Packet switching works well for moving data -- why not use it for moving humans? In a nutshell, the French Aramis transit project proposed packet switching as a solution to human transport problems (though, so far as I can tell, neither the author nor any reviews I have yet read have made this connection). With all the brouhaha about moving bytes around on the information superhighways, moving people around real cities has become less glamorous -- after all, the current mythology is that telecommuting will render the automobile obsolete, right? With the prevailing American tendency to think in terms of technological manifest destiny, stories about superior technologies failing miserably are usually glossed over in an obsession with teleology (history is an inevitable march toward greater perfection). In contrast, this book describes an extraordinarily well-designed and highly superior semi-personal robotic transit system developed by the French government -- and then squashed by the French government. It is written in a style that only a Gallic scientist could conceive (for example, in a passage about project complexity, Latour writes: ...The monkey is readily identified as a creature of desire...). Because of such stylistic excrescences, I personally I found this book somewhat difficult to read at times, but I recommend it very highly to anyone interested in the history of technology, cross-cultural studies, telecommunications -- or the burgeoning application of packet switching principles to mass transit.
Another Amazon.com review:
This quirky book tells the unusual story of an effort by the French government from 1969 to 1987 develop a robotic transit system in Paris. Some 500 million francs were spent in research on the system, which was proposed to take passengers to virtually any stop without going through a transfer. One of its ideas was that the transit car was to split in the middle, carrying passengers on one side of the car to one destination and those on the other side to another. Strange? Yes, but altogether true, and this book tells the story in a manner befitting the experiment.
The New York Times Book Review, M. R. Montgomery
It may have been a wild goose chase, but Aramis: Or, The Love of Technology ... comes out the way a game bird should, juicy and delicious.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Aramis or The Love of Technology FROM THE PUBLISHER
A guided-transportation system intended for Paris, Aramis represented a major advance in personal rapid transit: it combined the efficiency of a subway with the flexibility of an automobile. But in the end, its electronic couplings proved too complex and expensive, the political will failed, and the project died in 1987. The story of Aramis is told by several different parties, none of which take precedence over any other: a young engineer and his professor, who act as detective to ferret out the reasons for the project's failure; company executives and elected officials; a sociologist; and finally Aramis itself, who delivers a passionate plea: technological innovation has needs and desires, especially a desire to be born, but cannot live without the sustained commitment of those who have created it.
Art & Photography
Book Info
