding himself. The original inscription was from neither of them, but an unattributed note saying 'Happy Fathers Day, June 20015.' In different ink and handwriting the 2005 is crossed out and 2015 is written underneath it.  Below that is 'Love ya dad!' Still after is read 'From you favorite child, Emily,' followed by a heart. After Emily's note it says, '..... And Jake.'

Only the two of them know if they were in cahoots or if Jake snuck in. Either way it seems as just another statement on the nature of fatherhood.

THE MILL ON THE FLOSS
By George Eliot
PF Collier & Son Company, 1917, 565 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach

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Originally published in 1860, this multi-generational story of inter-family animosity seems to follow along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, or the Hatefields and McCoys. There are star-crossed lovers in the second generation who come from the opposing families. The setting depicts events between the families in the 1820s and 1830s.
 
The Dorlcote Mill begins as the Tulliver family legacy. It draws power from the River Floss near the village of St. Ogg’s in Lincolnshire, England. Through bitter legal action it passes into the hands of the Wakems. The Tulliver patriarch eventually dies. Through family and friends the mill comes back to his son, Tom. In the interim Tom’s sister Maggie struggles with her affection of Philip Wakem, son and heir to her father’s rival. Tom eventually learns of her feelings and the two former friendliest of siblings become estranged.
 
Another potential love enters into Maggie’s life. The problem is the suiter, Stephen Guest, is linked romantically to her cousin Lucy Deane. It is Lucy that causes events to come about to return the mill to the Tullivers. All of these love twists come to a head. All four directly involved, Maggie, Philip, Stephen and Lucy, falter in their relationships and are torn apart after a lifetime of friendship.
 
Just at the time all of this emotional whirlwind is happening, siblings Tom and Maggie begin to repair their kinship. The storminess of relationships is soon overshadowed by an actual storm which floods the town and washes away the mill. Tom and Maggie come together to save each other in the midst of the storm, but instead drown together and are eventually buried next to each other.
 
The story ends depicting the regular graveside visits of Philip alone, and Stephen with someone.
 
I’ve expressed before that I don’t generally purposely read stories with too much of a romantic bent to them. This story is included in a continuing 20 volume set of classic fiction I’m working my way though. Were it not included in the set I doubt it would have crossed my reading path. That’s the benefit of this sort of publishing. It exposes the reader to works that otherwise might be missed.

​​VANITY FAIR
By William Makepiece Thackery
PF Collier & Son Company, 1917, 829 pages
Reviewed by Michael Beach
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The specific edition reviewed in this posting is a combination of two out of twenty volumes included in a series titled Harvard Classics Shelf of Books. It was originally published as a serial in 1847 and 1848.
 
The idea of “vanity fair” was that of an actual fair attended by people of society who exhibited the negative traits of the upper crust. The story of this novel itself focused on two young women, friends, whose fates intermix at different times. The characters are not attending the metaphorical vanity fair, but are themselves examples of the attitudes of people of society who suffer the fickleness of life events.
 
Becky (Rebecca Sharp) and Emmy (Amelia Sedley) separate after leaving school. Becky marries better than Emmy to Pitt Crawley, but then she and her husband prove vain and focused on the visible trappings of wealth. As they lose wealth through poor management they turn to tricking others out of money through a variety of schemes. Becky also regularly cheats on her husband who eventually comes to his senses and leaves her to fend for herself. Becky eventually lives a life of bad reputation.
 
Emmy loses her husband, George Osborne, to the Napoleonic War with Britain. She refrains from giving to the love of her husband’s best friend, William Dobbin, as she venerates the memory of her husband. She eventually learns that her husband had trists during their short marriage. She also learns of the benevolence of the friend who had put them together out of deference to her preference. She further learns she has been the lifelong beneficiary of his financial help. Emmy finds happiness in later life as she decides to marry him.
 
The story is long, but keeps moving. The characters are developed well enough that the interactions feel authentic. I’m not one to read romantic works. I went through this particular work because it is part of the Harvard Classics volumes mentioned above. It is said to be classic literature and I was familiar with the title, though had been more familiar with it as the name of a more modern popular magazine.