It is late night. Other members of the household are asleep. Street noises have subsided. The groan of planes making its way to Logan has come to an end. Even the refrigerator has momentarily suspended its almost ceaseless purr. It is that time of the day when one hears the silence.
Technology
Photo by Andrew Itaga on Unsplash
US fighter jets flying over Kuwait • US Department of Defense (Public Domain)
Delusions of techno-wizardry
Mary Kingsley, intrepid Victorian traveler, was one of the most adventurous of 19th century European explorers of Africa. Untypical of Victorian women, she went where men feared to go. She was also untypical in her sensitive appreciation of African culture and thought. But even she never doubted the racial preeminence of Europeans.
Eastern Colorado Great Plains • Photo by Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The square root of our plumb-bobbing obsession
Here is a little lesson about the best and worst of western civilization. It can be summarized in one word: Square.
Hetch Hetchy Dam, Yosmite National Park, California • Photo by tosh chiang (CC BY 2.0)
Lest the tap run dry
In the last years of the 19th century, the thirsty citizens of San Francisco covetously turned their eyes on the Hetch Hetchy Valley of the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. A dam across the valley, a 150-mile-long aqueduct, and the city’s water supply problems would be solved forever.
Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash
Virtual reality is not enough
Put on the EyePhone stereographic display goggles. Crank up the audio headset. Slip your hand into the DataGlove. Plug yourself into a supercomputer. Welcome to virtual reality.
A swarm of micro-robots • Image by Farshadarvin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Robognats and roborobins
A cartoon in a recent issue of the journal Science shows a woman standing aghast in her kitchen as the man from Ace Exterminators releases a box full of mice onto the floor.
The ancient Tunnel of Eupalinos • Photo by Tomisti (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Making ends meet
In chalky rock beneath the English Channel, British and French tunneling machines are burrowing toward each other, like moles, from opposite shores.
The TI-36 Solar pocket calculator • Photo by Juhox (CC BY-SA 3.0)
An alternative Top 10
The National Academy of Engineering has announced the ten greatest engineering achievements of the past 25 years. To draw public attention to the excitement of engineering, the Academy sorted through 340 possibilities and chose the following:
Artists view of a Voyager spacecraft in outer space • NASA/JPL (Public Domain)
Starflight
Plucky, lucky Voyager 2 is the little spacecraft that could.
Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin (1931)
Goldberg had answer
Lots of stories in the news lately about the perils of mega-technology.