Rörpost, teknologiska palimpsester (det är inte varje dag man skriver palimpsest i pluralform!), kavallerichocker koordinerade med B-52-bombmattor och en allmän attack på den innovationscentrerade bilden av teknik: Steven Shapin skrev en intresseväckande recension i The New Yorker av David Edgerton, The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900.
Dessutom ett par klipp från recensionen av Steven Yearley i TLS 25 maj:
Two general arguments emerge for the reader who follows The Shock of the Old through: the first is that social advance and even technological improvement can be uncoupled from innovation; increases in welfare or well-being typically flow from changes in the pattern of use of technology in society rather than from innovation. The second follows directly from this: nations need not confuse innovativeness with the national interest, since imitation, copying and wise use can be more beneficial than innovation and invention [...] flat-pack wardrobes may be a brighter economic prospect than jumping on the biotech bandwagon along with everyone else.
[...]
[Edgerton] is not necessarily in love with the old, but he thinks it gets unjustly overlooked in a way that is bad for historical analysis and bad for thinking about economic policy.
Tidigare inlägg om Edgerton här.
