Selected Product:
| Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Vintage)
Paperback
Author: Edward Tenner
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 1997-09-02
ISBN-10: 0679747567
ISBN-13: 9780679747567
List Price: $15.95
Average Customer Rating:
  | |
The Logic Of Failure: Recognizing And Avoiding Error In Complex Situations
ISBN-10: 0201479486
ISBN-13: 9780201479485
List Price:$19.00
Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies
ISBN-10: 0691004129
ISBN-13: 9780691004129
List Price:$35.00
Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology
ISBN-10: 0066620821
ISBN-13: 9780066620824
List Price:$15.95
Set Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human Error
ISBN-10: 0963617885
ISBN-13: 9780963617880
List Price:$29.00
Our Own Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity
ISBN-10: 0375707077
ISBN-13: 9780375707070
List Price:$15.95
|
To use our price comparison to get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above for Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Vintage) by Edward Tenner (ISBN-10: 0679747567, ISBN-13: 9780679747567).
At this time we have not yet written a review for Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences (Vintage) by Edward Tenner (ISBN-10: 0679747567, ISBN-13: 9780679747567). Please continue to keep checking back to this page as we are constantly adding reviews.
Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
In this perceptive and provocative look at everything from computer software that requires faster processors and more support staff to antibiotics that breed resistant strains of bacteria, Edward Tenner offers a virtual encyclopedia of what he calls "revenge effects"--the unintended consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity that have been hallmarks of the progressive, improvement-obsessed modern age. Tenner shows why our confidence in technological solutions may be misplaced, and explores ways in which we can better survive in a world where despite technology's advances--and often because of them--"reality is always gaining on us." For anyone hoping to understand the ways in which society and technology interact, Why Things Bite Back is indispensable reading. "A bracing critique of technological determinism in both its utopian and dystopian forms...No one who wants to think clearly about our high-tech future can afford to ignore this book."--Jackson Lears, Wilson Quarterly
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. |
|
