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

"Obligation to use all appropriate means, not to produce results" -that'swhat the fine print says in all our standard contracts. And we certainlydidn't skimp on the means, I don't think. Confidentiality isn't a problem;I'm not denouncing anyone, I'm not laying any hlame, there 's no scandal,no wrongdoers. It's a collective drift, there were only good intentions.And I'd actually like to do a hook in which there's no metalanguage,no master discourse, where you wouldn't know which is strongest, thesociological theory or the documents or the interviews or the literatureor the fiction , where all these genres or regimes would be at the samelevel, each one interpreting the others vvithout anybody being able tosay which is judging what.""But that's impossible; and besides, it would be incredibly horing.And what good would it do?""Well, it would be good for training people like you. And it wouldbe good for educating the public, for getting people to understand ,getting them to love technologies. I'd like to turn the failure of Aramisinto a success, so it won't have died in vain, so . . ."You're funny, Norbert. You want to reeducate the whole worldand you want to produce a discourse that doesn't control anyone!Readers want a line, they want mass transit, not point-to-point, notpersonalized cabins. You want to know what I think? You're about toembark on another Aramis project, another wild-goose chase. As infeasibleas the first one. Rememher the lesson of Aramis: 'Don't innovatein every respect at once.' Your book is just one more rickety endeavor,ill-conceived from birth, a white elephant.""But if it were viable, at least it would be useful to others, tofuture engineers like yourself. To help them understand research."If I had indeed discovered the importance of research. . . I washardly convinced by Norbert's science, but since it was he, after all,who was to give me a grade on my internship, I grunted and fell silent.He continued."Never mind, I'll write one more report, another colorless text,an expert's audit; I'll follow the advice of the Times: 'Make it boring. "'After a few moments, he went on in a tone of feigned indifference(for I knew he wanted to keep me in his lab):"FPllOGUE