Inventing Accuracy

Author : Donald MacKenzie
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262631471
Total Pages : 484 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Accuracy written by Donald MacKenzie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1993-01-29 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mackenzie has achieved a masterful synthesis of engrossing narrative, imaginative concepts, historical perspective, and social concern." Donald MacKenzie follows one line of technology—strategic ballistic missile guidance through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology.

Author : Donald MacKenzie
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262631474
Total Pages : 479 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Accuracy written by Donald MacKenzie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1993-01-29 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Mackenzie has achieved a masterful synthesis of engrossing narrative, imaginative concepts, historical perspective, and social concern." Donald MacKenzie follows one line of technology—strategic ballistic missile guidance through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology.

Author : Donald A. MacKenzie
Publisher : MIT Press (MA)
ISBN 13 : 9780262132589
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Accuracy written by Donald A. MacKenzie and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1990 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1993 Ludwik Fleck Prize presented by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Among books on the arms race, Donald MacKenzie's stands out for its welcome demystification of the "black box" of nuclear weapons technology. MacKenzie follows one line of technology - strategic ballistic missile guidance - through a succession of weapons systems to reveal the ordinary workings of a world that is neither awesome nor unstoppable. He uncovers the parameters, the pressures, and the politics that make up the complex social construction of an equally complex technology. MacKenzie argues that it is wrong to assume that missile accuracy (or any other technological artifact) is a natural or inevitable consequence of technological change. By fostering an understanding of how the idea of accuracy was constructed and by uncovering the comprehensible and often mundane processes that have given rise to a frightening nuclear arsenal, he shows that there can be useful and informed intervention in the social processes of weapons construction. He also shows in what sense it is possible, contrary to the common wisdom, to "uninvent" technologies. Examining the technological politics of the transition from bomber to ballistic missile, MacKenzie describes the processes that transformed both air force and navy ballistic missiles from moderately accurate countercity weapons to highly accurate counterforce ones. He concludes that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union has ever accepted the idea of deterrence as the public understands it. Inventing Accuracyis based on 140 interviews with guidance and navigation technologists, navy and air force military officers, and defense officials Robert McNamara, James Schlesinger, McGeorge Bundy, and John Foster. It brings to light the confluence of forces, both physical and social, that gave rise to a selfcontained system of missile navigation, and it discusses the major U.S. groups involved in the early development of inertial guidance and navigation. Donald MacKenzie has published a number of influential articles on statistics, eugenics, and missile technologies. He is Reader in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh.

Author : Donald A. MacKenzie
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 464 pages
Book Rating : 4.59/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Accuracy written by Donald A. MacKenzie and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Bleddyn E. Bowen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019769358X
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Original Sin written by Bleddyn E. Bowen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Space technology was developed to enhance the killing power of the state. The Moon landings and the launch of the Space Shuttle were mere sideshows, drawing public attention away from the real goal: military and economic control of space as a source of power on Earth. Today, as Bleddyn E. Bowen vividly recounts, thousands of satellites work silently in the background to provide essential military, intelligence and economic capabilities. No major power can do without them. Beyond Washington, Moscow and Beijing, truly global technologies have evolved, from the ground floor of the nuclear missile revolution to today's orbital battlefield, shaping the wars to come. World powers including India, Japan and Europe are fully realizing the strategic benefits of commanding Earth's 'cosmic coastline', as a stage for war, development and prestige. Yet, as new contenders spend more and more on outer space, there is scope for cautious optimism about the future of the Space Age-if we can recognize, rather than hide, its original sin.

Author : Donald MacKenzie
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262632959
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.50/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mechanizing Proof written by Donald MacKenzie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-01-30 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most aspects of our private and social lives—our safety, the integrity of the financial system, the functioning of utilities and other services, and national security—now depend on computing. But how can we know that this computing is trustworthy? In Mechanizing Proof, Donald MacKenzie addresses this key issue by investigating the interrelations of computing, risk, and mathematical proof over the last half century from the perspectives of history and sociology. His discussion draws on the technical literature of computer science and artificial intelligence and on extensive interviews with participants. MacKenzie argues that our culture now contains two ideals of proof: proof as traditionally conducted by human mathematicians, and formal, mechanized proof. He describes the systems constructed by those committed to the latter ideal and the many questions those systems raise about the nature of proof. He looks at the primary social influence on the development of automated proof—the need to predict the behavior of the computer systems upon which human life and security depend—and explores the involvement of powerful organizations such as the National Security Agency. He concludes that in mechanizing proof, and in pursuing dependable computer systems, we do not obviate the need for trust in our collective human judgment.

Author : Donald MacKenzie
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 0262250047
Total Pages : 782 pages
Book Rating : 4.47/5 ( download)

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Download or read book An Engine, Not a Camera written by Donald MacKenzie and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008-08-29 with total page 782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In An Engine, Not a Camera, Donald MacKenzie argues that the emergence of modern economic theories of finance affected financial markets in fundamental ways. These new, Nobel Prize-winning theories, based on elegant mathematical models of markets, were not simply external analyses but intrinsic parts of economic processes. Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, MacKenzie says that economic models are an engine of inquiry rather than a camera to reproduce empirical facts. More than that, the emergence of an authoritative theory of financial markets altered those markets fundamentally. For example, in 1970, there was almost no trading in financial derivatives such as "futures." By June of 2004, derivatives contracts totaling $273 trillion were outstanding worldwide. MacKenzie suggests that this growth could never have happened without the development of theories that gave derivatives legitimacy and explained their complexities. MacKenzie examines the role played by finance theory in the two most serious crises to hit the world's financial markets in recent years: the stock market crash of 1987 and the market turmoil that engulfed the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. He also looks at finance theory that is somewhat beyond the mainstream—chaos theorist Benoit Mandelbrot's model of "wild" randomness. MacKenzie's pioneering work in the social studies of finance will interest anyone who wants to understand how America's financial markets have grown into their current form.

Author : Jon McKenzie
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134538626
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Perform Or Else written by Jon McKenzie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-26 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Perform or Else Jon McKenzie brilliantly explores the relationship between cultural, organisational, and technological performance.

Author : James S. Small
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134699093
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.94/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Analogue Alternative written by James S. Small and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Hasok Chang
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199883696
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Inventing Temperature written by Hasok Chang and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-08-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is temperature, and how can we measure it correctly? These may seem like simple questions, but the most renowned scientists struggled with them throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. In Inventing Temperature, Chang examines how scientists first created thermometers; how they measured temperature beyond the reach of standard thermometers; and how they managed to assess the reliability and accuracy of these instruments without a circular reliance on the instruments themselves. In a discussion that brings together the history of science with the philosophy of science, Chang presents the simple eet challenging epistemic and technical questions about these instruments, and the complex web of abstract philosophical issues surrounding them. Chang's book shows that many items of knowledge that we take for granted now are in fact spectacular achievements, obtained only after a great deal of innovative thinking, painstaking experiments, bold conjectures, and controversy. Lurking behind these achievements are some very important philosophical questions about how and when people accept the authority of science.