Bruno Latour, Aramis, or the Love of Technology, PDF - Dss-edit.com

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A "trashable explanation" ! The exact opposite of what I'd beentaught about the universal laws of Newton and Einstein."So we're waiting for Friday?" I went on, without calling attentionto Norbert's epistemological aberrations."Exactly. No, Monday. Friday's meeting has been canceled."[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M. Pierre, a Research Ministry official in charge of transportation studies."You have to put yourself bock in that atmosphere. In 1981, in all theministries, you hod on influx of people who'd been out of power for twenty-fiveyears. In research-which hod been a stepchild for ten years, remember-therewas Saunier-Selte, the researchers' nightmare. Then Jean-Pierre Chevenementcome along, determined to make the first Ministry of Research and Technologythe big project of Mitterand's first term, and to endow it for the first time witha single, coherent budget-which he wonted to double. The little world ofground transportation didn't escape the mobilization . * And in particular, at theTransportation Ministry, Fiterman-one of four Communist ministers-took over;you'll remember how their entrance into the administration 'shook up theWestern World.' Fiterman wonted to toke a relatively weak technologicalministry and turn it into a major one; he wonted to bring infrastructuresroods-andpublic transportation together for the first Time. In August 1981another Communist, Claude Quin, was named president of the RATP. Hewonted to make that outfit a showroom both for socicl relations and for thetechnological quality of service . In January 1982 the managing director of theRATP was replaced by the former director of the railroad, Girard. The newpolitical context!? They were it, and they really did represent a significantchange, or at least the desire for a significant change."As for the handful of RATP engineers, this change was rather disturbingThe new director was known to be skeptical about Aramis, if not downrighthostile. People were sure he was going to kill the project. For Matra , acompany that could be nationalized, the success of the Left and the installationof two Communists in positions that were key for the metro-these develop-*In France, roughly a thousand researchers specialize in transportation: some300 are employed by the major automobile manufacturers; another 300 work fo rmajor enterprises, the SNCF, and the RATP; and the rest are scattered among puhlicresearch organizations.INTERPHASE
ments boded no good. Aramis was at a standstill, in a position of extremeweakness, on the eve of an enormous request for funding for the constructionof the eET. The only element that augured well for the researchers in groundtransportation was the Left's stated desire to develop industrial research and tobolster the image of France as a nation on the cutting edge of technology. Youhave to put yourself back in the atmosphere of the times. VVe hadn't seenanything like it since De Gaulle's early days.""Finally, straightforward politics," I said delightedly. "We've gotthem all, the Commies, the pinkos, Big Politics. It wasn't so complicatedafter all. Contrarv to what vou were saving, Norbert, it wasn't worthJ j Jthe trouble to go into all the technical details. All we needed to do waslook at the overall context. He's right: it's a question of atmosphere.""Atmosphere, atmosphere," my mentor repeated drily,A technological project is not in a context; it gives itself a context, orsometimes does not give itself one.What is required is not to "replace projects in their context," as thefoolish expression goes, but to study the way the project is conlexlualizedor decontextualized. To do thai, the rigid, stuffy word "conlexl" has 10 bereplaced by the supple, friendly word "network. II The big explanations interms of politics, economics, organizalion, and technology always turn up,without fail: "II's politically unacceptable." "It isn't profitable." "Society isn'tready for it." "It's inefficient." These explanations are always used preciselybecause they can't be worn out. They're not designed to explain-if thatwere the case, they would have to wear out in contact with the hard,contorted circumstances. Rather, they're intended to move from hand tohand and to serve, like the weasel in the children's game, to get rid of theproblem by designating the one who failed to pay attention and got caughtwith the ring in his hand.II court, il court Ie furetLe furet d' 10 politique,II court, il court Ie furetLe furet d' 10 technique.The weasel is running,The political weasel;The weasel is running,The technological weasel.INTERPHASe
Page 2 and 3:
ARAMISTHE LOVE OF ECHNOLOGY
Page 4 and 5:
Copyright © 1996 by the President
Page 6 and 7:
TO SIMON SCHAFFER 7/
Page 8 and 9:
By publishing this hook, I would li
Page 10 and 11:
exemplary meditation on the difficu
Page 13 and 14:
PROLOGUE: WHO KILLED ARAMIS?The fir
Page 15 and 16:
PROLOGUE•cember 1987. A promising
Page 17 and 18:
[DOCUMENT: EXCERPTS FROM AN ARTICLE
Page 19 and 20:
"You see," he went on during one of
Page 21 and 22:
"But during that period I found out
Page 23 and 24:
-"There's one small problem," I sai
Page 25 and 26:
1973: Test site at Orly; three-vehi
Page 27 and 28:
1985: Scale model of two-car Aramis
Page 29 and 30:
in a mass transit network, with no
Page 31 and 32:
come true. Since every study has to
Page 33 and 34:
load fa ctor, Professor? Your isola
Page 35 and 36:
if by magic. An electronic calculat
Page 37 and 38:
to be invented, if we are to track
Page 39 and 40:
---) TransporterTime IS . ; To Char
Page 41 and 42:
assembly line? You said "transfer"?
