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Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future ed. by Joseph J. Corn

1989; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/tech.1989.0110

1097-3729

Joseph W. Slade,

Space exploration and regulation

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 459 Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology, and the American Future. Edited byJosephJ. Corn. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986. Pp. vi + 237; illustrations, notes, index. $17.50 (cloth); $9.95 (paper). The utopian hopes generated by new inventions are routinely shredded by the hard edges of economic reality, but they survive as elements of the folklore of American technology. The contributors to Imagining Tomorrow have resurrected hyperbolic predictions from the golden age of technological ebullience, roughly those years between the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the World’s Fair of 1939. Only Steven Del Sesto’s essay on nuclear power and Paul Ceruzzi’s on com­ puters deal in the main with more recent prognostications; the other chapters chronicle the prophecies occasioned by X-rays, radio, plas­ tics, designer homes, skyscrapers, and electric lights. In addition, sev­ eral of the writers find that the conventions of utopian literature provide background for various predictions, and Howard Segal out­ lines major themes and ideologies of this genre. A second more gen­ eralized chapter by Folke Kihlstedt covers the “actualization” of such technological dreams into iconographic dioramas at world’s fairs. According to Joseph Corn, whose fine introduction and even better afterword bracket the collection, each of the discussions illustrates one of three mistaken assumptions common to visionaries. Predictions that cheap nuclear energy would power cars and planes, manipulate the weather, make the deserts bloom, and stretch life spans are an example of the first assumption, that a given innovation can totally revolu­ tionize culture. More numerous are the second type, that new tech­ nologies will merely perform familiar tasks. Ceruzzi reminds us that the computer at first appeared to be simply an advanced calculator appropriate to limited scientific tasks, unmarketable for other pur­ poses. Carolyn Marvin notes that the properties of the incandescent bulb seemed ideal for sending messages; bulbs were fashioned into “sky signs” for advertising, ornaments for public monuments, and decorations for the person (the book’s most unusual illustrations are of “electric girls”). If the unrestrained faith behind prophecies of total revolution betrays an unwillingness to consider details like social haz­ ards and side effects, the caution inherent in backing into the future represents a failure to imagine applications in different social contexts. Social considerations are apparent in the instances of Corn’s third fallacy, the conviction that a particular invention offers a “technolog­ ical fix” for specific cultural ills. Nancy Knight thinks that behind the beliefthat X-rays could kill germs was the hope that quick cures would obviate the need for bureaucratic health programs. Similarly, as Susan Douglas points out, before corporations laid claim to the airwaves, the appeal of radio lay in its alleged ability to establish community by subverting authority. Just as often, however, traditional attitudes dampened technological enthusiasm. Rural values in the 1920s and 1930s, says Carol Willis, made architectural visions of skyscrapers in 460 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE the midst of gardens seem oppressive. Brian Horrigan suggests that Americans denied that designers owned the future when they rejected mass-produced Dymaxion houses in favor of traditional homes filled with appliances. And in the volume’s best essay, Jeffrey Meikle dem­ onstrates that massive promotion did not persuade consumers that plastic was a miracle rather than a shoddy substitute for other materials. While none of the contributors carries hindsight to the point of patronizing prophets of the past, only a few recognize the essential theatricality of so much of the exuberant rhetoric. It is worth noting, for example, that those responsible for packaging the spectacular futuramas and “democracities” of the world’s fairs of the 1930s had first designed for the stage. Moreover, an insufficient sense of humor encourages Corn to warm up the academic chestnut that holds that faith in technology is an opiate of the masses. Evangelism doubtless animates many projections, but you miss the point of a Disney World if you miss its sincerely vulgar, therefore intensely human, affection for technology, and you certainly miss the fun. Minor solemnities aside, this book is fun. The essays are well edited, well researched, and well written, as engrossing as they are informative. Joseph W. Slade Dr. Slade is director...