Author: Karl L. Wildes
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780946631254
Category : Computer engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 423

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Book Description

Author: Thomas J. Misa
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421401541
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Historian Thomas J. Misa's sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped -- and have been shaped by -- the cultures in which they arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this compelling work evaluates what Misa calls "the question of technology." Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by examining how today's unsustainable energy systems, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster geopolitical risks and instability. A masterful analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world. Praise for the first edition "Closely reasoned, reflective, and written with insight, grace, and wit, Misa's book takes us on a personal tour of technology and history, seeking to define and analyze paradigmatic techno-cultural eras." -- Technology and Culture "Follows [Thomas] Hughes's model of combining an engaging historical narrative with deeper lessons about technology." -- American Scholar "His case studies, such as that of Italian futurism or the localizations of the global McDonalds, provide good starting points for thought and discussion." -- Journal of Interdisciplinary History "This review cannot do justice to the precision and grace with which Misa analyzes technologies in their social contexts. He convincingly demonstrates the usefulness of his conceptual model." -- History and Technology "A fascinating, informative, and well-illustrated book." -- Choice

Author: Tony Stankus
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000755118
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
This book, first published in 1991, is an invaluable guide to biographies of scientists from a wide variety of scientific fields. The books selected for this highly descriptive bibliography help librarians shatter readers’ stereotypes of scientists as monomaniacal and uninteresting people by providing interesting and provocative titles to capture the interest of students and other readers. The biographies included in this very special bibliography were carefully selected for their humour and human insights to give future scientists encouragement, inspiration, and an understanding of the origins of particular scientific fields. These biographies are unique in that they explore the whole personality of the scientist, giving students a glimpse at the variety and drama of the lives beyond well-known contributions or Nobel prize accomplishments.

Author: Nathan Rosenberg
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 981446788X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Science and technology have become increasingly intertwined in the twentieth century. However, little attention has been paid to the forces that have brought about this condition. Indeed, many scholars have taken it simply for granted that causality always runs from science to technology. In this groundbreaking book, Rosenberg's research suggests that history and extensive empirical evidence lead to a reality that is far more complex as well as far more interesting. Here, Rosenberg's papers explore a wide range of pertinent issues, especially those connected with the innovative process, including the realms of electric power, electronics, chemicals, aircraft, medicine, instrumentation and, in particular, higher education and the organization of research activities.

Author: James S. Small
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134699026
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
We are in the midst of a digital revolution - until recently, the majority of appliances used in everyday life have been developed with analogue technology. Now, either at home or out and about, we are surrounded by digital technology such as digital 'film', audio systems, computers and telephones. From the late 1940s until the 1970s, analogue technology was a genuine alternative to digital, and the two competing technologies ran parallel with each other. During this period, a community of engineers, scientists, academics and businessmen continued to develop and promote the analogue computer. At the height of the Cold War, this community and its technology met with considerable success in meeting the urgent demand for high speed computing for use in the design and simulation of rockets, aircraft and manned space vehicles. The Analogue Alternative tracks the development, commercialisation and ultimate decline of the electronic analogue computer in the USA and Britain. It examines the roles played by technical, economic and cultural factors in the competition between the alternative technologies, but more importantly, James Small demonstrates that non-technical factors, such as the role of 'military enterprise' and the working practices of analogue engineers, have been the most crucial in analogue's demise.^l This book will be of interest to students of the history and sociology of science and technology, particularly computing. It will also be relevant to those interested in technical change and innovation, and the study of scientific cultures.

Author: Kenneth Flamm
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 9780815707219
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
The development of the first electronic digital computers in the 1940s signaled the beginning of a new and distinctive type of industry—an industry marked by competition through innovation, and by the large percentage of revenues spent on research and development. Written as a companion volume to Targeting the Computer: Government Support and International Competition, this comprehensive volume provides a new understanding to the complex forces that have shaped the computer industry during the past four decades. Kenneth Flamm identifies the origins of technologies important to the creation of computers and traces the roots of individual technologies to the specific research groups and programs responsible for major advances. He evaluates the impact of these innovations on industrial competition and argues that the emergence of specialization and product differentiation in the 1950s and the compatibility and standards in the mid-1960s were key factors defining this competition. Flamm also identifies the various market strategies adopted in later decades to challenge an industry leader, strategies linked to the entry and exit of individual firms. In addition to the effects of technology and internal industry developments, international competition and national policies on technology, trade, and investment shaped the evolution of this new industry. Flamm documents the role of government support for technology in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan and describes the critical technological and economic links between national and international markets. Finally, he links these strategies, technological trends, and national policies to one another and shows how they continue to influence current developments in the computer industry.

