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Summary:
If it can go wrong, it will--thus Murphy's Law. Science journalist Edward Tenner looks more closely at this eternal verity, named after a U.S. Air Force captain who, during a test of rocket-sled deceleration, noticed that critical gauges had been improperly set and concluded, "If there's more than one way to do a job and one of those ways will end in disaster, then somebody will do it that way." Tenner concurs, and he gives us myriad case studies of how technological fixes often create bigger problems than the ones they were meant to solve in the first place. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics, by way of example, has yielded hardier strains of bacteria and viruses that do not respond to pharmaceutical treatment; the wide-scale use of air conditioning in cities has raised the outdoor temperature in some places by as much as 10 degrees, adding stress to already-taxed cooling systems; the modern reliance on medical intervention to deal with simple illnesses, to say nothing of the rapidly growing number of elective surgeries, means that even a low percentage of error (one patient in twenty-five, by a recent estimate) can affect increasingly large numbers of people. Tenner examines what he deems the "unintended consequences" of technological innovation, drawing examples from everyday objects and situations. Although he recounts disaster after painful disaster, his book makes for curiously entertaining, if sometimes scary, reading. --Gregory McNamee
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Deserves to be better known
Customer Rating:
What a great book! Edward Tenner's analysis of why technological improvement somehow never seems to get us anywhere deserves to be far better known than it is. Tenner's writing is lively and his stories fascinating.
Chapter Nine, on how the computerized office somehow has never brought the fantastic improvements in productivity that were predicted for it, is worth the price of the book by itself. I work all day on a computer. The programs I work with have some great features. Yet, bugs are all over the place. My office recently upgraded to a new version of our word processing program, with the result that computer performance worsened significantly. This has been my experience with most upgrades. Tenner points out that computerizing a process is no guarantee that it will work better. I really liked Tenner's explanation of how errors creep in, and the often-overlooked need for intense maintenance to keep computers working usefully.
Tenner notes that in the typical business, computers do allow some workers to be let go. Unfortunately, in most cases the savings are balanced by the cost of the machines and the need to hire expensive technicians to maintain the computers. I certainly agree. Tenner doesn't discuss the use of computers in education. My experience with my ten-year-old son's school is that computers for schoolchildren are a huge drain on school resources, with little or no learning to show for it.
I enjoyed the section on the "revenge effects" of the automobile. Tenner includes a quote to the effect that when you count the time spent driving and add on the work time required to pay for the car itself and for gasoline, insurance, etc., the true speed achieved is hardly faster than a walking pace. When the automobile first came into widespread use in the U.S., it was found that the roads quickly clogged up. Since then we have been on a continual round of building more roads, which then clog up, requiring more roads, which then clog up, and so on and on. Tenner missed a major contributor to this process: free parking, which acts like a fertility drug for cars. For more on this, see Donald Shoup's book "The High Cost of Free Parking."The High Cost of Free Parking I also heartily recommend James Howard Kunstler's book "The Geography of Nowhere." Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
Tenner's book is a bit outdated in spots; however, it is too good to let that stop you from reading it.
Perhaps showing its age?
Customer Rating:
This book is ten years old. At the time of its publication, it may have seemed more relevant than it struck me as I read it for the first time. Literally, the book is about the unintended consequences of technology. Invent a mass producible automobile and, as one result, thousands die every year in traffic accidents.
Likewise the now ubiquitous mouse that made the computer so accessible has also become a public health hazard owing to carpal tunnel syndrome.
In short, no matter how clever the technology, no matter how beneficial, you can make there's a "gotcha" somewhere down the road.
The truth of the tale is easily seen and Tenner writes well.
It's just that ten years after publication, it all seems so obvious.
Jerry
Interesting
Customer Rating:
This book not only makes you question why, but how you perceive the world, with unintended consequences and revenge effects. Good read, but very wordy.
Why did Air France Flight 358 crash ?
Customer Rating:
The ultimate root cause of the crash was the pilots choosing to land in the middle of an intense thunderstorm due to their fancy A340. This book includes a nice collection of case histories on this "Generalized Utterly Dismal Theorem" - that technical safety-margins must disappear because folks eventually push any limits.
More recently, the Google query (( coral destruction tires )) demonstrates what once seemed like a brilliant concept just did not work out that way. The book is filled with a surprising abundance of examples of these "looks fine on paper" disasters.
Good Coverage of Difficult Subjects
Customer Rating:
Edward Tenner has written an amazing book dealing with unintended consequences of technology. The book probably would have received five stars if it was available in a more up to date version and/or more individual technologies had been explored (hopefully 'Our Own Devices', his newest book will rectify both points). A revised edition would be most welcome. (For instance in the section on computers the Pentium chip had just been released.)
Tenner's gift is in his ability to take very complex subjects with a myriad of unseen interactions and to explain the outcomes in a logical, readable and comprehensive manner. This would be an excellent book to use in a systems safety course, along with James Chiles' 'Inviting Disaster,' which is also an excellent read.
The ability to explain revenge effects, reverse revenge effects and the like on a number of diverse subjects from sports medicine to forest fire prevention makes this a must read for safety professionals, as well as making it fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the world as it interacts with technology.
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