|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Produktinformation
|
Mehr über den Autor
Entdecken Sie Bücher, lesen Sie über Autoren und mehr
› Besuchen Sie die Seite von Edward Tenner auf Amazon
› Besuchen Sie die Seite von Edward Tenner auf Amazon
Produktbeschreibungen
Amazon.com
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
From Booklist
Tenner, a bright and polymath writer, investigates the unforeseen risks arising from the ever-intensifying complexity of technology. Take the most familiar of the four arenas he describes, the computerized office. In addition to complaints about backs, wrists, and eyeballs from imposing sedentary immobility, the computer creates the need to hire experts to fix crashes and glitches, which nullifies its vaunted asset of low-cost efficiency. Such unforeseen risks, or "revenge effects," are congenital to Tenner's three other arenas: medicine, sports, and environmental control of pests and natural disasters. Revenge effects in high-performance sports gear include making pursuits like football or mountaineering more dangerous or more boring. The flip side of inevitable vengeance, Tenner observes, is vigilance against the inevitable problems created by technological solutions, an unending battle he relates in an eclectic, impish, educating, and entertaining manner. A must for technology collections. Gilbert Taylor
-- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verfügbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.
In diesem Buch
(Mehr dazu)
Einleitungssatz
One of industrial and postindustrial humanity's parennial nightmares is the machine that passes from stubbornness to rebellion. Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis | Rückseite
One of industrial and postindustrial humanity's parennial nightmares is the machine that passes from stubbornness to rebellion. Lesen Sie die erste Seite
Mehr entdecken
Wortanzeiger
Ausgewählte Seiten ansehenWortanzeiger
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis | Rückseite
Tags(Was ist das?)Bei einem Tag handelt es sich um ein Schlagwort, das zum Produkt passt.
Tags erleichtern allen Kunden die Suche und die Sortierung ihrer Lieblingsprodukte. |
Eine digitale Version dieses Buchs im Kindle-Shop verkaufen
Wenn Sie ein Verleger oder Autor sind und die digitalen Rechte an einem Buch haben, können Sie die digitale Version des Buchs in unserem Kindle-Shop verkaufen.
Weitere Informationen
Kundenrezensionen
Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen
3 von 3 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Maybe I had the wrong expectations from a book titled "Why Things Bite Back." I expected to read what it was about things and our relationships to them that create discomfort and even tragedy. I wanted an exploration into why the drawbacks of things are overlooked until it's too late, and how we can learn to avoid that. Instead I got "A Bunch of Things That Go Wrong," story after story of the unforseen consequences of technologies. I was looking for insight and got observation instead.
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Publishers prefer catchy titles for their books, and this one is certainly catchy, but its subtitle is what buyers should pay attention to. Unlike some other reviewers, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's scrupulously neutral (some would even say optimistic) tone, which gives authority to his analysis. I was prepared for an anti-technology rant. Instead I found a carefully researched -- and fascinating -- set of cautionary tales. I WOULD take this book along to the beach, but I'm also somebody who reads the reverse side of cereal boxes.
What I got out of reading this book is more than just that new technologies can have unintended consequences -- that is to say, that people frequently FAIL to predict their consequences -- but also that it is essentially IMPOSSIBLE to predict all such consequences. The policy implications may be subtle, but they are important: while we might be able to improve our predictive abilities somewhat, we should be much more humble in our assumptions about the likely environmental, economic and social effects of technologies. There is much more to his argument, of course, but the evidence Tenner marshals in order to underscore this central point makes the book a must-read for anybody working in areas where technological development plays a central role.
If Edward Tenner has any plans to write a 2nd edition, I hope that he also includes some examples of the unintended consequences of new energy technologies and consumer electronics (besides computers). If he does, I'll buy that one too.
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
I discovered Tenner's ideas on how technology bites back when I read a magazine article on the history of the chair-- how it was first a throne, for royalty, and how gradually, wealthy people owned them-- that chairs led to tables, led to computer keyboards-- and backpain. I really liked how the history of so simple a device could be so fascinating.
So I found the book. Being in health care, I was pleased to discover that so much of the book covers the way that medical technology has bitten boack, and how we have been, to some extent, misled on the "wonders" of modern drugs and therapies. For example, the dazzling emergency medical techniques developed in Korea and Viet Nam now allow meergency docs to save more crash victims lives, but that now allows more para and quadraplegics, more brain-damaged to live at huge expense. It's good that they can be saved, but expensive.
I've used this book as a source of some great quotes and interesting facts in my lectures on alternative health care.
It really opens your eyes to see that a gee whiz technology can also have "bite-back" effects you'd never think of.
Möchten Sie weitere Rezensionen zu diesem Artikel anzeigen?
Waren diese Rezensionen hilfreich?
Wir wollen von Ihnen hören.
Die neuesten Kundenrezensionen
To Engineer is Human
This book deserves a 5-Star rating for the depth of its research, the overall quality of descriptive analysis, and the scope of its coverage. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 5. Juli 2000 von Richard Tyler
Technologies unitended consequenses!
This raises the idea that sometimes we, i.e., the common man has to be a bit weary with new inventions. DDT was seen at first as a god send. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 24. April 2000 veröffentlicht
Avoid getting trampled in the technology "improvement" race.
This book is a well researched and enjoyable examination of some of the most perplexing outcomes of technological innovation. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 25. März 2000 von Craig Webster
Many fascinating insights - a great read
This is an excellent book that explores in a very interesting way the complex and often unforeseen consequences of "improved" technology. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 3. November 1999 veröffentlicht
Interesting and encyclopedic survey
Interesting and encyclopedic survey of the way our technological advances come back to bite the hand that creates them.
I loved the varied revelations about revenge effects. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 27. Oktober 1999 von A. Carey
Simple Premise
I already knew most of what Tenner's book contained and therefore, I was bored early on. Not as interesting as I had hoped
Veröffentlicht am 2. Oktober 1999 von puffinswan
Terribly frustrating to read. Just seems narrow-minded
The writing is fine and there's some good stories, but he is frustratingly glum. I think there are good/bad consequences and a whole book just on the bad is boring to read. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 6. Dezember 1998 veröffentlicht
Examples of The Law of Unintended Consequences
Tenner's book is a short history of things going wrong -- from the introduction of carp and mollusks into the American great lakes to industrial accidents. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 29. September 1998 von D. W. Casey
Intriguing thoughts on our world
This book shows the intriguing, frustrating, path our civilization has wandered and continues to wonder through. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 5. August 1998 veröffentlicht
Interesting information, writing style a bit dry.
Having read this book, I now actively look for the unintended consequences of technology. Living near Tenner, I found his occasional references to happenings in his hometown to be... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 14. April 1998 veröffentlicht
Kunden diskutieren
|
Das Forum zu diesem Produkt
Fragen stellen, Meinungen austauschen, Einblicke gewinnen Aktive Diskussionen in ähnlichen Foren
Kundendiskussionen durchsuchen
|
Ähnliche Foren
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lieblingslisten
Ähnliche Artikel finden
Anhand des Sachgebietes nach ähnlichen Produkten suchen:
Ihr Kommentar
Möchten Sie die Produktinformationen aktualisieren oder Feedback zu den Produktabbildungen geben?
|