Page 43 and 44:
primly, without acknowledging my cl
Page 45 and 46:
defensive about playing "amusing me
Page 47 and 48:
curves: DATAR, the RATP, Paris, bef
Page 49 and 50:
fellow. It's like the Galileo affai
Page 51 and 52:
Time To-1 2 3 4 5CJIII __ _ Time T1
Page 53 and 54:
fic off the roads , it improve s tr
Page 55 and 56:
ter-who speaks in the name of the g
Page 57 and 58:
are solemnly and eternally committe
Page 59 and 60:
me, Aramis isn't a PRT Iype of tran
Page 61 and 62:
Aeroport de Paris said. IF you map
Page 63 and 64:
IS ARAMIS FEASIBLE?"Now we can go o
Page 65 and 66:
workshop, a control post, a recepti
Page 67 and 68:
the optical sensor so it will maint
Page 69 and 70:
evolutionary system of transportati
Page 71 and 72:
"For my part, " the motor declares,
Page 73 and 74:
-otherwise, it instructs the car to
Page 75 and 76:
not only determined the laws accord
Page 77 and 78:
[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M. Lamoureux, r
Page 79 and 80:
they have to change the motor, mult
Page 81 and 82:
there would be a lot of new functio
Page 83 and 84:
"The idea was that it was seductive
Page 85 and 86:
know who, among the engineers, exec
Page 87 and 88:
of admiring the architecture, the s
Page 89 and 90:
control room, by Ferbeck (who is al
Page 91 and 92:
has the massive dimensions it takes
Page 93 and 94: come back to print. The whole passa
Page 95 and 96: "Do you comprehend the crime, the u
Page 97 and 98: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS)At Matra headqu
Page 99: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M, Parlat, proi
Page 102 and 103: Stationl00o
Page 104 and 105: destinations: that's the idea that
Page 106 and 107: the network, all the problems of au
Page 108 and 109: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M. Etienne, hea
Page 110 and 111: ody can commit himself; it's imposs
Page 112 and 113: configuration on the board. Besides
Page 114 and 115: to the real transportation system,
Page 116 and 117: As a young engineer, I refused to c
Page 118 and 119: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS)In M. Hector's
Page 120 and 121: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M. Parlat is sp
Page 122 and 123: did his field work in the Amazon ra
Page 124 and 125: What counts, in a technological pro
Page 126 and 127: "That's an interesting theory all r
Page 128 and 129: "With VAL, we moved gradually from
Page 130 and 131: hard; you'd need to build it into t
Page 132 and 133: also VAL; Ficheur, the contracting
Page 134 and 135: completely ignores economic conditi
Page 136 and 137: INTERPHASE :THRE E YEARS OF GRAC E"
Page 138 and 139: construction of the Center for Tech
Page 140 and 141: [INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]At the Ministry
Page 142 and 143: every year?* You could pay for Aram
Page 146 and 147: II est passe par iciII repassera pa
Page 148 and 149: uilding reliable, predictable, conv
Page 150 and 151: public funds vampire-fashion and th
Page 152 and 153: "Number 7 is incompatible with numb
Page 154 and 155: "Yes, we 've made a lot of progress
Page 156 and 157: Orly-Val], and then Montpellier. We
Page 158 and 159: Norbert's sociology, he respected m
Page 160 and 161: "In fact, I should have spent a cou
Page 162 and 163: The rationality of technologies wri
Page 164 and 165: Why not go see Ronald Reagan, or th
Page 166 and 167: "I called several meetings to verif
Page 168 and 169: the World's Fair; then they said it
Page 170 and 171: attaching to me dozens of poor devi
Page 172 and 173: 3. In 1973, in a beet field near th
Page 174 and 175: 7 The control room for VAL in Lille
Page 176 and 177: 1 I. Aramis really does exist now;
Page 178 and 179: ] 5. [n March 1987, seven months be
Page 180 and 181: 19. Since no engineer could prove m
Page 182 and 183: we are often the first to see, in a
Page 184 and 185: "The RATP said to itself, 'I'm behi
Page 186 and 187: agree. "They're aiming at VA L in s
Page 188 and 189: "He agrees with me," I remarked mod
Page 190 and 191: viewpoints, goals, and desires, so
