Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Ranging from broad inquiries into the roles of economics and sociology in the explanation of technological change to an argument for the possibility of "uninventing" nuclear weapons, this selection of Donald MacKenzie's essays provides a solid introduction to the style and the substance of the sociology of technology.

The essays are tied together by their explorations of connections (primarily among technology, society, and knowledge) and by their general focus on modern "high" technology. They also share an emphasis on the complexity of technological formation and fixation and on the role of belief (especially self-validating belief) in technological change.

Two of the articles won major prizes on their original journal publication, and all but one date from 1991 or later. A substantial new introduction outlines the common themes underlying this body of work and places it in the context of recent debates in technology studies. Two conceptual essays are followed by seven empirical essays focusing on the laser gyroscopes that are central to modern aircraft navigation technology, supercomputers (with a particular emphasis on their use in the design of nuclear weapons), the application of mathematical proof in the design of computer systems, computer-related accidental deaths, and the nature of the knowledge that is needed to design a nuclear bomb.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• Technology, Society, Knowledge
• Underpinnings
• Technology and the Sociology of Knowledge
• Sociology, Economics, and History
• Actors, Networks, and Competing Symmetries
• Relativism and Indifference
• Women and Men
• The Chapters
• 2 Marx and the Machine
• Marx as Technological Determinist
• The Difficulties of Determinism
• The Labor Process and the Valorization Process
• The Prehistory of the Machine
• Enter the Machine
• Marx's Account and the Historical Record
• The Politics of Design and the History of Technology
• Contingency and the Politics of Technology
• 3 Economic and Sociological Explanations of Technological Change
• Neoclassical and Alternative Economics
• Trajectories
• Ethnoaccountancy
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• 4 From the Luminiferous Ether to the Boeing 757
• Searching for the Ether
• From Science to Technology
• Developing the Laser Gyro
• The Laser Gyro Revolution
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• 5 Nuclear Weapons Laboratories and the Development of Supercomputing
• Supercomputing: A Brief History
• The Computational Demands of Nuclear Weapons Design
• The Early Years: Los Alamos and the Beginnings of the Computer Age
• The Laboratories as Sponsors and Customers for Supercomputing
• The Influence of the Laboratories on the Development of Supercomputer Architecture
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• 6 The Charismatic Engineer (with Boelie Elzen)
• Charisma and Routinization
• Origins
• Roots of the Cray Strategy
• Cray Research
• The Transformation of the Cray Strategy
• The Split
• Charisma and Routinization
• Addendum
• 7 The Fangs of the VIPER
• 8 Negotiating Arithmetic, Constructing Proof
• Negotiating Arithmetic
• Constructing Proof
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• 9 Computer-Related Accidental Death
• Defining "Computer-Related Accidental Death "
• "Death"
• "Accidental"
• "Computer"
• "Related"
• Method
• The Data
• Overall Total
• Physical Causes: 48 Deaths
• Software Error: 30 deaths
• Human-Computer Interaction Problems: 988 Plus "Ten" of Deaths
• Conclusions
• How Safe Are Computers?
• The Need for Systematic Data Collection
• The Technical and the Human
• Self-Negating Prophecies
• Acknowledgments
• 10 Tacit Knowledge and the Uninvention of Nuclear Weapons
• The Science and Technology of Nuclear Weapons
• Public Knowledge
• From Idea to Artifact
• Tacit Knowledge and the Design and Production of Nuclear Weapons
• The Role of Judgement
• Tacit Knowledge and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons
• Livermore
• The Soviet Union and the United Kingdom
• France and China
• More Recent Programs
• Discussion
• Tacit Knowledge
• Black Boxes
• The Hardness of Tasks
• Other Sources f Tacit Knowledge
• Kitchen Bombs
• Uninventing the Bomb
• An Accidental Uninvention?
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix List of Interviewees
• Notes
• Index