there's an interesting book review in this week's Nature, of the book:

The Shock of the Old: Technology in Global History Since 1900 by David Edgerton

Apparently, the author argues that history of technology is not so much defined by the inventions that happen in the most advanced laboratories, but by the myriad of ways in which users around the world use, re-use, repair and recycle the machinery.

Obviously, as a great fan of Latin America, I have to agree on that one. The people who repair 1950s Cadillacs and Chevrolets in the streets of Havana know probably more about those cars than the people who built them with the clear expectation that they would not last more than a decade.

So any history of technology should look not only at the leading edge, but also at the trailing one, and at the bulk in between where the largest number of people interact with the technology.

Unless you define technology like Douglas Adams did, as "stuff that doesn't work yet". In which case the history of technology needs to be complemented by a history of stuff that does work surprisingly well.

Havana, April 2005

Photo: E. Paci