Hubris and Hybrids: A History of Technology and Science Andrew Jamison

An Underlying Contradiction: Hubris... ”impious disregard of the limits governing human action in an orderly universe. It is the sin to which the great and gifted are most susceptible, and in Greek tragedy it is usually the hero's tragic flaw.” Encyclopedia Britannica

...versus Hybrids ”offspring of parents that differ in genetically determined traits” or, more colorfully: ”By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism...” Donna Haraway, ”A manifesto for cyborgs”

Imperialism and modernization Globalization and technoscience romanticism modernism environmentalism 1850 The Middle Ages (feudalism) (feudalism) The Renaissance Science: appropriating God Society appropriating nature Modernity: appropriating machines sustainability: sustainability: appropriating appropriating reality reality Socio-economic development, or where hubris comes from Cultural movements, or where the hybrid imagination is fostered Industrialization and democracy

Science: Appropriating God humans take over God’s role as creator man the maker, ”homo faber” creativity expressed as experimentation humanism combined with magic artistry and technique combined with curiosity

The Making of Modern Science From movements…to institutions reform of religion reform of philosophy visionary, utopianrealistic, pragmatic decentralized organization(central) academy technical improvementsscientific development informal communicationformal publication

The hybrid imagination 1 The ”Renaissance Men”: Leonardo and co. Artists and engineers in combination Inspired by magic and humanism The invention of experimentation

Leonardo da Vinci: The artist-engineer

The hybrid imagination 2 Scholars and craftsmen in combination e.g. Paracelsus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Inspired by Luther and ”Protestant Ethic” Connected theory to observation Invented scientific instruments

Tycho Brahe: The scholar- craftsman

Society: Appropriating Nature A political and economic revolution from agriculture to industry: mechanization A process of social change from the country to the cities: urbanization Cultural, or human transformations from community to society: modernization

mechanization capitalism imperialism globalization romanticism cooperation socialism populism anticolonialism fascism environmentalism feminism Cultural and Social Movements Long Waves of Industrialization

The First Wave ”the industrial revolution” (ca ) ”the industrial revolution” (ca ) Iron, textile machines, and steam engines Iron, textile machines, and steam engines Technologies of mechanization Technologies of mechanization The factory as an organizational innovation The factory as an organizational innovation Social and cultural movements: Social and cultural movements: ”machine-storming” and cooperation ”machine-storming” and cooperation romantic art and literature, e.g. Frankenstein romantic art and literature, e.g. Frankenstein

The Industrial Revolution

The hybrid imagination: Samuel Morse and the telegraph

The hybrid imagination: Henry David Thoreau and Walden

Thoreau’s science ”The true man of science will know nature better by his finer organization; he will smell, taste, see, hear, feel better than other men. His will be a deeper and finer experience. We do not learn by inference and deduction, and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy. It is with science as with ethics – we cannot know truth by contrivance and method; the Baconian is as false as any other, and with all the helps of machinery and the arts, the most scientific will still be the healthiest and friendliest man, and possess a more perfect Indian wisdom.”

The Second Wave ”the age of capital” (ca ) ”the age of capital” (ca ) Railroads, telegraph, and steel Railroads, telegraph, and steel Technologies of socialization Technologies of socialization The rise of the corporation (Carnegie, Krupp) The rise of the corporation (Carnegie, Krupp) Social and cultural movements: Social and cultural movements: populism, communism and social-democracy populism, communism and social-democracy science fiction and arts and crafts science fiction and arts and crafts

The Industrial Society

Appropriating Nature

The hybrid imagination: William Morris and arts and crafts ”nothing can be a work of art that is not useful” The Lesser Arts, 1878 The Lesser Arts, 1878

The hybrid imagination: Karl Marx ( ) Philosophy (Hegel) meets economics (Ricardo) Philosophy (Hegel) meets economics (Ricardo) Positivism (Comte) meets socialism (Owen) Positivism (Comte) meets socialism (Owen) Idealism (Kant) meets materialism (Bentham) Idealism (Kant) meets materialism (Bentham) Science meets the industrial society Science meets the industrial society

Science as technology ” Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of the social relations of his life, and of the mental conceptions that flow from those relations.”

The Third Wave ”the age of empire” (ca ) ”the age of empire” (ca ) Electricity, automobiles, chemicals and airplanes Electricity, automobiles, chemicals and airplanes Technologies of modernization Technologies of modernization Research becomes a business (Edison, DuPont) Research becomes a business (Edison, DuPont) Social and cultural movements: Social and cultural movements: anticolonialism and fascism anticolonialism and fascism modernism and human ecology modernism and human ecology

The Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk Henry Ford with his 10 millionth car

Appropriating machines

Edward Hopper

The hybrid imagination: The Bauhaus ( ) "art and technology - a new unity”

The hybrid imagination: Lewis Mumford and human ecology ”The whole industrial world – and instrumentalism is only its highest conscious expression - has taken values for granted...”

The Fourth Wave the coming of technoscience (ca ) the coming of technoscience (ca ) Atomic energy, genetics, and computers Atomic energy, genetics, and computers Technologies of scientification Technologies of scientification The rise of transnational corporations (IBM, Sony) The rise of transnational corporations (IBM, Sony) Social and cultural movements: Social and cultural movements: civil rights and ”ban the bomb” civil rights and ”ban the bomb” environmentalism, feminism and postmodernism environmentalism, feminism and postmodernism

The Modern Age

The hybrid imagination: Rachel Carson and environmentalism ”The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway om which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.”

A new wave or a new age? ”the age of information” (från ca 1980) ”the age of information” (från ca 1980) Converging technologies (info-, bio-, cogno-, nano) Converging technologies (info-, bio-, cogno-, nano) Technologies of the virtual Technologies of the virtual Global corporate empires (Microsoft, Nokia) Global corporate empires (Microsoft, Nokia) Social and cultural movements: Social and cultural movements: identity politics and ”open source” identity politics and ”open source” ecological design and global justice ecological design and global justice

The Age of Information

The hybrid imagination: Vandana Shiva and global ecology

The Emerging Ecological Culture Awakening: 1960s Public education, criticizing (big) science Public education, criticizing (big) science Organization: s Environmental movements, appropriate technology Environmental movements, appropriate technology Globalization: 1990s- Sustainable development, climate change politics Sustainable development, climate change politics

From Movements to Institutions 1970s1990s ecological society sustainable development AT, small-scalecleaner technologies citizen scientistsprofessional experts

From appropriate technology... Tvindmøllen Cretan windmill at the Center for Alternative Technology in Wales

VESTAS, the world’s largest wind energy company...to green business

Appropriating reality

The Hybrid Imagination At the macro, or discursive level At the macro, or discursive level connnecting ideas, integrating knowledge and action connnecting ideas, integrating knowledge and action At the meso, or institutional level At the meso, or institutional level creating sites of collective, or organizational learning creating sites of collective, or organizational learning At the micro, or personal level At the micro, or personal level combining identities, and forms of practical activity combining identities, and forms of practical activity