Beach Haven

​​Bibliography
Gindick, Jon. 1984. Country & Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless. Palo Alto: Klutz Press.
 
Review by Michael Beach

My mother’s father, Lester Miller, played harmonica in a band with my dad, uncle, and a few others. A recurring experience I had as a kid was to listen to them practice in our home, or the home of my grandparents, and occasionally see them play at some venue. Pap Miller also played the mandolin. Every once in a while, when I was still in elementary school, my dad would have me play drums, filling in for my uncle, or he would have me play base guitar, filling in for him.  Eventually I had my own drum set. Then at one point I took an interest in harmonica. Pap gave me a few tips, and my parents bought me my own harmonica. I was never any good at it, mostly because I didn’t practice much. If I did have an interest, it was primarily in blues music, particularly by Johnny Rivers.

As I grew, my practice was spotty. Eventually, Pap Miller passed away. Among the things he left behind was a toolbox sized container with all sorts of harmonicas in it. Since I was the only person in the extended family with any interest in harmonica, Grammy Miller gave the box to me. The harmonicas ranged in keys and size. Having the box inspired me to practice more. The result is although I’m still not good, I’m at least not horrible at making music on occasion. This book was in box of harmonicas Pap left behind. I found in it some good tips and plenty of practice songs. I wouldn’t claim any real ability, but I will say the book helped me get a little better. Now I just have to keep making time to practice. 
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Bibliography
​Tallbear, Kim. 2013. Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press.
 
Review by Michael Beach

Kim Tallbear is one of my favorite authors related to my studies in science, technology, and society (STS). The title of this work is self-explanatory, but the topics she covered are varied, and certainly explores ideas new to me.

One of overarching themes relates to how human test material such as blood samples have been used in the past in ways not agreed to by the subjects. Often banks of samples and data are sold to companies that develop treatments or further databases that yield not only medical findings, but revenues that come with them.

Tallbear also looks at the accuracy of DNA testing to find one’s ancestry. Such services have become popular in the private sector. There are many reasons to hold such findings suspect, and Tallbear reviews some of the technical issues. In terms of Native Americans, many of the issues are more social than technical. For example, there are specific government benefits for people who can document a native ancestry. Likewise, there is risk to those who claim native heritage when DNA tests don’t support their claim. Another difficulty the author has with native DNA testing is how many people claim specific tribal affiliation based on results. In reality, tribes intermingled so much through economic and warfare activity that it is difficult at best to narrow DNA categories in this way.

The problematic aspects Tallbear raises about DNA testing can be more generalized in two area as she does. The first happens when science and business are tied to each other. She points to the example of the genographic project (mapping the human gene structure) and ‘the business of research and representation’. Others have broached how science represents ‘facts’. Ian Hacking looks at the same issues from a philosophical perspective. He refers to the issues as ‘representing and intervening’. Likewise, Sheila Jasanoff created an entire framework that includes the idea of ‘controlling narratives’.

Tallbear finishes with a look at governance. Who can decide what’s appropriate use and language? Once collected, who owns human genetic tissue? She shares other complicating questions that are still unanswered. Even with modernized legal documents about what sort of rights research subjects cede when they sign a specific document, court cases continue. For example, if a company purchases data or samples from an academic study, then creates large revenues from that resource, are donors entitled to some of it? What part does race play in subject selection? How do scientists define a specific narrow population? How much isolation is required, or intermixing is acceptable, to make the samples be representative of a specific population? As the reader might imagine, such questions can continue. These are ethical concerns for scientists, and often cause ‘native’ people to be unwilling to trust them.
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Bibliography
​Sperry, Armstrong. 1947. Danger to Windward. New York, Chicago, San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Reviewed by Michael Beach

This was a fun tale of intrigue and seafaring adventure. A girl from Nantucket married someone who was not from there. This resulted in estrangement from her family, in particular her father who was a whaling captain. Years pass. The couple have a son, but never return to Nantucket. Toward the end of his life, her father has a change of heart and leaves all he has to his daughter, but a corrupt half brother has a lawyer draw up a fake years earlier leaving all to him. Before finding any of this out, the father, daughter, and son in law all pass away under differing circumstances, leaving their son as sole. The son is our protagonist, Hugh Dewar. There are two antagonists, his uncle Samwel Macy assisted by a crooked lawyer, and Hugh's cousin Davy Macy who took over as captain of the ship once owned by Hugh’s grandfather.

