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

the automobile today and had to go before a safety commission and explain,I don't know, let's say, how to get started on a hill ! Just think howcomplicated it is: shifting gears, using the hand broke, and so on. He wouldn'tstand a chancel He'd be told: 'It can't be done.' Well, everybody knows howto start on a hill! It's the some with Aromis. We hadn't gotten all the kinks out,but yes, I think it was doable." [no. 23JTo translate is to betray: ambiguity is part of translation.For Aeroport de Paris, Aramis is not going to replace automobiles,remodel our cities, or protect our children's future. It is "in the same sphereas," in the neighborhood of, a much more modest means of transportationthat involves a Few hundred meters in airports, parking lots, or the FNACon the rue de Rennes. It is limited to closed sites where one can innovatewithout competing with the heavyweights, with subways or trains. Moreover,for Aeroport de Paris, Aramis is not irresistible. Their people do notcommit themselves one hundred percent; for them, it is not a matter of lifeand death. They took up second-line positions, to see what would happen.Is this the same Aramis as Matra's, or Barde!'s? No, and this is preciselyhow a project can hope to come into existence. There is no such thing asthe essence of a project. Only finished products have an essence. Fortechnology, too, "existence precedes essence." If all the actors had to agreeunambiguously on the definition of what was to be done, then the probabilityof carrying out a project would be very slight indeed, for realityremains polymorphous for a very long time, especially when a principle oftransportation is involved. It is only at the end of the road, and locally, thatthe project will acquire its essence and that all the interviewees will defineit in the same terms, differing only in viewpoint. In the beginning, on thecontrary, it is appropriate for different groups with divergent interests toconspire with a certain amount of vagueness on a project that they take tobe a common one, a project that then constitutes a good "agency oftrans/ation, "* a good swap shop for goals. "Yes, for a million francs inkind, that's not bad. Why not go along? After all, it can't hurt." Thot's what*See M. Callon, "On Interests and Their Transformation: Enrolment andCounter-Enrolment," SOClQl Swdies if Science 12, no. 4, (1982): 615-626; andM. Callon, J. Law, et aI ., eds. , Mapping the Dynamics (!f Science and TechnoloBJ (London:Macmillan, 1986).1IIII-__ ANEXCI- I N G7 I N N O V A TIO N ___________ ___________ _ ___ _ ______