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

Time To-1 2 3 4 5CJIII __ _ Time T1 1 -42II I I I I I I-CJh __ ------3 75 II I I I I II.II I I I I I---- -- --Figure 5. Train consistin g of small pro g rammed vehicles.[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]The scene is Matra Transport's suburban headquarters, in a building decoratedin the inevitable postmodern white tiles. At the end of the slick, whitemain hall, you can see the splendid white casing of Aramis. The director,M. Etienne, is speaking:"Lagardere had put Pierre Quetard in charge of diversifying Matra in thecivilian sector. He took a good look all around. There were some pluses, andsome mistakes. That was normal."Anyway, Quetard was on the lookout. He had been to see more or lesseverybody, offering Matra's services, insisting on their advanced technologicalcompetence, and also on the logic of the complex systems that were amongtheir specialities ... Petit sought out Matra-or Quetard sought out Petit, I don'tremember now. Anyway, Petit said: 'We're onto something terrific here; I'mready to put money into it. There's this little company that's in over its head.You've got to work with them.'"He'd even come to see me at the DTI (the bureau of ground transportation),but I don't think I gave him any money at that point. You have to rememberthat DATAR in those days wasn't what it is now. It was a powerhouse. It hadbeen set up so it could really do something. For the ministries, a nyet fromDATAR was a real catastrophe, at the time."Well, DATAR was obsessed with the growth of the Paris region, and it wastrying to support public transportation. It was interested in creating a newA N EXCITING INNOVATION