On Hugh’s side was a good lawyer who helped him learn all the circumstances, and owners of the local Nantucket pub and inn. Hugh approaches his uncle to come to terms. He is beaten and taken aboard the whaler by his cousin, there to serve under him. He was kept alive because the ship was shorthanded, but understood that once the holds were full, his life would be under threat. Much of the book is of the sailing adventures that happen after his kidnapping. He is befriended by the ship’s ‘doctor’. The two of them at some point even wreck one of the harpooning boats and a few chapters are dedicated to their experiences among islanders, some friendly and some dangerous. They are eventually ‘rescued’ by their own ship and return to work on the ship while they search for the final will written by Hugh’s grandfather.

In the end, they find the will, Davy loses his life, Hugh wins the court battles and takes ownership of the lands and ship which are now completely his. The uncle and his lawyer flee in disgrace. The story line is similar to Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped with some variations. Wherever I look online, this book is described as a young person’s novel. I enjoyed it. I guess that goes to show where my mentality lays. 
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Bibliography
Price, Don K. 1965. The Scientific Estate. London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.

Review by Michael Beach
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For Don Price, there was a shift in America. The original philosophy characterized by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. He says there are two main ‘articles of faith’ concerning progress. The first concerns material benefits which “lead society to support the advancement of science and technology” (Price 1965, 1). The other basic belief asserts that advancement in science “would lead society toward desirable purposes, including political freedom” (Ibid.). Price goes on to speak of negative effects of science and technology such as the dust bowl, atomic bombs, and the great depression, all of which were at least influenced by technological and scientific decisions.

“So we are about to reach the point when both scientists and politicians begin to worry not merely about specific issues, but about the theoretical status of science in our political and constitutional system” (Price 1965, 4). Price refers to a government report by Vanevar Bush titled Science, the Endless Frontier. I’ve reviewed that document in the past along with several books critical of it. Price’s overarching theme is that science is intertwined with politics. Not only is there such a concept like political science, but also political issues have some sort of scientific perspective. If in no other way, sociology is a form of science that looks at how social issues and movements form and function. Noting such scientific fields such as physics and genetics, Price makes scientific revolution has more effect on political institutions than the industrial revolution. Here are three specific statements he makes that the rest of the book is based on.

• The scientific revolution is moving the public and private sectors closer together.
• The scientific revolution is bringing a new order of complexity into the administration of public affairs.
• The scientific revolution is upsetting our system of checks and balances.

Essentially, Don Price argues that economic and political power have become so close that he calls them ‘fused’. He also takes the position that both forms of power are inseparable with scientific change.
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Bibliography
​Hausse, Heidi. 2019. "The Locksmith, the Surgeon, and the Mechanical Hand: Communicating Technical Knowledge in Early Modern Europe." Edited by Suzanne Moon. Technology and Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press) 60 (1): 34-64.

Review by Michael Beach
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In this article, Heidi Hausse looks at a specific case of an artificial prosthetic hand designed by a surgeon named Ambroise Paré. He had a representation drawn in a publication called Oeuvers in 1575 A.D. In order to allow for increased circulation of the design, a wood cutting of the picture was created by a locksmith named le petit Lorrain. The cutting was then used to reproduce the technical drawing in many subsequently published medical books and documents. Hausse takes a look at the imprint made by the wood carving and compares it to similar printed carvings. She also explores what the pictures do and don’t convey, and who might make use of the drawings.

A couple of themes come out in Hausse’s writing. Although one might imagine the drawings would be of interest to other surgeons, in reality “artisans were a crucial audience” (Hausse 2019, 36). The technical knowledge transfer was more about replicating the apparatus than for post amputation recuperation of patients. As a result, “substantive exchanges of knowledge took place between artisans and learned men” (Hausse 2019, 37) that might otherwise not happen due to cultural status difference. “The role of craft production in the initial creation of the image allows us to consider its purpose in Paré’s surgical treatise from the perspective of an artisan” (Hausse 2019, 47).

