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

Regie Autonome des TransportsParisiensS .A. Mat raC. Quin J. -L . Lagardere"Amazing! Here it is before our very eyes: the solemn signatureof a compromise embodied in a contract. The project of a protocol forthe Aramis project was drawn up when the World's Fair project wasgoing full-speed ahead. The target date, To + 27, made it possible totest the system in 1986, in time for the production stage and for theopening of the 1989 World's Fair. Well, look at this: it's still there inthe version signed in June 1984, after the World's Fair was abandonedinJune 1983. But see how vague it is? 'The parties will study theappropriateness of launching studies. "'"How could Matra have accepted something so unattractive?""They tried to get more. I've gotten hold of drafts of muchtougher contracts. This is the first project I've worked on, by the way,where I've gotten confidential documents in the mail . . . So Matraproposed a version that tied in the construction of the CET with theconstruction of the line. But the Budget Office was against it. Matradidn't insist. After twenty-seven months, the State was supposed tocommit itself to financing the line."The twenty-seventh month remains in the protocol like a vestigeof the whole misunderstanding we 've been studying for the last year.Number one, it's a vestige of the World's Fair that Chirac didn't want.But look-it's also a vestige of Matra's strategy: Out of the questionto build the CET without a line as a reward, yet there's no longer anyquestion of making a firm commitment to Aramis. Number two, it's avestige for the Region and for the public authorities, \,I,'ho tantalize theindustrialist with the possibility of a line, yet don't commit themselveseither. Finally, it's a vestige for the RATP and for the research servicesthat hope to have at least some transportation system endorsed by theend of the twenty-seven months, but without any guarantee as towhether it will be pure research or applied."It's a textbook case. No one could decide whether to do AramisT___ HE: 1984 DECISION