{"id":13461,"date":"2015-02-14T00:13:33","date_gmt":"2015-02-14T04:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/etherwave.wordpress.com\/?p=13461"},"modified":"2015-02-14T00:13:33","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T04:13:33","slug":"book-review-patrick-mccrays-the-visioneers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/2015\/02\/14\/book-review-patrick-mccrays-the-visioneers\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Patrick McCray’s The Visioneers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"McCray,<\/a><\/p>\n

I have a new book review out in\u00a0Technology & Culture\u00a0<\/em>of<\/span> Patrick McCray’s<\/a><\/span>\u00a0The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(Princeton University Press, 2012).<\/span>\u00a0Access the review here.<\/a><\/span> If you can’t get by the paywall, the “excerpt” constitutes virtually the entire review.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only section excluded is my suggestion of\u00a0a number of books that complement McCray’s history.\u00a0The Visioneers\u00a0<\/em>is a very able contribution to a growing historiography of activities and ideas that have existed at the edge of mainstream science and technology, often flitting between legitimate, even groundbreaking work, and sheer fantasy. While the book\u00a0<\/em>revolves around Gerard O’Neill’s prospective studies of viable space colonies, and K. Eric Drexler’s interest in the development of molecular machines, it is really about a broad, multifaceted culture of technological enthusiasm, which McCray also explores\u00a0through his<\/span> Leaping Robot blog<\/a><\/span>. If you are not aware of the blog, please have a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other entries in this historiography might include:<\/span><\/p>\n

Fred Turner’s<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(2006)<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Pickering’s<\/a> <\/span>The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches from Another Future<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(2010)<\/span><\/p>\n

Eden Medina’s<\/a> <\/span>Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(2011)<\/span><\/p>\n

Helge Kragh’s<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Higher Speculations: Grand Theories and Failed Revolutions in Physics and Cosmology<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(2011 –<\/span> see my\u00a0Centaurus\u00a0<\/em>review<\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

David Kaiser’s<\/a>\u00a0How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival<\/em> <\/a><\/span>(2011), and<\/span><\/p>\n

Michael Gordin’s<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/em>(2012). <\/span><\/p>\n

If you have additional suggestions, please drop them in the comments<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new book review out in\u00a0Technology & Culture\u00a0of Patrick McCray’s\u00a0The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnologies, and a Limitless Future\u00a0(Princeton University Press, 2012).\u00a0Access the review here. If you can’t get by the paywall, the “excerpt” constitutes virtually the entire review. The only section excluded is my suggestion of\u00a0a<\/p>\n

Continue Reading… Book Review: Patrick McCray’s The Visioneers<\/span>Continue Reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[111,312,460,532,589,889,1076,1152],"class_list":["post-13461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ewp-book-club","tag-andrew-pickering","tag-david-kaiser","tag-fred-turner","tag-gerard-oneill","tag-helge-kragh","tag-k-eric-drexler","tag-michael-gordin","tag-patrick-mccray"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}