“We had learned how to invent things, and the question of why we invent things receded in importance. The idea that if something could be done it should be done was born in the nineteenth century. And along with it, there developed a profound belief in all the principles through which invention succeeds: objectivity, efficiency, expertise, standardization, measurement, and progress. It also came to be believed that the engine of technological progress worked most efficiently when people are conceived of not as children of God or even as citizens but as consumers-that is to say, as markets.” PeopleIfsShouldChildrenIdeasDoneBeliefBornPrinciplesProgressCenturyCitizensSucceedImportanceProfoundInventionConsumersEnginesEfficiencyConsumerismTechnologicalExpertiseMeasurementObjectivityNineteenth CenturyChild Of GodOverconsumptionTechnological ProgressStandardization Book:Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology Source: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
“His (the writer's) standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention, out of his experience, should produce a truer account than anything factual can be.” ShouldProduceStandardsAccountsInventionFidelityFactual Book:Hemingway on War Source: Hemingway on War
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And (unlike subsequent inventions for man's convenience) the more he used it, the fitter his body became. Here, for once, was a product of man's brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle.” MenShouldPhilosophyBodyUsedHealingBrainProgressProductsBalanceShould HaveMachinesHarmInventionCyclesBikeBeneficialConvenienceTouringBicycleAttainmentPrecisionCyclingIrritationBikingCyclistsTandemTandem BikesTandem Bicycles Author:Elizabeth West
“I am sorry the infernal Divinities, who visit mankind with diseases, and are therefore at perpetual war with Doctors, should have prevented my seeing all you great Men at Soho to-day-Lord! what inventions, what wit, what rhetoric, metaphysical, mechanical and pyrotecnical, will be on the wing, bandy'd like a shuttlecock from one to another of your troop of philosophers! while poor I, I by myself I, imprizon'd in a post chaise, am joggled, and jostled, and bump'd, and bruised along the King's high road, to make war upon a pox or a fever!” MenShouldWarPoorLordSeeingMankindKingsDiseaseShould HaveDoctorsWingsSorryPhilosopherWitInventionPostsGreat MenDivinityPerpetualRhetoricMetaphysicalFeverBumpsBruisedI Am SorryAm SorryHigh RoadPoxSohoPerpetual WarShuttlecock Author:Erasmus Darwin