The Technological Fix: How People Use Technology to Create and Solve Problems

The term "technological fix" should mean a fix provided by technology--a solution for all of our problems, from medicine and food production to the environment and business. Instead, technological fix has come to mean a cheap, quick fix using inappropriate technology that usually creates more problems than it solves. This collection sets out the distinction between a technological fix and a true technological solution.Bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines, the essays trace the technological fix as it has appeared throughout the twentieth century. Addressing such "fixes" as artificial hearts, industrial agriculture and climate engineering, these essays examine our need to turn to technology for solutions to all of our problems.

About the Author

Lisa Rosner is Professor of History at Richard Stockton College. A specialist in the history of science, technology, and medicine, she is the consulting editor of The Chronology of Science from Stonehenge to the Human Genome Project .