Page 192 and 193: If the actors in a project define n
Page 194 and 195:
With a technological project, inter
Page 196 and 197:
gers impatient to show up at Bercy
Page 198 and 199:
allies. Thus, not only is the actor
Page 200 and 201:
from one extreme to another. If you
Page 202 and 203:
isn't the only one who doesn't know
Page 204 and 205:
"Aramis has a lot of advantages bec
Page 206 and 207:
hour. The human being in these scen
Page 208 and 209:
the subway, by virtue of its access
Page 210 and 211:
even includes direct quotes! A prot
Page 212 and 213:
Regie Autonome des TransportsParisi
Page 214 and 215:
etween us had evaporated with Norbe
Page 216 and 217:
ITY OF THE INDIVIDUALS AND COMPANIE
Page 218 and 219:
opinion of the capitalists had "per
Page 220 and 221:
An accusation that's so watered dow
Page 222 and 223:
epistemological; it talks and talks
Page 224 and 225:
conception, which exists in fact on
Page 226 and 227:
put it. If Aramis existed, you woul
Page 228 and 229:
"So we had to increase the absolute
Page 230 and 231:
[SUMMARY OF A GROUP INTERVIEW]The s
Page 232 and 233:
engineering, all the ingenuity, all
Page 234 and 235:
"We've found the hidden staircase,"
Page 236 and 237:
dominated by, people. But there is
Page 238 and 239:
-Vehicle110,000f-PCC spervisio Stat
Page 240 and 241:
[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]-M. Freque, pro
Page 242 and 243:
problem. This task, for the project
Page 244 and 245:
"What I think is that the Matra eng
Page 246 and 247:
"As for the automation, I agree wit
Page 248 and 249:
inappropriate, as if it were clear
Page 250 and 251:
PIaorm 1X" StationI / Plaorm 2Subst
Page 252 and 253:
"Level III: the fixed equipment, ea
Page 254 and 255:
But since you're not human, I'd be
Page 256 and 257:
--wheels, supply information about
Page 258 and 259:
little I was becoming the Aramis mo
Page 260 and 261:
the cars located in the sector, as
Page 262 and 263:
So it givesa recalibration that'sre
Page 264 and 265:
OrdinateViewpoint of mobile unit/I-
Page 266 and 267:
Phonic wheelCoded equidistant cross
Page 268 and 269:
"Here deceleration has to be factor
Page 270 and 271:
[DOCUMENT]code 5800 .2ORI 10 0 0 00
Page 272 and 273:
Norbert woke up terrified.The next
Page 274 and 275:
This is the case for the Matra comp
Page 276 and 277:
This figure, in the context of the
Page 278 and 279:
short-term vision. 'As long as ther
Page 280 and 281:
1. What M. Brun needs; what hechoos
Page 282 and 283:
ecause if someone says, 'After fift
Page 284 and 285:
Well then, that's reassuring. I sta
Page 286 and 287:
thing, give or take a nuance or two
Page 288 and 289:
that's too bad Obviously, to go fro
Page 290 and 291:
They sound awfully sure of themselv
Page 292 and 293:
"Either they didn't put enough ener
Page 294 and 295:
Phase 1: Concept development5phose
Page 296 and 297:
VAL. You'll see, we're going to fin
Page 298 and 299:
on on ongoing basis how things are
Page 300 and 301:
7. Aramis has been perfected as a m
Page 302 and 303:
of a network, to the extent that th
Page 304 and 305:
"Are they interested in elected off
Page 306 and 307:
"But then why not say it was resear
Page 308 and 309:
when we talked about it. The electe
Page 310 and 311:
"No, no, not enough love! Love and
Page 312 and 313:
ahout each other in strict confiden
Page 314 and 315:
"Yet in spite of its fragility, its
Page 316 and 317:
to be a line. What more could I ask
Page 318 and 319:
things. That's not what brought my
Page 320 and 321:
"Obligation to use all appropriate
Page 322 and 323:
" Prometheus. ""Prometheus! The 'sm
Page 324 and 325:
GLOSSARYA-320 An airplane built by
Page 326 and 327:
BertinBienvenueBus DivisionCabinent
Page 328 and 329:
tems to be controlled in the car (d
Page 330 and 331:
E:'2the ministry's technical dossie
Page 332 and 333:
Porno 2000PrometheusPRTQuinRofoleRa
Page 334 and 335:
sniffer planeSOFRESSOFRETUSouth lin
Page 336:
BIUND /ATOUI , 01"""of SOOoIogy, £
show all

Bruno Latour, Aramis, or the Love of Technology, PDF - Dss-edit.com

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?