Abstract:
This collection of case studies describes how engineers or managers applied their arts to five complex problems on earth. A variety of aerospace methods and hardware were employed. Two of the cases concern “hard” technological developments: the construction of liquefied natural gas tankers and the creation of an automated system to transport people in Morgantown, West Virginia, both investigated by Susan Frutkin. Three cases address aerospace software and methods of analysis: the use of a technique of prediction developed by defense consultants, called “Delphi,” by which opinions are collected and a sort of consensus is induced, investigated by J. Gordon Milliken; the use of mathematical modeling in a computer to simulate the flow of financial securities; and an attempt to reform some of California's public services through aerospace systems analysis, both investigated by Carole R. Cristiano. The focal point of each study lies in analyzing the political, technical, and bureaucratic forces at work in developing a complex system. Each study is summarized in a separate, short comment, which also discusses how conflicts of goals and judgment conditioned the outcome of the development. The editor's critical introduction to the entire work places the five studies in a context of contemporary writing on technology and society.
