"The Evolution
of Large Technological Systems" by T. Hughes
(in "The Social
Construction of Technological Systems"; Bijker, Hughes and Pinch, 1987
Definition of
Technological Systems
- They contain
messy, complex, problem-solving components
- Socially constructed
and society shaping
- Contain: artifacts,
groups, processes, laws, and natural resources
- System components
are interactive and interdependent
- Components are
created and developed by "system builders"
- Force unity
from diversity
- Deconstruction
of alternative systems
- Characteristics
of components derive from the system (power plant mix, i.e. small-decentralized
vs. Large-centralized, and management structure)
- Over time, technological
systems tend to incorporate environmental factors into the system- eliminating
uncertainty ("free market")
- They are goal
oriented: reordering of the material world to make it more productive.
- Workers are
components of they system, not artifacts, yet there is a tendency to define
labor as an inanimate component.
- Systems tend,
over time, towards a hierarchical structure.
- They have inputs
and outputs- these tend to be interlinked (internally and externally)
- Electrical
manufacturing concern- power from utility.
- Electrical
manufacturing concern- equipment to utility
- Electrical
manufacturing concern may take profits from self and utility and reinvest
- Both exchange
information
- Financial
concerns takes profits and reinvests
- Financial
and technical information exchanged
- Interlocking
boards of directors and management and control
Evolution
- Loosely defined
pattern
- Reverse Salients
- Invention (radical
inventions spawn new systems)
- Development
(coordinating of necessary resources- economic, political, and social- for
the survival of the invention)
- Innovation (combining
inventions and developed components with a complex of manufacturing, sales
and service facilities)
- Technology Transfer
(diffusion and adaptation: McGinn- characteristics of the technology itself,
organization and networks, "opinion leaders," "value compatibility," "cult
of the new")
- Technological
Style (individual creativity, geography, regional and historical experiences:
European vs. American automobiles)
- Growth, Competition,
and Consolidation
- Economies
of scale (this explanation tends to mask contradictions)
- Power (good,
yet perhaps simplistic)
- Drive for
diversity ("load factor"- capital intensive, return on investment)
- Economic
mix (stability)
- Reverse
Salients (produce focused expansion)
- If "critical
problem" can not be solve- radical shift- new, competing system
-Constant's "presumptive
anomaly" (future problem), typically identified through scientific investigation:
problem of piston engine and near super-sonic flight-- turbojet. Edison and dc
current, transmission problems- others develop ac; solution-- new devices that
joined the competing systems together
- Momentum (illusion
of autonomy)- reality: mass and direction. Actor networks, vested interests,
fixed assets, contingent events (momentum can be broken- nuclear power)