Beach Haven

​JEAN-DU-SUD AND THE MAGICK-BYRD
By Yves Gelinas
Translated by Karen Caruana
59 North, Ltd., 2017, 180 pages


 
The subscript of the title reads A Solo Round the World Voyage Through the Southern Ocean. So it is. Gelinas made his attempt to go non-stop in his sailboat name Jean-du-Sud. The Magick Byrd is about a little bird made out of folded reeds. Along the way he recorded film (this happened before small-format video cameras were available in the early 1980s) that was made into a documentary for BBC. The original was written in the author's native French language.
 
Aside from relaying his progress along the journey, Gelinas shares many detailed logistical information. He also shares the opposite end of the spectrum, his philosophical musings he came to during the experience, and later as he penned the memoir. The events culminate when heavy weather and waves rolled the boat and broke down his mast. Despite the drama and danger, Gelinas limps to the nearest port.
 
For sailors, there are very helpful suggestions and perspectives as one contemplates any sort of off-shore sail. For the adventure-minded the balance of risk and reward are well discussed. The psychological insight to a person so inexperienced with sailing at all, yet alone taking on such a challenging attempt offers insight as well.

​WHO WROTE THE BOOK OF LIFE?
By Lily E. Kay
Stanford University Press, 2000, 441 pages
 


​The subtitle to Kay’s volume reads A History of the Genetic Code. It might better be thought of as a history of the creation of the genetic code. Genetics and the acids forming DNA and RNA existed before human discovery of them, yet Kay makes a point throughout the book as to whether they are expressions of a code. In fact there is a great deal of debate about the analogy of a code that has solidified, and likely narrowed, scientific thinking about the building blocks of living organisms.
 
Kay also walks the reader through the often bumpy history of scientists involved in the organization of scientific thought concerning DNA. Like many sociologists and historians of science, recognition of social factors in scientific discovery continues to grow in acceptance. There are purists who also argue that the facts of science are what makes up science and the context surrounding discovery is not important. Others, like Kay argue context defines discovery, and even can create facts that later prove less factual. This debate of the social construct of science is a central argument of this work by Lily Kay. Is knowledge something we discover, or something we create?
 
Kay disparages the use of code/book/words/etc. as having validity in terms of DNA sequencing. Yet uses many of these ideas (scripture, the Wor(l)d, etc.). Early in the historical record she notes how biological specificity was the guiding principle of genetic study until the language of information and code began to shift scientific approach. Kay notes the raw data grows and is still in research, and despite large investment, genetic therapy is slow in coming. Despite this, the hype encourages social change: alters employment practices, family planning, educational policies, insurance practices, investment portfolios, and cultural attitudes.

​UNCLE TOM’S CABIN
By Harriet Beecher Stowe
Black & White Publications, 2015, 266 pages

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Originally published in 1852, the work depicts the lives of a number of antebellum slaves in the southern U.S. The main protagonist, Uncle Tom, is an older man and submissive to his fate as dictated by a series of three different slave holders. His circumstance grows progressively worse as he battles to maintain his Christian faith. His last ‘master’ tries to push him to act as an overseer of the other slaves because of Tom’s ability to read and manage plantation affairs. When Tom resists he is eventually beaten to death, but only after redeeming his faith. In some ways he is a Messiah-like persona.
 
A number of other slaves who interact with Tom on the various farms, or in slave auctions, eventually find ways to escape, both desperate and ingenious, to a life in Canada. The book depicts examples of whites, some of whom assist the runaways, others add peril.
 
In the end one could argue Tom escapes as do the others, though his escape is spiritual and mortally final. Because he is submissive and in the end suffers brutality and death, many people of color refer to others as an ‘Uncle Tom’. They do this to mean people of color who they feel are not supportive enough of black culture, or who seem interested in blending into white culture. Until reading the book I had not understood the reference, and likely still don’t really understand it. In a related thought, there are many who question the book’s authenticity as Stowe was a middle-aged white woman living in New England. Her interactions with Afro-Americans would have been very limited, so it’s not very clear how realistic her writings are. There is urban legend that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe he commented to the effect that she had written the book that inspired the Civil War. 

INGENIOUS PURSUITS
By Lisa Jardine
Anchor Books, 1999, 444 pages
 

​This historical look at the ‘scientific revolution’ centers on seventeenth century Europe. Many of the most-well-known scientific personalities came to the fore in this mix of philosophical and political upheaval. Jardine helps expose overlaps among fields such as science, engineering and art. Sociological influences point to advantage and disadvantage depending on the culture of the country in question, the gender of the scientist, and how funds availability promoted and detracted efforts.
 
