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

"The idea was that it was seductive, but impossible given the constraintsthat characterize mass transportation. In some other civilization perhaps, butnot at the end of this particular century."Matra didn't realize at the time what was involved in the world of publictransportation. They had their apprenticeship with VA L. At Aisthom, we've beeninvolved in gUided-transportation systems for a long time. There are far moreconstraints on them than on satellites."We're used to factoring in the sort of constraints that are brought to bearon a system by millions of fed-up passengers. Not only do you have to protectyourself against impulsive acts, but the vandalism is unbelievable. You have tobe able to defend yourself against it."Cars belong to individuals; everyone looks out for them. But Aramis wouldhave been collective property. The first time anything went wrong, peoplewould have blown the whole thing up." [no. 46]We are never as numerous as we think; this is precisely what makestechnological projects so difficult.Not only do the actors vary in size, so that they may represent fewerallies than they claim to stand for, but they may also bring into play fa rmore actors than anticipated. If there are fewer of them, the project losesreality, since its reality stems from the set of robust ties that can be establishedamong its actors; if there are too many of them, the project may wellbe swamped by the erratic intentions of multiple actors who are pursuingtheir own goals. For a project to materialize, it must at once recruit newallies and at the same time make sure that their recruitment is assured.Unfortunately, discipline isn't the strong point of Parisians, programmers,decisionmakers, or chips. There are breakdowns, there are damages, thereare impulsive acts, there are dead bodies; there are trials, decisionmakerson the stand, articles in the newspapers. "We hadn't anticipated this," saythe operators. "You should have," replies the angry crowd. "We hadn'ttaken all these problems into account," say the people behind Aramis. "Youhave no choice but to take them into account," say the people in chargeof security, implementation, siting.A transportation system is no better than its smallest link. If it is at themercy of a vandal or a programmer or a parasitic spark, it isn't a transportationsystem-it's an idea for a transportation system. To the task ofIS ARAMIS FEASIBLE2