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Battle scars
Some people I know lead off their blog posts with massive photos of the minute and the mundane, photos that set the mood for the entry that follows. So I‘m going to be a copycat and do the same. Muwahahaha.
There are some objects that, against all odds, manage to stay with us through childhood, adolescence, and into our adult years. These objects acquire and then store memories for us, exceeding their original purpose as they become receptacles for our past. And they acquire scars, reminding us that we can’t travel through life unscathed, but we can always somehow emerge OK. In a society renowned for its throwaway culture, these objects might be old, battered, and bruised, yet we keep them still. They have more than a material worth.
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Bookshelf
Review of The Evolution of Technology by George Basalla
History is more than just a series of events happening in sequence. So many history books focus on discussing their subject matter as a series of chronological events, however, so books that flout this convention always feel the need to warn us. This is what George Basalla does in The Evolution of Technology. At the same time as he reassures us that this is an historical account of how technology develops, he dispels any misapprehension that this will be a chronological look at technology from fire through Stone Age hammers all the way to the atomic bomb. Rather, this is a well-structured argument that includes historical examples as needed.
The Evolution of Technology works because Basalla articulates his thesis so clearly and precisely that his entire argument is, if not convincing, at least admirable. Although the title is a loaded one, Basalla is careful to always demarcate where the metaphor he consciously invokes breaks down, such as is the case when discussing natural selection in evolution versus artificial selection in technology. By treading so carefully, Basalla avoids overreaching and weakening his argument.
The first two chapters are introductory, establishing the topic and the terms in which Basalla will discuss the evolution of technology. Here we're given an idea of the historical and contemporary attitudes toward technological development, both with regards to what gets developed (Chapter I: "Diversity, Necessity, and Evolution") and how it gets developed ("Chapter II: Continuity and Discontinuity"). Basalla's most concerned with dispelling the—fallacious, in his view—idea that technological development occurs in a series of discontinuous revolutions initiated by individual "genius" inventors. While he doesn't dispute that individuals...
