PDF-[READ]-Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western

Over the past five centuries advances in Western understanding of and control over the material world have strongly influenced European responses to nonWestern peoples and cultures In Machines as the Measure of Men Michael Adas explores the ways in which European perceptions of their scientific and technological superiority shaped their interactions with people overseas Adopting a broad comparative perspective he analyzes European responses to the cultures of subSaharan Africa India and China cultures that they judged to represent lower levels of material mastery and social organizationBeginning with the early decades of overseas expansion in the sixteenth century Adas traces the impact of scientific and technological advances on European attitudes toward Asians and Africans and on their policies for dealing with colonized societies He concentrates on British and French thinking in the nineteenth century when he maintains scientific and technological measures of human worth played a critical role in shaping arguments for the notion of racial supremacy and the civilizing mission ideology which were used to justify Europes domination of the globe Finally he examines the reasons why many Europeans grew dissatisfied with and even rejected this gauge of human worth after World War I and explains why it has remained important to AmericansShowing how the scientific and industrial revolutions contributed to the development of European imperialist ideologies Machines as the Measure of Men highlights the cultural factors that have nurtured disdain for nonWestern accomplishments and value systems It also indicates how these attitudes in shaping policies that restricted the diffusion of scientific knowledge have perpetuated themselves and contributed significantly to chronic underdevelopment throughout the developing world Adass farreaching and provocative book will be compelling reading for all who are concerned about the history of Western imperialism and its legaciesFirst published to wide acclaim in 1989 Machines as the Measure of Men is now available in a new edition that features a preface by the author that discusses how subsequent developments in gender and race studies as well as global technology and politics enter into conversation with his original arguments. Shaomei Wu sw475@cornell.edu Information Science, Cornell University Jake M. Hofman , Winter A. Mason, Duncan J. Watts { hofman , winteram , djw }@yahoo - inc.com Yahoo ! Research New York WWW 2011 PREFACE..................................................................iiSECRECY AND SCIENCE REVISITED: FROM POLITICS TO HISTORICAL PRACTICEGOVERNMENT SECRECY AND KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION: A SURVEY OF S 42 might enjoy reading a little about three Jeff Folzis examining ilarities and ferences in the research practices of in the sciences and the humanities. Scientists can claim, withsignificant philosop DISCLAIMER:Please download the form, fill outall informationSAVE the form to your computerand then submit your completed application to the department of which you wish to add/drop a major. StreetAd Those who celebrate the virtues of globalization uncritically see it as a marvelous contribution of Western civilization to the world.. Great developments like the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution in Europe led to massive increase in living standards in the West and now the great achievements of the West are spreading to the rest of the world.. Spanning many different epochs and varieties of religious experience, this book develops a new approach to religion and its role in human history. The authors look across a range of religious phenomena-from ancestor worship to totemism, shamanism, and worldwide modern religions-to offer a new explanation of the evolutionary success of religious behaviors. Their book is more empirical and verifiable than most previous books on evolution and religion because they develop an approach that removes guesswork about beliefs in the supernatural, focusing instead on the behaviors of individuals. The result is a pioneering look at how and why natural selection has favored religious behaviors throughout history. \"
On May 25, 1961, President John Kennedy declared:  “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” Over his remaining time in the White House, JFK actively involved himself in space decisions and several times reviewed his decision to go to the Moon, each time concluding that the benefits of being the leader in space outweighed the massive costs of the lunar landing enterprise. Logsdon traces the evolution of JFK\'s thinking and policy up until his assassination, which brought to an end his reexamination of the program\'s goal and schedule and his hope to collaborate, rather than compete, with the Soviet Union in going to the Moon. This study, based on extensive research in primary documents and archival interviews with key members of the Kennedy administration, is the definitive examination of John Kennedy’s role in sending Americans to the Moon.
