{"product_id":"9780262529310","title":"Men, Machines, and Modern Times","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn engaging look at how we have learned to live with innovation and new technologies through history.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople have had trouble adapting to new technology ever since (perhaps) the inventor of the wheel had to explain that a wheelbarrow could carry more than a person. This little book by a celebrated MIT professor — the fiftieth anniversary edition of a classic — describes how we learn to live and work with innovation. Elting Morison considers, among other things, the three stages of users' resistance to change: ignoring it; rational rebuttal; and name-calling. He recounts the illustrative anecdote of the World War II artillerymen who stood still to hold the horses despite the fact that the guns were now hitched to trucks — reassuring those of us who have trouble with a new interface or a software upgrade that we are not the first to encounter such problems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMorison offers an entertaining series of historical accounts to highlight his major theme: the nature of technological change and society's reaction to that change. He begins with resistance to innovation in the U.S. Navy following an officer's discovery of a more accurate way to fire a gun at sea; continues with thoughts about bureaucracy, paperwork, and card files; touches on rumble seats, the ghost in \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e, and computers; tells the strange history of a new model steamship in the 1860s; and describes the development of the Bessemer steel process. Each instance teaches a lesson about the more profound and current problem of how to organize and manage systems of ideas, energies, and machinery so that it will conform to the human dimension.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48341858713840,"sku":"9780262529310","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780262529310_p0.jpg?v=1764629184","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780262529310","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}