Public Understand. Sci. 3 zyxwvut (1994) 233-238. zyxwvu Printed zyxwvu in the UK ESSAY REVIEW Technology: society’s missing mass Arie Rip discusses zyxwvu Shaping Tecltnology/Building Society, edited by Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law Don’t read this book from the beginning to the end, as I did. Start with Chapter z 8, with its intriguing title: ‘Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts’. As always, Bruno Latour, its author, is out to entertain and to instruct. And he shifts you into new frames of mind and meaning, where you can’t look at a door any more without realizing what a miracle of technology it is, and what it tells us about technology and ourselves. Walls are a nice invention, but if there were no holes in them there would be no way to get in or out-they would be mausoleums or tombs. The problem is that if you make holes in the walls, anything and anyone can get in and out (cows, visitors, dust, rats, noise zyxwv (. . .)and, worst of all [to the French]. cold (. . .)). So architects invented this hybrid: a wall hole, often called a zyx door (. . .). The cleverness of the invention hinges upon the hinge-pin: instead of driving a hole through walls with a sledgehammer or a pick, you simply gently push the door (. . .): furthermore-and here is the real trick-once you have passed through the door, you do not have to find trowel and cement to rebuild the wall you have just destroyed: you simply push the door gently back (. . .). (p.227-228) By having a door, and using it according to its script,’ we are relieved of an enormous amount of effort. The work of handling the wall, and the cold draughts, and the keeping out of unwanted visitors, has been delegated to (in this case) a non-human character. It is a reversal of forces: instead of expending efforts directly, tasks are delegated, and the main effort is now in policing rlre delegores (this is the phrase used by the editors. Bijker and Law, to generalize the point). In this case. policing entails oiling the hinges, making sure the door fits the wall hole. and making sure it is actually being closed after it has been opened. For this last issue, one has to rely on humans, who are notoriously unreliable. So what can we do? This is where the age-old Mumfordian choice is offered to you: either to discipline the people or to substitute for the unreliable people another delegated human character whose only function is to open and close the door. This is called a groom or a porter (. . .), or a gatekeeper, or a janitor, or a concierge, or a turnkey, or a jailer. The advantage is that you now have to discipline only one human and may safely leave the others to their erratic behaviour. (p.230) 0963-6625/94/020233+06$19.50 @ 1994 IOP Publishing Ltd and The Science Museum 233 at Universiteit Twente on January 7, 2016 pus.sagepub.com Downloaded from