Paths of Fire: An Anthropologist's Inquiry into Western TechnologyPrinceton University Press, 2012 M09 17 - 360 páginas Technology, perhaps the most salient feature of our time, affects everything from jobs to international law yet ranks among the most unpredictable facets of human life. Here Robert McC. Adams, renowned anthropologist and Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, builds a new approach to understanding the circumstances that drive technological change, stressing its episodic, irregular nature. The result is nothing less than a sweeping history of technological transformation from ancient times until now. Rare in antiquity, the bursts of innovations that mark the advance of technology have gradually accelerated and now have become an almost continuous feature of our culture. Repeatedly shifting in direction, this path has been shaped by a host of interacting social, cultural, and scientific forces rather than any deterministic logic. Thus future technological developments, Adams maintains, are predictable only over the very short term. |
Dentro del libro
Resultados 1-5 de 83
... Society England as the Workshop of the World Atlantic Crossing: The American System Emerges The United States Succeeds to Industrial Leadership 3 The Competitive Global System 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. New Paths: Technological Change in a ...
... society under these powerful, convergent influences. Great as are some of the apparent incentives, our readiness to exploit the rewards of advancing technologies exacts its costs. More often than not, unforeseen areas of improved ...
... Society of the future? Compounding such questions and thereby introducing an additional layer of risks and opportunities is the fact that large areas of international competition now are no longer subject to the primary constraints of ...
... society is based, and extends to the present day. Much of my earlier work was devoted to the unfolding sequence of urban life in southwestern Asia, from late prehistory to the threshold of the modern era. In shifting to a fresh and ...
... societies in which it occurred? Has the role of technology in history been primarily that of a dependent or ... society—with technology firstamong them. As such, it may be reasonable to think of this essay in some respects as a ...
Contenido
3 | |
36 | |
3 Technology and the New European Society | 69 |
4 England as the Workshop of the World | 104 |
The American System Emerges | 138 |
6 The United States Succeeds to Industrial Leadership | 173 |
7 The Competitive Global System | 212 |
Technological Change in a Borderless World | 253 |
Notes | 279 |
References Cited | 301 |
Index | 327 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Paths of Fire: An Anthropologist's Inquiry into Western Technology Robert M. Adams Vista previa limitada - 2012 |
Paths of Fire: An Anthropologist's Inquiry Into Western Technology Robert McCormick Adams Sin vista previa disponible - 1996 |