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

-otherwise, it instructs the car to follow the one aheadat a distance of thirty centimeters . The "automatic pilot"of the car behind knows the distance that separates it fromthe car ahead, because it has a short-distance sensor (optical).The "functional onboard software" (FOS) of each car hasin memory an authori zation for linkup or merging that issent to it by the cent ral calculator. If merging is a uthorized,any detection of a car at less than forty meters entailsa merger behind that car . Every car has a "long-distancesensor" (ultrasound) with a scope of one to fortymeters that supplies information about distances for the pilotingsystem. A "short-di stance sensor" (optical) is usedinstead for distances of one meter or less. [po 9]Certain orders intimately tied to security are determined"by majori ty vot e. " The FOS carries out a majorityvote on the basis of five consecutive recept ions when it recognizessuch an order; these are orders commanding theswitching arms to operate or prohibi ting mergers . [ po 21]Men and things exchange properties and replace one another; thisis what gives technological projects their full savor."Subordinate," "authorize," "supervise," "allow," "notify, " "possess,""order," "vote," "be able": let's not jump too quickly to conclusionsas to whether these terms are metaphorical, exaggerated, anthropomorphic,or technical. The people interested and the machines recruited don'tjust get together on a joint project so they can bring it from the paper stageto reality. Some of them still have to be substituted for others. Aramis, forexample, can't be controlled by a driver as if it were a bus or a subway,because each car is individualized; in the initial stage of the project, eachhad only four seats. You can't even think of putting a driver-a unionmember to boot-in every car; you might as well go ahead and offer everyParisian a Rolls. So something has to take the place of a unionized driver.Will the choice be an automatic pilot, with its "functional onboard software,"or a central computer with its omniscience and its omnipotence? Inmoving from humans to non humans, we do not move from social relationsIS ARAMIS FEASIBlE?