Description
Book SynopsisAn engaging study of the history and consequences of technological fixes and the belief that they can overcome social and political problems.
Trade Review"Sean Johnston has written an innovative study of a movement that has become a dominant feature of the modern world's obsession with technology. This is an important story that will be of interest to historians of technology, economic and cultural historians, and anyone worried about the current state of affairs." Peter J. Bowler, Queen's University Belfast and author of A History of the Future: Prophets of Progress from H.G. Wells to Isaac Asimov
"Modern society and its technologies have become mutually dependent, but it is time to temper the torrid love affair. Johnston surveys genetic engineering and concerns about genetically modified foods among the many other examples of failures in his comprehensive look at the problems associated with the unbridled use of the tech fix." Winnipeg Free Press
"Johnston summarizes his work as a warning against the rhetoric of technological hubris: we must view with skepticism "evangelists for numerous miraculous technological cures." The point is well made, but the book, inadvertently, makes another sobering one … we realise that there was a time when the President of the United States was advised by such distinguished scientists as I.I. Rabi, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, Jerome Wiesner, who became President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Alvin Weinberg. In 2020, no such person briefed Donald Trump." IEEE Technology and Society Magazine
“Techno-Fixers is a compelling study of the origins and consequences of perennial faith in the idea that society can find technological solutions to social and political problems. This book takes on even greater relevance in light of the tech-evangelists of the present who frame technology as a solution to many of humanity’s most pressing challenges. This excellent work will be of great interest to historians, social scientists, the general public, and policymakers.” H-Net