The heart of much of the story of this era circulated around scientific societies. Some of these were formal such as the Royal Society in London, Academie Royale des Sciences in Paris, or their equivalents in Germany, Italy and other countries. Informal societies also influenced who could participate. For example, Salons of wealthy patrons in Paris became a focal point for many women to share their scientific ideas and discoveries.
 
Newton, Kepler, Wren, Hobbes, and others interact across society and political lines. Jardine shares many instances when scientists of warring countries still managed to share information about discoveries. In a few cases such sharing brought charges of spying, but by and large knowledge sharing was encouraged among scientific practitioners. Personal jealousies sometimes encouraged the opposite. Jardine depicts a number of such rivalries and the effects on the scientific community.
 
The stories and topics Jardine shares flow well. The work is readable and the personalities of number of notable ‘characters’ makes for an interesting realistic look into the process of knowledge discovery. In this case the word characters can be taken quite directly, as Jardine even includes a section toward the end she dubs Cast of Characters.
 

FASCIST PIGS
By Tiago Saraiva
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016, 326 pages


Most Significant Arguments

In the book Fascist Pigs, Tiago Saraiva puts a focus on agriculture as a technology that influenced decisions made in the Fascist leadership of Italy, Portugal and Germany from WWI through WWII. The work also notes how Fascist philosophy guided decisions by agro-geneticists and breeders. As a result of the experience of low food supplies and dependence on other countries for food, these governments each came to a vision or goal of being food independent. That led to a search for breeding programs of plants and animals that would have desired characteristics in the given country. Geneticists took their signals from leaders and focused efforts along the path of seeking “elite breeds”. When some success was had, the ideas expanded to such application on humans as well. That led to the horrific effects of separating races and “defective” people for “elimination.” Laws were passed to encourage or pressure farmers to participate in programs. There were military interventions to ensure compliance. The language around agro-programs used mystical and militaristic language such as “Battle of Wheat”. Nationalism was equated with farming through language as well such as plants, animals and people being “rooted in the land”. Ultimately selection in each area was approached in the form of pedigrees and performance tests. Interestingly, in most cases there was difficulty ensuring/documenting pedigrees. For example German pigs were sometimes not documented through enough generations to make the official requirement, so scientists began to gather data through eugenics. Similarly when recruiting SS soldiers the effort to establish an applicant’s genealogy was often not possible, so verbal acceptance of SS values and satisfactory performance in training was sufficient.

All three countries also grew through colonialism in eastern Europe and throughout Africa. Such colonialism justified managing breeds, sending "pioneers" to occupy lands, and subjugation of local populations as cheap labor. 

Comparison with Other Readings

One area in particular stood out to me. On page 116 Saraiva discusses the mix of “Front Pigs” meaning successful breeders who produce the preferred specimens, and “subsistence breeders” meaning those who produced pigs that did not meet the preferred standards. This made me think of readings comparing technology innovators with maintainers. Russell and Vinsel (see attached file below), for example, mention that when it comes to technology maintenance, typically effort is 2% preventative and 98% repair, meaning maintenance is viewed of less value. Even if Germany didn’t achieve the level of innovation they targeted (meaning preferred breeds of pigs or potatoes) it would be interesting to understand the comparison between the number of compliant pigs compared to the “subsistence” pigs.

Strengths and Weaknesses

The linking of strategic approaches to agriculture with a country’s overall strategy makes for a strong argument. In particular showing agricultural and political outcomes from overarching philosophies brings some clarity to me as a reader. Throughout the work Saraiva draws attention to the “uniqueness” of this line of thinking (comparing the technology of agriculture with the philosophy of government). Pointing out the uniqueness of the argument sometimes comes off as criticism of other historians in general for not having come to similar conclusions.
​
I like linking of seemingly unrelated areas to show truth. Patterns can reveal truth, and I think that approach could be helpful in my future papers. Others who might find this line of thinking helpful could be government strategists, scientific ethicists, political philosophers, and maybe cultural anthropologists.
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THE SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE
By Tracy Kidder
Back Bay Books, 2000, 293 pages

​
The work is a tale of an upstart computer company taking on the big boys. Specifically, in the early 1980s Data General Corp (DGC) created a minicomputer as the market was just taking off. Giant IBM was left in the lurch as they concentrated on large-scale super-computers. This book traces the conception, design and build of the Eclipse model (internally called the Eagle). Kidder also speaks to the technology that led to the possibility of a minicomputer, the microchip.

