Exploring Electrical Technology

1. Exploring Electrical Technology The Electrifying Future From Chapter 8 of Nye’s Electrifying America

2. Nye’s Purpose • Suggests the sense Americans have had as a culture about our own history and specifically how electrification both fit and fashioned its views of the future • Assertion: “Americans have long tended to see the present as only a faint outline of the future…”

3. Culture Sources of Optimism • Religious: Christian Eschatology • Economic: Capitalism • Psychological: frontier tradition epitomized in the phrase “building tomorrow out of a crude present”

4. Culture Sources of Optimism • Scientific: theory of evolution “survival of the fitest” • Philosophical: utopian expectations-continued rise in material standards of living by virtue of technology

5. Reasons for Utopian Hopes • Newness of the technology (still in 1930s) • Speed & scope of electrification in America (excluding rural areas) • Apparent progress even during the Depression

6. Dysutopian Sources of Pessimism • National Electrical Light Association (NELA) hearing (1928-1934) • Controversy: exposed bad faith practices on the part of this interest group supporting private (vs. public) utilities preferentially and covertly • Result: hearing lasted 6 years and it politicized the electrification process

7. Dysutopian Sources of Pessimism • “Chains of Lightning” • A popular novel by Mellet • Highlighted the unpopularity of utility presidents at the time • Trial of Insull • Former president of Chicago-based utility empire that collapsed during the Depression • Fled first successfully from arrest, later arrained and acquitted, but not in the public eye

8. Dysutopian Sources of Pessimism • “Brave New World” • Science fiction novel by Huxley • Depicts a future society organized according to industrial principles including human reproduction

9. Political Factor: Technocracy Movement • Origins • Created at Columbia U. School of Engineering • Advocated by Howard Scott & Walter Rautenstauch • Held an “energy theory of value” • Reasoned that it was the “sole scientific foundation for the monetary system…” • Wanted to give “energy certificates” to each citizen based on the total amount of power available for production • Result: groups emerged in CA, Denver, Chicago

10. Technocracy View • Automation would continue to • Eliminate more jobs • Create an imbalance between production & consumption • Necessitate a correction to the capitalistic “price” system that only they could do

11. Technocracy’s Demise? • Its leading proponent (Howard Scott) • Temperamental & overstated his academic credentials • Developed no political action plan • Without a strong leader, the movement fragmented • Ideas shared & carried on by many other intellectuals • Technology is not under proper control • Split existed between American culture & industrial civilization • Imbalances were arising between man & nature; production & consumption

12. Fashionable Trends • Distinguish between Civilization & Culture • Civilization  technology, scientific achievement, institutions & organizations, power & material or financial success • Culture  traditions & values that pre-existed the modern world

13. Fashionable Trends • Photography • “View of Morgantown” shows cross-bars of utility pole that cut across the harmony of the town & superimpose it on a technological grid • “Lines man at work” by Dorothy Lange shows two men precariously balanced on cross poles apparently impervious to nature

14. Fashionable Trends in Artwork • “Light of the World” by Peter Blume (1932) • Nye’s description: • presents an enormous electric light that dominates the center of the canvass • Stands on a pedestal before the door of a house • 4 persons gaze at the light with expressions of awe • A Gothic Church looms in the background • Nye’s interpretation: Christ is not the light of this world; rather science and engineering have replaced religion as people turn their backs to the church & stare at the light

15. Conclusion • If “Light of the World” suggests a split between culture & civilization or a growing ambivalence to technological change due to blanket acceptance of electrification and technology itself, it may be the basis for many Christians to take an Anti-technology position. Other Christians who disagree take a Pro- or “Responsible” position.