Another theme relates to how historians sometimes question the effectiveness of the early printing press to convey technical knowledge. “Many historians have been skeptical of the printing press’s impact on the transfer of craft techniques” (Hausse 2019, 52). One reason given is the interspersing of words and numbers to clarify graphics which are readily understood by technicians, but less so for surgeons. Another reason for skepticism is that “manuals contained either too little or too much of the information needed for a task, and often omitted practitioners’ tricks” (Ibid.). Finally, such sketches might contain mistakes. A few numbers pointing to specific parts didn’t match the accompanying terms. Finally, the documents many of the people creating the documents didn’t understand how the apparatus worked. Think of those in the supply chain to bring the documents about such as “translators, editors, artists, and printers” (Hausse 2019, 55).

Some of this same skepticism might be leveled on similar modern technical documents. Perhaps the difference comes in how easy documents can be published, then corrected and republished. One point that is a common argument among sociologists of technology is the need for tacit or practical experience, that written documents are just not enough. Just think about how many times you’ve may have opened a cookbook only to understand that some of the process for adding ingredients is not always clear. Watching videos with chefs creating the same dish can be helpful, but nothing can be a substitute for making it yourself. 

Bibliography
​Bloor, David. 1991. Knowledge and Social Imagery. 2nd. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

Review by Michael Beach
 
This work by David Bloor repasses the strong program of sociology and the creation of knowledge. He was a proponent of a framework called the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). The strong program suggests that technological advancements are primarily a function of social factors. The alternative, the weak program, doesn’t go so far, but looks at failed technologies and asserts social factors leading to their demise. After making a number of SSK arguments, Bloor looks at mathematics as an example. From the wisdom of the crowds example of ox-weight estimation, to the arguments against crow-sourcing for understanding the world, Bloor shares chapters on ‘naturalistic’ math followed by asking if there can be ‘alternative’ math.

For Bloor, and other proponents of SSK, naturalistic views are partial and don’t go far enough. Over time, other philosophers of science have pointed to Bloor’s own argument vulnerabilities in more or less ignoring technological and scientific effects on society. He admits there is some influence, but describes the influence seemingly like a form of feedback, but not so much as a changing factor. SSK leans away from technological determinism as have many other philosophical frameworks. Perhaps David Bloor and the school of SSK takes that leaning away too far. One argument he makes relates to symmetry. In this specific definition, all ideas should be approach as having equal weight until proven different. He argues “Our everyday attitudes are practical and evaluative, and evaluations are by their nature asymmetrical” (Bloor 1991, 175). Bloor shares examples of other philosophers inducing other forms of symmetry. Bloor’s position of practicality and ‘common sense’ is part of his justification of asymmetry between social influence on technology as opposed to technological influence on society. 
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Bibliography
Wilde, Oscar. 2011. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Orlando: Seth Watkins.

​Review by Michael Beach

This book was originally published in 1891. Oscar Wilde was an Irish author, born in Dublin. Before reading it, I was vaguely familiar with the story, but as expected, there is so much more to it. In the beginning, Dorian Gray is a handsome young man who acts as a model for an artist's portraiture in Victorian London. The artist, Basil Hallward, was so smitten with the painting he decided not to sell it, but eventually gave it to Dorian who displayed it in his home.

At first Dorian Gray is naive, almost innocent. The combination of flattering words from Basil and philosophical enticing of his other friend, Lord Henry, who espoused hedonism, tempts him into an ever growing self-absorbed and malicious lifestyle. As he goes down this track he notices changes to the picture. Every time he does something evil, the image in the picture changes. The painted face absorbs the negative effect of his bad behavior. Over time, those around him age and degenerate, as does the picture image, but the man himself stays exactly as he was at the time the painting was created. The painting becomes the image of the evil man he grows into.

As he notices the changes, he removes the painting to a room where he keeps it locked and covered with a cloth. He begins to fear it and rarely looks at it. He becomes ever more depraved and is nearly found out, yet he continues to avoid detection or any sort of ill-effect. Eventually he commits several murders including the brother of a girl who commits suicide after he despoils and dumps her. He later murders the painter of the portrait when Hallward insists on seeing it again after many years. Finally, Dorian wants to reform. His version of doing a good deed is to tempt a young farm girl, then refrain from going through with debauching her. After explaining to Lord Henry how he is turning a new leaf and becoming good, his friend explains that he is only doing it to appease his own vanity. Dorian becomes enraged, then realizes that Lord Henry is right. He believes he is beyond reform. He decides to destroy the picture and grabs the same knife he used to murder Basil Hallward. He is found dead on the ground of the room where the portrait stands. Gray is on the floor with the knife in his chest with all the disfigurement caused by his deeds, while the portrait has returned to its original youthful version of himself.

