IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 51

his audiences, being circumspect about
in lock-step with urban renewal. Supportthe feasibility of technological fixes when
ing these enthusiastic forecasts was a
writing for experts in the social sciences
widespread but seldom interrogated popbut optimistic when preaching to classes
ular faith in the link between technologiof engineering graduates.
cal and social progress, as well as
For legislators and the 1968 Presidenunderlying belief in technological detertial candidates, Weinberg proposed a
minism and the inevitability of social
national strategy founded on technological
adaptation to innovation.
fixes. He argued that the expertise in physEven more widely accepted examples
ical science and engineering marshalled at
of technological fixes were to be found in
National Labs since the war could be reoritechnologies applied to health and wellented to solve predominantly social probbeing. In a period of unprecedented
lems. The "neat trick," he confided to
access to inexpensive food, scientific
Harvey Brooks, was that "social problems
nutrition was popularized by via over-thecould be converted into technological
counter vitamin supplements and diet
problems" [27], [28]. With national overaids.4 Such fixes, argued supporters,
could correct for unbalanced dietary
sight, he suggested, technological analysis
regimes, hectic lifestyles, inexpert cookand problem-solving could trump traditioning, lack of will power, or low income.5
al social, political, economic, educational,
Figure 6. Alvin Weinberg
Perhaps the most dramatic of technologiand moral approaches.
in Washington, late 1960s.
cal fixes for lifestyle and diet-induced illInfluenced by campaigners such as Courtesy of ORNL and the
ness was the heart transplant, first trialed
Scott, Meier, and Weinberg, popular sup- Howard H. Baker Jr Center for
to public acclaim during the late 1960s,
port for technological solutions was partic- Public Policy, University of
Tennessee.
and hopes for artificial hearts [34].6
ularly strong in the decades after the war.
More recently, software technoloFor Weinberg the Manhattan Project
gies have been embraced by consumers as even more
represented the paradigm technological fix, in which a
seductive ways to supplement personal skills, improve
powerful technology neutralized enemy aggression and
efficiency, and empower lifestyles - a marketing phibypassed diplomatic negotiation and political allianclosophy dubbed "solutionism." By sidestepping tradies. Similarly, he credited the H-bomb as a technological
tional forms of education, self-motivation, skills
solution to the problem of war that did not require changdevelopment, or political action, such software soluing human nature.
tions are technological fixes in precisely the form
For Meier and Weinberg, postwar planning had prodefined by Weinberg.7
vided evidence that rationalized housing, transport
and communication networks could quickly improve
Institutional Confidence in Fixes
the quality of life in cities under any political system.
Technological fixes also remain popular for organizaNascent nuclear energy projects also channeled the
tions and government as solutions to novel and acute
promise of new technology to transform societies.
problems today. A couple of broad issues can suggest
During the Atoms for Peace initiative of the mid-1950s,
prevalent attitudes.
for example, atomic energy was forecast as a means
A first domain is resolution of environmental probof irradiating food to avoid spoilage, desalinating sealems. As environmental concerns rose in the late
water to irrigate deserts, and increase food produc1960s, with growing attention to air and river pollution,
tion, and supplying low-cost electrical power to boost
oil-tanker spills, and fears about nuclear waste,
economies [29].
Over the following decade, the successes of major
4
On the enrichment of staple foods with vitamins, see [31]. A more recent
technological projects provided confidence in engineerexample is "golden rice" bioengineered to produce beta-carotene as a technological fix for malnutrition from vitamin deficiency.
ing ingenuity to achieve ambitious goals. The space race
5
The socio-technical system of preserving, transporting, and consuming
addressed seemingly insoluble technical challenges and,
frozen foods, for example, was largely a post-Second World War development involving new technologies (notably refrigeration and microwaveas trumpeted by NASA, its contractors and media sourccooking) co-evolving with social and cultural changes (e.g., declining
es, spun off associated technologies for consumer beneproportion of primary homemakers and rise of convenience foods) [32].
Dietary aids included a rapidly expanding variety of over-the-counter prodfit.3 Urban planners supported regeneration projects in
ucts to increase metabolism, reduce appetite or fat absorption, and exerwhich reconfigured infrastructure would transform
cise machines to burn calories [33].
6
Other technological fixes for health include gastric bands and liposuction.
social life, such as implementing expressway networks
7

For a nuanced account of the socio-political context of spaceflight, see [30]).

march 2018

∕

E.g., "technology-enhanced learning" and "technology-mediated communication" are growing industries, and the Apple slogan "There's an App for
that" offers software solutions for human needs.

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