Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!lll-winken!telecom-request From: peterm@rwing.uucp (Peter Marshall) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Lorain Products Co. & More on Telephone Power Plants Message-ID: Date: 29 Mar 91 21:30:55 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 257, Message 3 of 5 From, Langdon Winner, "A Postmodern World's Fair," TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, Feb./Mar., 1991 An interesting counterpoint to the George Gilder article posted here recently, this column is by a member of the Dept. of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Insititute: As I begin making plans to attend the World's Fair in Seville, Spain, in 1992, I'm also girding for the ideological onslaught these events always bring....the underlying message is always the same: celebration of limitless progress through technological change. The Spanish fair seems ready to echo this weary theme with uncritical devotion.... But shouldn't the experience of the past two centuries lead us to reexamine the contexts and consequences of "progress"? I've tried to imagine what an alternative World's Fair might offer. How about "Humanity in a Postmodern World" as a colorful, overarching theme? Here are a few of the fair's possible attractions: The Pavilion for the Social Construction of Science...the social dynamics of science in intricate detail...places where knowledge products, sometimes mistakenly called discoveries, are crafted as within a complex, mulit-centered social process....The pavilion would ask spectators to ponder the question, Science in whose interest?.... Palace to the Ironies of Progress. As they enter the great hall, spectators would compare predictions of past World's Fairs to today's realities.... The palace would also contrast the conventional signs of technological and ecomeconomic advance...with the uncounted costs of these developments.... Theater of Futures Foreclosed. A series of entertainments would show how decisions we make today close off paths that future generations might take.... In short, a Postmodern World's Fair would playfully debunk old myths while encouraging people to try some new ideas on for size. It is unlikely, of course, that such an event could be financed. By removing the need for people to think critically or to demand a share in making decisions, old-fashioned rituals of progress serve the reigning power structure. Thus World's Fairs will go on projecting glossy utopias said to be just around the corner and assuring us that the future is in good hands.