Thomas P. Hughes’
goal is to help his readers to understand a phenomenon that is "messy and
complex" (p.1) and therefore difficult to define: technology. According to
Hughes technology has become an integral part of human life and deeply impacts
all levels of economy, culture, science, the arts, and daily life. This fact
requires first and foremost a better knowledge of the possibilities and dangers
of technology. The public needs ‘technological literacy’ to participate
effectively in project design and technology policy (p.170). Hughes sees his
book as a means to create or improve this technological literacy.

The first chapter, ‘Complex
Technology’ is a general introduction into technology and into ‘Human-Built
World’. Hughes opens a broad perspective that highlights the role of technology
throughout human history and sets the stage for the later chapters. He notes that
technology is usually defined by countless examples presented in a context of
usage (p.2). By contrast, Hughes suggest an overarching definition of
technology as "craftsmen, mechanics, inventors, engineers, designers, and
scientists using tools, machines, and knowledge to create a human-built world
consisting of artifacts and systems associated … with … civil, mechanical,
electrical, mining, material, and chemical…and aeronautical, industrial,
computer, and environmental engineering, as well as bioengineering" (p.4).
This is quite a mouthful and makes the reader wonder whether the desire to be
all-inclusive may come at the expense of accessibility. Especially the
technological ‘illiterate’ reader might be overwhelmed by the tremendous wealth
of information compressed on less than 175 pages.

Chapter two, ‘Technology and the
Second Creation’, highlights the traditional connection between technology and
religion. Hughes reminds the reader that especially Christianity encouraged
people to see technology as a god given tool to transform earth into a new
Garden of Eden (p.18). Throughout history man has envisioned and implemented
large scaled technological projects to create order from (natural) chaos and to
improve the parts of nature left unfinished by god (p. 23). Theologians and
philosophers alike promoted the belief that man has not only the ability but
also the duty to dominate Mother Nature. The industrial revolution in the late
18^th/early 19^th century allowed for a general change from
attitudes of passive contemplation to active transformation of vast areas of
wilderness into "a world of enlightened culture" (p.29). Many 19^th
century pioneers had a vision of "pastoral landscape that mediated between
an uncultivated primitive nature and a complex human built-world" (p. 32).
At this time only a few timid voices questioned the technological enthusiasm
and criticized the industrial pollution that despoiled the environment and
caused a host of diseases to factory workers and miners.

Chapter three, "Technology as
Machine’, deals with some of the fundamental changes in technology in the early
20^th century. As electrical power replaced coal and steam and
mechanization took command in industrial production as well as in households a
new enthusiasm fueled visions of ‘machine age’ and ‘machine civilization’
(p.46). Especially America and Germany had profited from the second industrial
revolution in the 1880s and moved into an era of mechanization. The
electrification of industry and cities brought tremendous cultural and
political change. Modern industrial cities with high-rise architecture and
complex transportation systems created a human built urban space that seemed to
move humans beyond the need for nature. Some envisioned that even human workers
would become dispensable in fully automated production systems and that
"humans would replace a natural world with a machine-ridden world of
inorganic matter" (p.63). Technology had a deep impact on culture.
Mechanization created and satisfied a rapidly increasing demand for mass
produced consumer goods and began slowly to transform the world into a global
system of production, distribution and consumption (p.67). According to Hughes
Europeans were more critical than Americans towards the overpowering influence
of technology on all aspects of human life and cautioned against the
"modern machine idolatry" (p.72). 
By contrast, especially religious Americans still believed that
engineers used science and innovation to free humans from hunger, poverty and
pain (p.74).

Chapter four, ‘Technology as
Systems, Controls, and Information’, introduces the reader to the technological
changes in the post WW II era. Control and management of ever more complex
technological systems becomes the major problem for engineers and planners. The
information revolution provided new tools needed to manage the various
subsystems of production and urban infrastructure. For the first time it
appeared that human built megasystems had grown faster than the ability to
control them. At the same time the military’s experience with scheduling and
coordination of highly complex weapon’s systems was used as justification to
increase its influence on industrial research, development and management. But
military and civil systems cannot be controlled in the same way and even within
military applications some ‘near misses’ that almost caused ‘normal accidents
of high-risk technologies’ (p.90) made it transparent that "omnipresent
technological systems" (p.89) had spiraled out of control. Concerns grew
not only amongst members of the intellectual elite but also in the general
public. Hughes dedicates a considerable part of chapter four to developments in
cybernetics, molecular and developmental biology, and the embodied creativity
of the information revolution. The work done in these fields is hoped to
provide solutions for problems of an interdependent global economy (p. 105) but
it also creates a host of new problems. Overall, Hughes seems to support a
cautious technological optimism that may not entirely be justified by his
examples.

Chapter five, ‘Technology and
Culture’, turns to another aspect of technology: it’s impact on architects and
artists. Hughes explores how especially early 20^th century German
architects and artists embraced technology. They valued the rationality,
efficiency, symmetry, and clarity of function in industrial design and expanded
the ‘machine aesthetics’ (p. 112) into various areas of design. ‘Bauhaus’ is
possibly the best-known example of this trend. According to Hughes American
artists and architects did not embrace technology quite to the degree as
Germans did and technology remained only one of the shaping forces in the
design of modern living space and culture. Still, mechanization and
industrialization undoubtedly influenced American artists, supplying motives
and innovative techniques and materials. At the same time technology also
inspired ‘rebellion’ in some artists who turned away from machine worship and
industrial systematization to spontaneous art, embracing randomness, disorder
and "chance operations" (p.144). More recently some architects and
designers have discovered the computer as tool for innovative animation and
intricately engineered drawings. But Hughes is probably right to predict:
"it is unlikely that the world will ever witness the reappearance of an
enthusiastically sustained technology-based culture of the kind that
flourished…between the world wars" (p. 152).

The closing chapter, ‘Creating an
Ecotechnological Environment’, explores whether technology will empower us to
create and maintain aesthetically pleasing and ecologically sustainable
environments (p.153). Today vast areas of our planet consist of
"interacting natural and human-built systems" (p.156) requiring
knowledgeable planners and managers. Hughes highlights two projects that
attempted to reverse the ecological mistakes committed by overly ambitious
technological ‘land-improvement’ projects: the Kissimmee River Restoration
project and the Everglades Restoration Plan. But he has to admit that even these
ecotechnological ‘model projects’ are barely more than "technological
fixes" (p.166); they lack a thorough appreciation of the complexity of
nature and depend too much on the interests of the politically privileged. I
would add that the publication of these ‘models’ takes attention away from the
vast number of human-built ecological time bombs. The reaction of the US
government to Hurricane ‘Katrina’ displayed a frightening lack of preparedness,
engagement, and understanding on all levels of ‘disaster management’. It seems
that much more than education is needed to change cultural values and ensure a
more responsible approach to technological megaprojects. Nevertheless, it is my
hope that books like "Human-Built World" will contribute to such a change.

© 2006 Christina Behme

Christina Behme, MSc (1986, Biology, University Rostock,
Germany), MA (2005,
Philosophy, Dalhousie University) is currently a PhD
student in the
philosophy department at Dalhousie University, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada.
Her research interests are philosophy of mind and
psychology, cognitive
science, and philosophy of language.

Categories: Philosophical