COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00003 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	mcginn[f86,jmc]		Comments on McGinn's Ch.3 The Anatomy of contemporary
C00008 00003	General remark: Students will get little out of this, because it
C00010 ENDMK
C⊗;
mcginn[f86,jmc]		Comments on McGinn's Ch.3 The Anatomy of contemporary

Almost all that's said is true, but it's hard to see what the students
will retain of it.  The picture is detailed, but there's no basis for
discussion.

A number of points are made that are controversial expressions of
the 1986 Zeitgeist but are neither supported by data nor recognized
as controversial.

Examples:

page 6
The statement that the Shuttle Project "was launched on a path to disaster"
requires a judgment that no chance of failure could be tolerated.  It
seems to me that the Shuttle Project will be a success.  After all,
airplanes aren't regarded as a disastrous technology even though they
sometimes crash.

page 8
"prompted Jack Burnham to observe that ..." implies that he says and
is right in saying that technology will end up totally "systems oriented".
This is doubtful, and how far the change will go should be discussed.

page 9
The example of disruption of Japanese National Railroad service can
equally well be taken as an example of the resilience of modern
technology.  The signal boxes were quickly replaced.

page 10
"perennial" is not the word intended.

"purchased at the cost of submission ..." is bombast.

page 11
whether disposal of old technics is "vital" to the economy can
be disputed.  I dispute it.

page 12
Simmel observed "...".
What Simmel observed reminded me of Dickens's 1830? complaint about
the stagecoach.  It permitted country people to come to the city
for the mere payment of a fare, and he thought it would destroy their
rural culture.  In general people welcome more impersonal ways of
meeting their needs.  For example, replacement of operators by dialing
always led to an immediate 30 percent increase in calls.

In general people prefer dealing with machinery to dealing with bureaucracies.

page 18
See the Dreyfuses for a view that theory is less important than many think.

page 19
This isn't the usual chicken-egg metaphor and may therefore be confusing.

page 20
What evidence is there that industrial espionage plays an important role.

Einstein's theory of relativity became known rapidly.  Journal backlogs
were often shorter many years ago.

page 29
I think the space telescope is now scheduled for the 1980s.

page 34
Science funding wasn't "zero-sum" in the 1980s, and basic research grew
considerably.  I believe Stanford's external research funding also grew
considerably in the 1980s.

I think references to "some critics" without further identification has
all the disadvantages of repeating anonymous attacks and rumors.
Such references are common but bad.

I believe that the public and the politicians see basic research as
having considerable value in itself apart from practical considerations.
There is a large public for science popularizations --- much larger
than for political commentary, for example.

page 44
Why can't the relative merits of two stroke and four stroke engine cycles
be determined by science?

page 45
Machine physics isn't actually a subspecialty of particle physics; it's
the physics of the accelerators themselves.  In short it's a branch
of engineering.

page 58
Why refer to the scanning tunnelling microscope as "so-called" and
put its name in quotes?  It may be new, but it really exists.

page 59
While Avery gave evidence that DNA was the hereditary material in 1944,
this fact wasn't generally accepted until Watson and Crick did their
work.

page 62
While science and technology advance at a rapid rate, they are changing
contemporary life more slowly than they did around 1900.
General remark: Students will get little out of this, because it
doesn't stimulate independent thought.

There is a certain cringing before the equalitarians but no open discussion
of the issues they raise or those raised by the conservatives.

No discussion of the relation between scientific and technological progress
and the form of society.

No discussion of how to improve the rate of scientific and technological
progress.

Some quotes giving contrasting views of whether a development is good
or bad would liven up matters.  Contrasting views as to what the actual
effects are would also help and might be even better, because they would
concetrate attention of what the facts are rather than merely inducing
people to take sides.

Better discuss nuclear power than the Shuttle.  The Shuttle is
too pure.

Needs more discussion of the question of size of enterprise.  Depending
on the subject the optimal size ranges from one person to bigger than
the present world economy can afford.