Science in action
how to follow scientists and engineers through society
by Bruno Latour · first published 1986
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If you'd like a longer read along the lines of this note, then you might enjoy Bruno Latour's Science in Action: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Action-Scientists-Engineers... I found the book super interesting in terms of explaining how innovations happen and how we talk about them in retrospect. Although it…
on “The Risk of Discovery” ↗…science is also prone to this behaviour, and programming and science have the same solution to the problem: actually building a verifiable { experiment / correct theorem / more efficient algorithm }. cf. Science in Action by Bruno Latour (1987), which I tried to summarize on http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?SocialConstructionOfScie...
on “Eulogy to _why” ↗…to build a general theory of STS. Nye's "Technology Matters" is less a work of theory than a critique that poses core questions about how society should seek to integrate technical advances. Latour's "Science in Action," "Reassembling the Social," and "Aramis" are great examples of his approach to whole-of-system analysis of sociotechnical systems. Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovation" is a classic work theorizing how innovation…
on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗Please keep in mind that the book by Bruno Latour referenced here (Science in Action) and another of his articles was lampooned in the Sokal Affair because Latour was confused about relativity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/trans...…
on “Philosophy of science books every computer scientist should read” ↗I can agree with the "lyrical philosopher" quote, but for anyone with a background in science that think that Bruno Latour was a "serious man", I suggest reading the book that made him famous: "Science in Action". It's so bad that it's funny. Out of his 7 rules for studying experimental science, the third one is outstanding: > Since the settlement of a controversy is the cause of Nature's representation, not…
on “A Serious Man: On Bruno Latour” ↗