Oscar Wilde is playing on the inner conflict we all share of good and evil. In this story, neither good nor evil win so much as evil ultimately loses. 
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Bibliography
​Green, Venus. 2001. Race on the Line: Gender, Race, and Technology in the Bell System, 1880-1980. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
 
Review by Michael Beach

Venus Green chronicles telephone operator employment over a century. In the early days of telephony, ‘Ma Bell’ specifically defined telephone operators as female and have a voice and demeanor that was ‘white lady’. That persona was defined by white men who were in charge of the organization. It was less about who the person was than about her mother-like persona with a white-sounding accent. A certain education was also expected since they were often tasked with answering customer questions.

Over time, white women began to move into other roles such as administrative jobs. As a result, Bell downgraded the description of operators, in part to avoid unionization. As this transition was happening, self-dialing was introduced to larger communities which caused automation to replace the human operators. The quicker this automation trend proliferated, the lower salaries became for remaining operators. By the end of the period in the book title, all human operator employment stopped.

The obvious themes were about sexist views of job requirements. Men were managers and engineers. Women were operators. The assumption was that engineering required more physical and intellectual capacity. As more valued administrative jobs opened up to women, the second theme was about race and how the jobs identified as lower on the hierarchy then became associated with women of color. Eventually, even these lower-tiered jobs disappear when they were replaced with automation. The trend seems obvious as described in this book, and during the time period covered, white male dominated management would not have seen this as an issue as American society would today.
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Bibliography
​Latour, Bruno. 1996. Aramis or the Love of Technology. Translated by Catherine Porter. Cambridge & London: Harvard University Press.

Review by Michael Beach
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If you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘a solution looking for a problem’ that is the gist of this case study. Bruno Latour walks the read through the idea of creating a new sort of mass transit train in Paris, France. Aramis was an experimental commuter train that was not a train. The project was to form trains from train cars that were not attached to each other. Rather, each car would travel independently of others. Whenever one car approached another on the same track in the same direction, they would communicate with each other and travel like a traditional train but remaining unattached. Each car was small and was to hold only four riders. Given each car’s independent pickup and drop-off location, their routes would connect and disconnect with other equally independent cars.

Latour takes the reader through a project that lasted several decades and never successfully became more than a proof of concept with a handful of cars on an unconnected test track. Depending who was in power at the federal level, the Aramis project varied in funding and progress. People involved were excited about the technical idea then gradually became disillusioned. Others followed later with a similar pattern. Its failure was blamed on everything from lack of vision to the shortcomings of the technical state of the art of the time. Latour also shares how the design itself shifted. The car sizes changed, slowly increasing to look more like a typical train car. The independent start and stop locations became are stations, more like traditional train stations, though greater in number than the normal trains.

In Bruno Latour’s examination of a commuter train project in Paris, France, social forces are examined and their effect on a technical project that eventually was stopped through similar social forces. One example was changing the idea of a train car that held only four people. It became apparent that this approach could lead passengers to become victims of crime. If just a few strangers happened to be on the same car, there would be fewer witnesses for criminals to concern themselves with. That risk led to ever growing numbers of intended passengers. This was a form of scope creep based on a social concern. The result was lower efficiency and less benefit as compared to the traditional train system.

Bibliography
​Lampland, Martha, and Susan Leigh Star, . 2009. Standards and Their Stories: How Quantifying, Classifying, and Formalizing Practices Shape Everyday Life. Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press.
 
Reviewed by Michael Beach

Convention is the word of this book. The various chapter authors consider different standards of measurement we tend to take for granted. How did we choose one length, or weight, or electrical measurement over another? In fact, standards are still not really standard. Ask anyone who totes along an electrical plug converter when they travel internationally.

One area I found surprising is the chapter by Steven Epstein that relates to the ‘standard human’. I had not idea, but when dealing with medical research or treatment the world of health has set categories of humans. In reality, we are each different and are part of a mix and continuum of humanity, each with unique DNA. No one prognosis or treatment is best for all, so the medical community sort of does it work considering clumps of humans to get the symptoms and treatments mostly right most of the time.

There are a few standards examples reviewed from my profession, including metadata and ASCII definitions. One of the jokes in the industry of communications technology is that standards are so helpful because there are so many to choose from. The implication being that with so many different standards to select from, there really isn’t a ‘standard’.
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