Includes bibliographical references and index.

About the author -- Preface -- Part 1: Orientations: -- 1: Nature of technology -- Defining technology -- Technological advance and the image of progress -- Technology as a metaphor -- Technology and rationality -- Living in a technological society -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 2: Winners and losers: the differential effects of technological change -- Technology as a subversive force -- Luddites -- Neo-luddism -- Whose technology? -- What technology can do-and what it cannot do -- Technological fix -- Why technology can't always fix it -- Appeal of technocracy -- Technocrat's delusion -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Part 2: Process Of Technological Change: -- 3: Sources of technological change -- Technological change as a social process -- Great breakthrough -- D in R & D -- All together now -- Push and pull -- Belated demand -- Market economies and technological advance -- Noneconomic sources of technological advance -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 4: Scientific knowledge and technological advance -- Historical separation of science and technology -- Studies of contemporary science-technology -- Relationships -- How technology differs from science -- How technology stimulates scientific discovery -- Indirect effects of technology on scientific advance -- Commonalities of science and technology -- Translation of science into technology -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 5: Diffusion of technology -- International diffusion of technology -- Clever copyists -- Adaptation and adoption -- Japanese example -- Appropriate technology -- Business firms and technological diffusion -- Economic motives and technology transfer -- Risky business -- NIH syndrome -- Efforts to restrict the diffusion of technology -- Patents and the diffusion of technology -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Part 3: How Technology Affects The Health Of The Earth And Its Inhabitants: -- 6: Technology, energy, and the environment -- Fossil fuels, air pollution, and climate change -- Planet under stress -- Is technology the problem or the solution? -- Some technological fixes of the past -- Alternatives to fossil fuels -- Doing more with less -- More miles to the gallon -- Economic systems, government policies, and the environment -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 7: Medical and biological technologies -- New medical technologies: choices and trade-offs -- Case of kidney dialysis -- Replacing broken hearts -- Diagnostic technologies -- Medical technologies and medical ethics -- New ways of making and sustaining babies -- When does life end? When should it? -- Halfway technologies -- Questions for discussion -- Notes --

8: Genetic technologies -- Genetic fix -- Discovering genes and patenting them -- Bioengineering on the farm -- Stem cells, clones, and bioethics -- Stem cells and future therapies -- Ethics of genetic intervention -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Part 4: Technology And The Transformation Of Work: -- 9: Work in nonindustrial societies -- Working with the earliest tools -- Work and leisure in technologically primitive societies -- Work and the development of agriculture -- Farming techniques and patterns of work -- Ironies of progress -- Artisan and craft work -- Guild organization and technological change -- Slavery and the inhibition of technological development -- Measurement of time and changed working patterns -- Clock -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 10: Technology and jobs: more of one and less of the other? -- Threat of machine-made unemployment -- Technological threat in historical perspective -- Case for optimism -- How technology creates jobs -- Indirect effects of new technologies on employment -- Machines aren't ready to take over -- Technology, jobs, and the changing structure of the economy -- Technology and the distribution of income -- Benefits, but disruption too -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 11: Technological change and life on the job -- Industrial production -- Machine-paced labor -- Is technology to blame? -- Industrial technology and the division of labor -- Scientific management once again -- Industrial work and recent technological developments -- Technological change and white-collar work -- Smart technologies and dumb jobs? -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Part 5: Communication: -- 12: Printing -- Printing revolution -- Printing and the expansion of knowledge -- Printing and the rise of Protestantism -- Printing, literacy, and social change -- Psychological effects of printing -- Newspapers -- Circulation wars and the shaping of public opinion -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 13: Electronic media -- Invention of radio -- Origins of commercial radio -- Rise of television -- Federal government steps in -- Problems of regulation -- Television-viewing public -- Violence on television and its consequences -- Video games -- Television, information, and news -- Television and politics -- Television and thought -- Birth and growth of the Internet -- Digital divide -- Computer networks and intellectual property -- Electronic media in modern society -- Questions for discussion -- Notes --

Part 6: Tools Of Destruction: -- 14: Weapons and their consequences -- Military technology in the ancient world -- Military technology and the feudal order -- New weapons and the decline of Feudalism -- Gunpowder revolution -- War and the centralized state -- Technological change and naval culture in the era of the battleship -- Weapons and the making of the modern world -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 15: How new weapons emerge-and how they may be contained -- Action and reaction -- Social structure and the development of military technologies -- Organizational interests and the air weapon -- Social revolution and the enlargement of war -- Industrial technology in the service of war -- Controlling military technologies -- Historical attempts to limit new weapons -- Successful example of arms control -- Gun control in old Japan -- Control of nuclear weapons -- Deterrence, but no more -- Perils of proliferation -- Technology and terrorism -- Cyberterrorism -- Military technologies in a changing world -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Part 7: Shaping And Control Of Technology: -- 16: Technology and its creators: who's in charge of whom? -- Technological determinism -- Technological advance and cultural lag -- Convergence theory -- Experts, expertise, and the shaping of technology -- Engineers and the control of technology -- Work environment of engineers -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 17: Organizations and technological change -- Technology as a cause of organizational structure -- Technology as a consequence of organizational structure -- Organizations and new information technologies -- Interorganizational relations and technological development -- Organizational size and technological innovation -- Entrepreneurs and organizations -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- 18: Governing technology -- Government actions and the shaping of technology -- But is it necessary? -- Government institutions for the guidance of technology -- Processes -- Democratic control of technology -- Challenges of the future -- Questions for discussion -- Notes -- Index.

Synopsis: In the Sixth Edition of Society and Technological Change, Rudi Volti continues to bring both his enthusiasm and expertise to the student. Comprehensive in his discussion of both historical and contemporary technological advance, Volti never fails to explore the societal implications of each technology he presents. The new Sixth Edition has been fully updated to include recent technological innovation in such areas as genetics, communications, terrorism, and medicine. Further, updated photos throughout the book bring Volti's words to life.