An illuminating collection of essays that explores the history of simple tools to reveal how we shape and are shaped by technology. From the former curator of the history of technology at the Smithsonian and a Guggenheim recipient.
Every tool tells a story.
Hands-On is an engaging collection of essays that explores the history and philosophy of tools and tool use. Each essay focuses on a single tool, wielding it to reveal a larger story about the nature of tools and technology as well as the diverse ways that tools allow us to understand culture and cultural change. As Steven Lubar reveals, seemingly simple workshop tools and household implements can provide insights into innovation and creativity, work and skill, hand and mind, nature and materials, and society and culture.
The book focuses on hand tools from the stone axe to the modern drill, from the broom to the hammer. The author uses their histories to consider big questions about the nature of tools and technology. How do we learn to use tools? How did tools come to define humanity? What shapes the design of tools? How and why do tools change over time? Together, these essays reveal how we shape technology, how we make sense of it, and how it shapes us.
Especially as machines become increasingly challenging to understand and control, it is important for us to understand how we use tools--and how we should build machines we can work
with, not machines we work
for. This book helps us make that crucial connection.
一部發人深省的論文集，透過探索簡單工具的歷史，揭示我們如何塑造科技，也如何受到科技塑造。
作者曾任 Smithsonian 國家博物館科技史策展人，並獲得 Guggenheim Fellowship。
每一件工具都訴說著一個故事。
《Hands-On》是一部引人入勝的論文集，探索工具與工具使用的歷史及哲學。每篇文章聚焦於一件工具，藉此揭示關於工具與科技本質的更大故事，以及工具如何以多樣的方式幫助我們理解文化與文化變遷。正如 Steven Lubar 所揭示的，看似簡單的工坊工具與家用器具，能讓我們深入了解創新與創意、工作與技能、雙手與心智、自然與材料，以及社會與文化。
本書聚焦於手工具，從石斧到現代電鑽，從掃帚到鐵鎚。作者透過探討這些工具的歷史，思考工具與科技本質等重大問題：我們如何學會使用工具？工具如何逐漸成為人類的定義之一？是什麼塑造了工具的設計？工具為何以及如何隨時間改變？這些文章共同揭示了我們如何塑造科技、如何理解科技，以及科技如何塑造我們。
尤其當機器變得越來越難以理解與控制時，了解我們如何使用工具——以及我們應該如何打造能與我們一同工作的機器，而不是讓我們為其工作的機器——便顯得格外重要。本書協助我們建立這項關鍵連結。
Steven Lubar, George L. Littlefield Professor of American History emeritus at Brown University, writes on museums and the history of technology. A Guggenheim fellowship supported his book Inside the Lost Museum. Before coming to Brown, Lubar was curator of the history of technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
