Reviews for Hubris and Hybrids: A Cultural History of Technology and Science

The average rating for Hubris and Hybrids: A Cultural History of Technology and Science based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-09-13 00:00:00 Andy Riley Excellent survey of technological advance across the past few centuries, with a bit of an emphasis on ideologies of technology. (Similar, in this sense, to Adas' Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance). Still, I really didn't like the use of the term "hybrid." Hybrids were sometimes people who saw the positive and the negative elements of technology, and sometimes people with multidisciplinary backgrounds. The book seemed more generally to valorize technological skeptics, but the "hybrid" terminology seemed to be thrown around a bit indiscriminately. Still, this was a good read, and the bibliography was extremely useful.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-06-25 00:00:00 Kris Rindahl This was a quite comprehensive survey of the American fascination with technological innovation. Covering structures like bridges and skyscrapers, and forms of power including steam, electricity and nuclear reactions, the author makes a a consistent case, and to some degree makes observations about the American character. It's unfortunate that the book was published just as the next wave of technology (the Internet) was becoming popular, because it would have been interesting to see how or whether something as comparatively abstract as information and data would fit with the definition of sublime, or perhaps be, in some way, the ultimate example of the technological sublime (transcending the individual.)