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Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology
by Tenner, Edward
- Used
- Very Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0375407227
- ISBN 13
- 9780375407222
- Seller
-
Spokane Valley, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
From the author of Why Things Bite Back-- which introduced us to the revenge antics of technology--Our Own Devices is a wonderfully revealing look at the inventions of everyday things that protect us, position us, or enhance our performance. In helping and hurting us, these body technologies have produced consequences that their makers never intended:- In postwar Japan traditional sandals gave way to Western-style shoes because they were considered marks of a higher standard of living, but they seriously increased the rate of fungal foot ailments.- Reclining chairs, originally promoted for healthful brief relaxation, became symbols of the sedentary life and obesity.- A keyboard that made the piano easier to learn failed in the marketplace mainly because professional pianists believed difficult passages needed to stay difficult.- Helmets, reintroduced during the carnage of World War I, saved the lives of countless civilian miners, construction workers, and, more recently, bicyclists.Once we step on the treadmill of progress, it's hard to step off. Yet Edward Tenner shows that human ingenuity can be applied in self-preservation as well, and he sheds light on the ways in which the users of commonplace technology surprise designers and engineers, as when early typists developed the touch method still employed on today's keyboards. And he offers concrete advice for reaping benefits from the devices that we no longer seem able to live without. Although dependent on these objects, we can also use them to liberate ourselves. This delightful and instructive history of invention shows why National Public Radio dubbed Tenner "the philosopher of everyday technology."From the Hardcover edition.
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Details
- Bookseller
- gigabooks
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 237322
- Title
- Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology
- Author
- Tenner, Edward
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Jacket Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0375407227
- ISBN 13
- 9780375407222
- Publisher
- Alfred a Knopf Inc
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2003
Terms of Sale
gigabooks
About the Seller
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- VG/VG
- Very Good Condition book with a Very Good Condition dust jacket. Very Good Condition indicates a used book that does show some...