The Golem at Large
What You Should Know about Technology
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
In the very successful and widely discussed first volume in the Golem series, The Golem: What You Should Know about Science, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch likened science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, a powerful creature which, while not evil, can be dangerous because it is clumsy. In this second volume, the authors now consider the Golem of technology. In a series of case studies they demonstrate that the imperfections in technology are related to the uncertainties in science described in the first volume. The case studies cover the role of the Patriot anti-missile missile in the Gulf War, the Challenger space shuttle explosion, tests of nuclear fuel flasks and of anti-misting kerosene as a fuel for airplanes, economic modeling, the question of the origins of oil, analysis of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the contribution of lay expertise to the analysis of treatments for AIDS.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Collins and Pinch reprise the case study format of their previous coauthored book (The Golem: What You Should Know About Science) and, once again, it works. Recapitulating the space shuttle Challenger explosion and six other major technological tragedies and disputes of our era, they illuminate what they aptly call "the boundaries of expertise." Among the other subjects the authors use to illustrate how the best-laid plans can go wrong are the Patriot anti-missile system, the Chernobyl disaster and early medical treatments for AIDS. Their book is worthy of note not only for its clear analysis of how science can come up short when applied outside the laboratory but for its honest appraisal of the fallibility of technology's gatekeepers. But Collins and Pinch offer much more: a reasonable, surprisingly entertaining rebuttal of both Panglossian technophiles and Luddite technophobes. In so doing, they present themselves as advocates for and, more impressively, exemplars of a sane and realistic view of technology and its role in society. Four line diagrams. FYI: The Golem at Large will be published simultaneously with Cambridge's second edition, in paperback, of The Golem, containing an afterword responding to the book's critics.
