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

ecause if someone says, 'After fifteen years, we have nothing,' how can youexpect them to accept it? They're going to wonder, 'Where did the money go?'"So they say that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds."Over here, we say what we think; we'll see what management does. If apolitician says, 'It's okay, it's all going very well,' you know it's cheating, butto say that they stopped because there wasn't a line is a form of cheating. Idon't understand how technicians can go along with that. Obviously there'salso the cost. They say, 'It's too expensive,' 'It works, but it costs too much,' butnevertheless it's technologically state-of-the-art. It doesn't work as well as thot."You can't even say that it's for later, for the future, because if Aramis hadto be started up again, now, everything would have 10 be done over."No, the adjustable train-we don't know how to do that, short of atechnological revolution. And to meet the specifications, we have no idea whatit would have cost, or how long it would have taken, just to get to five pairsof cars, and from there to 600 ."At the same time, it's too bad to have gotten so far and then say, 'We'reshutting it all down.' But if it's so unreliable, why had it gone so far? And if it'sperfected, why not go on? I personally wouldn't like to be in Alexandre's place[his opposite number at Matra}. He was saved by the bell. He must have seenthe technological difficulties the same way we did. He must be annoyed thatit ground to a holt the way it did, but at the same time he must be happy thathe didn't have to meet the specs-yes, he must be really relieved."For our part, we did the contradictory report; we told the truth. We weren'tabout to go ask Matra, 'And what do we put here?' That's for managementto worry about." [no. 10]Saved by the bell! That's not what poor Aramis would say. Finishedoff, on the contrary, by a fratricidal struggle between the two teams,the contracting authority and the contractor, with one accusing theother of downgrading Aramis' principles, and the other retorting thatit was being required to pursue impossible objectives whereas everythingwould be viable if the constraints were relaxed. And th e struggledoesn't even show whether the thing is technologically feasible! It's aninsoluble problem. I have a feeling I'm going to be in hot water withNorbert's director.ARA MIS IS READY TO GO [AWAYj