when you add these three different approaches together, what do you get?
all history involves different perspectives
what are the differences in what each book thinks is important?

Nye--

• technology isn't inevitable, people have the final say
• is he pro or anti-technology, or what is his perspective?
• maybe the balance is between enthusiasm and caution
  
• presents both sides
• he argues that technology is something that can bring benefits but we need to be concerned about it and manage it better
• he considers what we need to look at and understand in order to do this
  

Lienhard--

• where new technology comes from
• invention is complex, it is not just one person with a flash of genius
• the origins of a technology are affected by many things--including strange people and strange accidents
• notices the back and forth between science and technology
• would not agree with the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair: "Science discovers, technology applies, man conforms"
• gives us some theory about how technology develops
  

Cowan--

• technology has a long history, it isn't just computers or science-based technology
• gives us tools to think about technology, not just a list of events
  
• technology comes in systems--before a technology can be successful it needs an infrastructure to support it
• other example would be the idea of automobility or how are different people affected by a technology
  
• our ideas affect technology and technology affects our ideas (consider automobile and individualism)
• technology is not just shaped by engineering questions but by ideas as well
  

what do you get when you put these together:

• technologies have stories--to understand what we have we need to look into how it came to be
  
• technologies have meanings--what meanings we give them affect their direction and use
• Kranzberg: technology is neither good nor bad nor is it neutral
  
• technology affects key issues of what we want out of life--freedom, privacy, work, family
  
• do we like what technology does for us?
• but not if it goes too far
• we ask this question historically--what were the benefits and what were the costs and what was done to alleviate the costs
• where do we want to go in the future and should we be careful of in order to get
  
• technology is something where we have choices--as citizens, as consumers--if we think about those choices
• the more powerful our technology gets the more cautious we need to be--think about the consequences before we go forward