Internal politics, the cult of personality, and subterfuge are just a few of the story lines traced in this work. Just as fascinating is what happens after the model becomes a hit. Sales and Marketing take over and the engineers based in Massachusetts who created the asset suddenly have no direction in their careers. Along the way there is an interesting combination of cooperation and competition between the hardware chip designers, and the micro-code firmware writers. Aside from this mini-competition, and the strategic competition with the likes of IBM, there is an intermediate layer race as well. An entirely different group of engineers at DGC in South Carolina were working on a different model. The other group was well funded while the Eagle group were scraped together by a few tenacious leaders.

​The work is a fascinating look into an industry and culture most of us only vaguely aware of. Despite how much technology is discussed, Kidder is able to make it understandable for the rest of us.

RELOCATING MODERN SCIENCE
By Kapil Raj
Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, 285 pages


​
The subscript to the title reads: Circulation and the Construction of Knowledge in South Asia and Europe, 1650-1900. The author offers historical examples to support essentially two hypotheses. The first is that when two cultures interact, the science of both hybridize with each other, they co-construct. Each then evolves differently before and after the interaction. Traditionally western businesses look to expand into additional markets, or to gain new trading partners. In the historical period in question, each European country had some version of an East India Company that sought to exploit India and surrounding states. The belief was that the 'contact zone' such as the Indian Ocean region was a source for information. The science was happening back at the European society, then diffused or disseminated back out to the contact zone. These western countries inevitably expanded trade into some form of colonization.

This idea of science diffusing from west to east also spurred the other major argument Raj has. Western countries had an inherent mistrust of data gathered by 'locals' rather than data gathered by European scientists. He shows that even when western, essentially white, scientists are present, the real information still comes from local scholars, often in writings that already existed before the 'explorers' even arrived.

Two-Way Flow of Scientific Knowledge Between Europe and South Asia

In the reading, Kapil Raj gives examples of how Indian knowledge and expertise contributed to scientific accomplishments. These accomplishments were then brought back to Europe as a form of hybrid science. This assertion is in contrast to the tradition argument of the diffusion model where contact zones are areas where data is extracted to inform science that happens in the west, then diffused back to contact zones. Raj shows how knowledge from the west mixed with Indian knowledge to form a new sort of knowledge that was further adopted differently in both Britain and India. Each knowledge base was different from each other, and from what existed before the cultural interaction. This is because people are mutable, and they make process and knowledge likewise mutable. Science, then, is a function of situated values, norms, sociabilities, divisions of labor, regimes of proof, etc. (228) Contact zones implement co-constructive processes of negotiation.

One example, the interaction between French and Dutch botanists with locals in Orissa and Malabar which brought about two studies, the Jardin de Lorixa and the Hortus Malabaricus. French and Dutch actors learned local botanical and medical knowledge from Fakirs through pre-existing indigenous books. Both resulting works were largely ignored for various political reasons such as Antoine de Jussieu’s personal issues with Nicolas L’Empereur. Eventually additional actors looked at the information in more market-oriented terms and the value of the two works were revisited.

Mapping efforts in India by James Rennell in the 1780s, and Thomas Montgomerie throughout the 1860s to 1880s are further examples. Both used western approaches to train locals in surveying efforts, but worked with the locals (Pundits) to adopt approaches based on local needs. In the case of the Pundits working for Montgomerie, use of traditional western instruments caused negative repercussions by mountain peoples who saw the work as spying. To adjust, Montgomerie adopted Pundit bodies as instruments using pace counting in place of survey chains. In one case when Nain Singh was pushed to ride on an animal, he adjusted the stride count from his own body to that of the animal. When western cartographers questioned the process it was later shown this approach to be more accurate than some other western attempts using scientific instruments alone (215-216). This approach also often kept the human 'instrument' from being killed.

Mapping efforts started with economic goals in mind (defining farm lands or trade routes). Eventually these goals gave way to political goals, such as when the British government took advantage of French and Russian wars, coupled with fear of a potential Russia-China pact, to militarily secure Himalayan trade routes. Despite the success of the mapping effort, the exploitation attempt went poorly in 1904 when British forces killed 5000 Tibetans, then left without any real gain. In this sort of example Raj calls cartography ‘politics by other means.’ (185)

Credible Witnesses

Given skepticism by British scholars who never left the comfort of the Royal Geographic Society, Raj points to efforts by East India Company (EIC) officials to inspire trust in efforts at knowledge generation by a blend of British and Indian scholars. One way they did this was to create colleges in India where EIC officials were sent to learn local information such as language and geography. Locals were simultaneously taught western science, sometimes separate from their British counterparts, sometimes in the same classes. The more the EIC western students learned from and interacted with locals, the more they came to trust them and convey back to England the trustworthiness of generated information. In fact it worked so well there came a time when Indian scholars were brought to England to teach similar topics in British schools.

