In the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution was one of several revolutions that overturned society. Mechanical creatures intruded into farms and homes, but still this invasion had no name. Finally, in 1802, Johann Beckmann, an economics professor at Gottingen University gave this ascending force its name [technology] . . . He hoped his outline [a textbook titled Guide to Technology] would become the first course in the subject. It did that and more. It also gave a name to what we do. Once named, we could now see it. Having seen it, we wondered how anyone could not have seen it.
Source:Â Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants
Posted: 2025 Oct 18
Or check out this TEDxSF by Kelly.
The bottom one is the most emotional: “The centre cannot hold” sort of thing…
Barbara – It’s my favourite, too – although I don’t know why. 🙂
All of these images are cropped and incomplete, leaving the viewer with a sense of loss, except the last one. Perhaps it is your favourite because the tension it projects is amazing and, in that, it is complete. The composition is perfect, too. You keep looking at it in the hope that it will become animated and resolve to the extraordinary “sproing” and clatter that you anticipate.
Laurna – That’s interesting – incomplete because too cropped? Dagnab it, there should be a (short) book on this somewhere …