Author: Aad Blok
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521543538
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Discussion of the current Information Revolution tends to focus on technological developments in information and communication and overlooks both the human labour involved in the development, maintenance and daily use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and the consequences of the implementation of these ICTs for the position and divisions of labour. This volume aims to redress this imbalance by exploring the role, position and divisions of information and communication labour in the broadest sense through periods of revolutionary technological change.

Author: Philip N. Alexander
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262543990
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
How MIT's first nine presidents helped transform the Institute from a small technical school into a major research university. MIT was founded in 1861 as a polytechnic institute in Boston's Back Bay, overshadowed by its neighbor across the Charles River, Harvard University. Harvard offered a classical education to young men of America's ruling class; the early MIT trained men (and a few women) from all parts of society as engineers for the nation's burgeoning industries. Over the years, MIT expanded its mission and ventured into other fields—pure science, social science, the humanities—and established itself in Cambridge as Harvard's enduring rival. In A Widening Sphere, Philip Alexander traces MIT's evolution from polytechnic to major research institution through the lives of its first nine presidents, exploring how the ideas, outlook, approach, and personality of each shaped the school's intellectual and social cultures. Alexander describes, among otherthings, the political skill and entrepreneurial spirit of founder and first president, William Rogers; institutional growing pains under John Runkle; Francis Walker's campaign to broaden the curriculum, especially in the social sciences, and to recruit first-rate faculty; James Crafts, whose heart lay in research, not administration; Henry Pritchett's thwarted effort to merge with Harvard (after which he decamped to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching); Richard Maclaurin's successful strategy to move the institute to Cambridge, after considering other sites (including a golfclub in Brighton); the brilliant, progressive Ernest Nichols, who succumbed to chronic illness and barely held office; Samuel Stratton's push towards a global perspective; and Karl Compton's vision for a new kind of Institute—a university polarized around science and technology. Through these interlocking yet independent portraits, Alexander reveals the inner workings of a complex and dynamic community of innovators.

Author: Jonathan Daly
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441118519
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 665

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Book Description
The West's history is one of extraordinary success; no other region, empire, culture, or civilization has left so powerful a mark upon the world. The Rise of Western Power charts the West's achievements-representative government, the free enterprise system, modern science, and the rule of law-as well as its misdeeds-two frighteningly destructive World Wars, the Holocaust, imperialistic domination, and the Atlantic slave trade. Adopting a global perspective, Jonathan Daly explores the contributions of other cultures and civilizations to the West's emergence. Historical, geographical, and cultural factors all unfold in the narrative. Adopting a thematic structure, the book traces the rise of Western power through a series of revolutions-social, political, technological, military, commercial, and industrial, among others. The result is a clear and engaging introduction to the history of Western civilization.

Author: G. Pascal Zachary
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501196464
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
A prodigiously researched biography of Vannevar Bush, one of America’s most awe-inspiring polymaths and the secret force behind the biggest technological breakthroughs of the twentieth century. As the inventor and public entrepreneur who launched the Manhattan Project, helped to create the military-industrial complex, conceived a permanent system of government support for science and engineering, and anticipated both the personal computer and the Internet, Vannevar Bush is the twentieth century’s Ben Franklin. In this engaging look at one of America’s most awe-inspiring polymaths, writer G. Pascal Zachary brings to life an American original—a man of his time, ours, and beyond. Zachary details how Bush cofounded Raytheon and helped build one of the most powerful early computers in the world at MIT. During World War II, he served as Roosevelt’s adviser and chief contact on all matters of military technology, including the atomic bomb. He launched the Manhattan Project and oversaw a collection of 6,000 civilian scientists who designed scores of new weapons. After the war, his attention turned to the future. He wrote essays that anticipated the rise of the Internet and boldly equated national security with research strength, outlining a system of permanent federal funding for university research that endures to this day. However, Bush’s hopeful vision of science and technology was leavened by an understanding of the darker possibilities. While cheering after witnessing the Trinity atomic test, he warned against the perils of a nuclear arms race. He led a secret appeal to convince President Truman not to test the Hydrogen Bomb and campaigned against the Red Scare. Elegantly and expertly relayed by Zachary, Vannevar’s story is a grand tour of the digital leviathan we know as the modern American life.