\" This book explores Russia\'s stunning success of ushering in the space age by launching Sputnik and beating the United States into space. It also examines the formation of NASA, the race for human exploration of the moon, the reality of global satellite communications, and a new generation of scientific spacecraft that began exploring the universe. An introductory essay by Pulitzer Prize winner Walter A. McDougall sets the context for Sputnik and its significance at the end of the twentieth century. Presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based on recent scholarship in the history of technology and on relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. Challenges the popular notion that technological advances arise from the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions that owe little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book\'s argument is shaped by analogies drawn selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that long have been available to humanity. The second theme is necessity: the mistaken belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological needs such as food, shelter, and defense. And the third theme is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of the novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological process. In 1909 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on his way back to South Africa from London, wrote his now celebrated tract Hind Swaraj, laying out his vision for the future of India and famously rejecting the technological innovations of Western civilization. Despite his protestations, Western technology endured and helped to make India one of the leading economies in our globalized world. Few would question the dominant role that technology plays in modern life, but to fully understand how India first advanced into technological modernity, argues David Arnold, we must consider the technology of the everyday. Everyday Technology is a pioneering account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than investigate “big” technologies such as railways and irrigation projects, Arnold examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India, and follows their impact on the ways in which people worked and traveled, the clothes they wore, and the kind of food they ate. But the effects of these machines were not limited to the daily rituals of Indian society, and Arnold demonstrates how such small-scale technologies became integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, and gender, as well as about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood. Arnold’s fascinating book offers new perspectives on the globalization of modern technologies and shows us that to truly understand what modernity became, we need to look at the everyday experiences of people in all walks of life, taking stock of how they repurposed small technologies to reinvent their world and themselves. \"
On May 25, 1961, President John Kennedy declared:  “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.” Over his remaining time in the White House, JFK actively involved himself in space decisions and several times reviewed his decision to go to the Moon, each time concluding that the benefits of being the leader in space outweighed the massive costs of the lunar landing enterprise. Logsdon traces the evolution of JFK\'s thinking and policy up until his assassination, which brought to an end his reexamination of the program\'s goal and schedule and his hope to collaborate, rather than compete, with the Soviet Union in going to the Moon. This study, based on extensive research in primary documents and archival interviews with key members of the Kennedy administration, is the definitive examination of John Kennedy’s role in sending Americans to the Moon.
\" In 1909 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, on his way back to South Africa from London, wrote his now celebrated tract Hind Swaraj, laying out his vision for the future of India and famously rejecting the technological innovations of Western civilization. Despite his protestations, Western technology endured and helped to make India one of the leading economies in our globalized world. Few would question the dominant role that technology plays in modern life, but to fully understand how India first advanced into technological modernity, argues David Arnold, we must consider the technology of the everyday. Everyday Technology is a pioneering account of how small machines and consumer goods that originated in Europe and North America became objects of everyday use in India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rather than investigate “big” technologies such as railways and irrigation projects, Arnold examines the assimilation and appropriation of bicycles, rice mills, sewing machines, and typewriters in India, and follows their impact on the ways in which people worked and traveled, the clothes they wore, and the kind of food they ate. But the effects of these machines were not limited to the daily rituals of Indian society, and Arnold demonstrates how such small-scale technologies became integral to new ways of thinking about class, race, and gender, as well as about the politics of colonial rule and Indian nationhood. Arnold’s fascinating book offers new perspectives on the globalization of modern technologies and shows us that to truly understand what modernity became, we need to look at the everyday experiences of people in all walks of life, taking stock of how they repurposed small technologies to reinvent their world and themselves. Over the past five centuries, advances in Western understanding of and control over the material world have strongly influenced European responses to non-Western peoples and cultures. In Machines as the Measure of Men, Michael Adas explores the ways in which European perceptions of their scientific and technological superiority shaped their interactions with people overseas. Adopting a broad, comparative perspective, he analyzes European responses to the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, India, and China, cultures that they judged to represent lower levels of material mastery and social organization.Beginning with the early decades of overseas expansion in the sixteenth century, Adas traces the impact of scientific and technological advances on European attitudes toward Asians and Africans and on their policies for dealing with colonized societies. He concentrates on British and French thinking in the nineteenth century, when, he maintains, scientific and technological measures of human worth played a critical role in shaping arguments for the notion of racial supremacy and the civilizing mission ideology which were used to justify Europe\'s domination of the globe. Finally, he examines the reasons why many Europeans grew dissatisfied with and even rejected this gauge of human worth after World War I, and explains why it has remained important to Americans.Showing how the scientific and industrial revolutions contributed to the development of European imperialist ideologies, Machines as the Measure of Men highlights the cultural factors that have nurtured disdain for non-Western accomplishments and value systems. It also indicates how these attitudes, in shaping policies that restricted the diffusion of scientific knowledge, have perpetuated themselves, and contributed significantly to chronic underdevelopment throughout the developing world. Adas\'s far-reaching and provocative book will be compelling reading for all who are concerned about the history of Western imperialism and its legacies.First published to wide acclaim in 1989, Machines as the Measure of Men is now available in a new edition that features a preface by the author that discusses how subsequent developments in gender and race studies, as well as global technology and politics, enter into conversation with his original arguments. INTRODUCTION. The formation and maintenance of linear dominance hierarchies is characterized by a gradual polarization (increased steepness) of dominance ranks over time. Agonistic interactions are usually correlated to daily activity rhythms and both are controlled by light-entrained endogenous pacemakers (i.e., circadian clocks). Circadian clocks can be .