Indian scholars were able to share their own theoretical/mathematical ideas which seem to work better than the experimental learning encouraged by instruments shared from the west. (179) Western math books were quickly consumed by Indian scholars, and then updated with additional new Indian mathematical discoveries.

​MORE WORK FOR MOTHER
By Ruth Schawartz Cowan
Free Association Books, 1989, 257 pages


Most Significant Arguments

In More Work for Mother, author Ruth Schwartz Cowan links changes in domestic work with changes brought about by technological advancements. She speaks to the separation of labor into work for women, men and children. As technology makes tasks easier, or even not needed, Cowan notes how most of the advancements replaces work done by men and children. Those technologies that do help with “woman’s” work removes the “need” to keep other women help in the home.

Examples of taking away work by men and children are often around cooking stoves and ovens. As gas and electricity replaced wood and coal, the need for gathering and preparing wood dissipates. The cooking work still exists, but the help to mother by father and children is lessened, or even eliminated. Washing machines are another example. As machines came into the home there was no longer a perceived need for sending laundry out or having a laundress come into the home. Although doing a load of laundry was less strenuous, at the same time expectation for cleanliness also increased so the amount of laundry work increased. The effect of both of these examples was that work eased, but for mother workload increased.

In the post-war era of the 1960’s and 1970’s work for women outside the home became more normal. Unlike when this happened during the depression when poor women worked outside the home out of necessity, women in general felt either need or opportunity to do so. In this case not just poor women began to work outside the home, but so too middle-class women. Despite this, the housework did not shift off of mother and onto the rest of the family. Cowan argues this is because the division of labor, masculine and feminine work, has been firmly entrenched in American culture. Entrenchment of the single family home and self-sufficiency in America also keeps alternate arrangements from succeeding such as communal work sharing.

Comparison with Other Readings

Jesse Adams Stein addresses the idea of masculine and feminine work in the piece Masculinity and Material Culture in Technological Transitions. She points to the government press operations in Australia to show how cultural assumptions mold division of labor. Unlike the Cowan work looking to the home, Stein is looking at work outside the home, in the printing press. There was a division of “men’s work” in the press at the time of the letterpress. Generally the argument was that running a letterpress machine took physical strength and the ability to know a machine’s quirks so well as to be able to run it properly. Both of these aspects were thought to be beyond a woman’s ability. In fact a few women here-and-there did run these machines, but found other ways of approaching the need to load type if the weight was too much for them. Then the disruption came was letterpress was supplanted as a technology by offset lithography. Male machinists fought moving from the heavier manual process as they defined themselves in that role. Even when offset lithography became the norm, pressmen still defined their role in masculine terms. Less skill was needed to run the machines, but the tradition of working a press had been masculine and change was slow. Similar to Cowan’s argument that housework was primarily looked at as feminine culturally, Stein argues that press work was primarily looked at as masculine culturally.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Cowan’s arguments are well laid out. The technical migration and the corresponding correlation to changes in housework seem natural and logical. Even her arguments about why some technologies or processes were chosen over others seem to work.

One area I question was her depiction of the shift from mother as consumer of services to mother as producer of services. The “products” of mother were keeping the family fed, healthy and clean. As the specific work to accomplish this shifted from others to mother, and the quality and quantity expectation rose, the result was increased work for mother. Cowan gives examples of the shift from consumer to producer such as less delivery to the home with availability of the car. Mother now had to go to the supermarket to get the food rather than having it delivered, or going to a local market by walking there. The supermarket came about because increased use of refrigeration allowed for more variety of food out of season. As expectation to deliver health and food to family included a more varied diet, mother produced transportation of food stuffs by driving to a supermarket that was not close enough to walk to, and would not deliver. She also needed the car to allow for larger loads of foodstuffs required by the increased variety in diet.

