David Mindell
Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Society,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Humanities & Social Sciences Bldg. 3027
*Reception prior to talk at 3:30 pm
Digital Apollo:
Lunar Landing and the Social Relations of Automation
Apollo 11, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this summer, was a delicate dance of humans, software and networks that almost miscarried. This talk examines, in detail, the final moments of the lunar landing to show how they enacted the ambitions and contradictions of the Apollo program overall. Moreover, it suggests a new methodology for studying human interactions with machines and networks that has broad implications for the study of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) in a variety of arenas, including commercial aviation, undersea exploration, and other extreme, real-time environment.
Interesting… I might try some of this on my blog, too. It’s quite interesting how you sometimes stop being innovative and just go for an accepted solution without actually trying to improve it… you make a couple of good points
ReplyDeletepart time job