I would argue that it is a little more complicated. For example when mother walked to the local market to pick up food, that act is not unlike driving to the supermarket. She was a consumer of delivery before the car (delivery to home, delivery to local market). She is a consumer of delivery after the car (delivery to the supermarket). Like drawing lines in a system between what is in and out of the system, the line between consumer and producer can be difficult. Mother was, and is, both consumer and producer of food delivery both pre- and post-car. The question is where does one draw the line? One could pick at similar arguments given by Cowan on healthcare (doctor home visits vs mother taking a child to the clinic), education (home schooling vs getting the kids to a public school), etc.

The ideas in this work could appeal to students of history, technology, sociology, gender, etc. I think there is appeal here to lay readers as well. The conversations sparked between my wife and I were interesting. My helpfulness with Thanksgiving preparations certainly increased, but I found her unwilling to allow me to get involved in some of the work which seem to support Cowan’s culture entrenchment arguments. Spouses and children should be more aware of the burdens on mothers whether they work outside the home or not.

​FORCES OF PRODUCTION
A Social History of Industrial Automation
By David F. Noble
Transaction Publishers, 2011, 409 pages

In Forces of Production, Noble notes the belief that technological progress is thought by some to mean social progress. In fact, he argues that “progress” is determined by who is setting the goals and expectations. If change moves an organization closer to the stated goal then it is dubbed progress.

In this light, technology is a tool to move an organization towards a goal, but it is not the driving force in determining the goal. One example given are the chapters around the adoption of numerical control (NC) and the non-adoption of record-playback (RP) methods of automated machining. NC is more complicated and requires a planning and programming set of skills that are different from the skills of a machinist. RP depends, at least initially, on the skills of a machinist to record the moves to be replicated by the machine.

Despite many drawbacks, management saw NC as progress and RP as a step backwards. Why? Noble notes that one goal of management, if not the goal, is to reduce dependence on skilled labor. The desired outcome would be to lower cost and increase management’s control over what happens in the shop. NC pushes control away from machinists. RP requires a machinist. Labor, he argues, saw NC as the opposite of progress since it reduced the strength of the laborer and labor unions in negotiation with management. Noble argues convincingly that technology is not a problem or a solution. Problems and solutions are political, moral, and cultural. Technology is one tool to help clarify and resolve both the problems and solutions.


Like other works I have reviewed, Noble makes a strong argument against technological determinism. In fact, he almost speaks as if technology is really a minor, or at least secondary, part of the story. Technology in his examples is an enabling or disabling factor in the goals and decisions of the actors.

His approach seems to start each chapter with the generalized positions, then give a number of specific examples. At the end of each chapter he restates the arguments linked to the specific examples in the chapter. The technology examined is very specific, automation of machining parts, and primarily aircraft parts. In fact, automation was also being implemented in other industries at the same time which he alludes to once. This approach is not unlike at least a portion of the David Hounshell work reviewed in a past review posting (http://bhaven.org/reviews/american-system-to-mass-production). In that reading the argument was about movement from skilled manual labor toward mechanization, though not automation per se. In the Hounshell work several different industries are looked at in the beginning, but eventually the focus moves to sewing machine manufacturing.


There are plenty of good examples and specifics that support the arguments made by Noble. In deed, at times perhaps there are too many arguments shared. For example in the section about why RP was not adopted it seems like many more people or organizations are quoted than in any other portion of the book. It appears that Noble “sides with” the proponents of RP because he quotes so many of them. It felt a little like he was piling on. He at times offers other motives by management for adopting automation such as lowering costs, increasing productivity, being more competitive. Unfortunately these motives seem minimized throughout the text to a point where these might be only viewed as positives by management because they support the real motives, control and power.

In the end, the epilogue, Noble's arguments seem more balanced. He refocuses on the topic of technology and its relationship to the idea of progress. Clearly the motives of management and labor go to defining progress, and it is how Noble helps clarify that technology is a means and not an end. The work as a whole could appeal to varying interests. It could help clarify the topic for historians, students of business and labor movements, sociologists, and political scientists.

There were portions I found enlightening. For example during WWII when the image we have these days shows the nation united in purpose, Rosie the Riveter taking care of the home front while “our boys” were fighting evil. Yet in reality there were large numbers of strikes, lockouts and other sorts of work stoppages. The responses by FDR were telling of the thought process of the day, that led directly to the later hunting for “anti-American activities” by Congress. World competition between democracy/free enterprise and socialism/communism were and are real, but seeing communism as the force behind every ill made resolution of the problems difficult. Policy makers could take note from this linkages of technology with academia, industry and politics. Economists might also find the financial ties between government, academia and industry worth consideration.