The Technology Trap: Where Human Error and Malevolence Meet Powerful Technologies

by Lloyd J. Dumas

Overview

In this eye-opening book, author Lloyd J. Dumas argues that our capacity for developing ever more powerful technologies and the unavoidable fallibility of both machine and man will lead us towards a disaster of an unprecedented scale.

Most of us assume that those in charge can always find a way to control any technology mankind creates, no matter how powerful. But in a world of imperfect human beings who are prone to error, emotion, and sometimes to malevolent behavior, this could be an arrogant—and disastrous—assumption.

This book is filled with compelling, factual stories that illustrate how easy it is for situations to go terribly wrong, despite our best efforts to prevent any issue. The author is not advocating an anti-technology "returban to nature," nor intending to highlight the marvels of our high-tech world. Instead, the objective is to reveal the potential for disaster that surrounds us in our modern world, elucidate how we arrived at this predicament, explain the nature and ubiquity of human fallibility, expose why proposed "solutions" to these Achilles heels cannot work, and suggest alternatives that could thwart human-induced technological disasters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313378881
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/02/2010
Pages:	394
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Lloyd J. Dumas is a social scientist and engineer.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Part I: Threatening Ourselves
1 Human Fallibility and the Proliferation of Dangerous Technologies
2 Dangerous Technologies and the Terrorist Threat
Part II: What Could Go Wrong?
3 Losing Control (of Dangerous Materials)
4 Accidents Do Happen
Appendix Tables: Major Accidents Related to Weapons of Mass Destruction
5 Accidental War with Weapons of Mass Destruction
Part III: Why It Can Happen Here: Understanding the Human Factor
6 Substance Abuse and Mental Illness
7 The Character of Work; the Conditions of Life
Part IV: "Solutions" That Do Not Work
8 Seeking Safety in Numbers: The Reliability of Groups
9 Making Technology Foolproof
10 Computers Instead of People
Part V: Finding Solutions That Do Work
11 Judging Risk
12 Escaping the Trap: Four Steps for Preventing Disaster
Index

What People are Saying About This

Herbert L. Abrams

"No one could provide a better understanding of the risks of complex technology than Dumas has achieved in this volume. . . Dumas has constructed a compelling and powerfully documented warning on the dangers that we ignore at our own risk as a society. He deserves not only a wide reading but equally our gratitude for his majesterial sounding of the alarm."
— Herbert L. Abrams, M.D., Philip H. Cook Professor and Chairman of Radiology, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Radiology, Emeritus, Stanford University; Member in Residence, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation

Lawrence Korb

"Dumas' powerful and carefully documented analysis clearly demonstrates that the inherent fallibility of human beings is compatible with the increasing global proliferation of dangerous technologies. Most assuredly, as he convinvingly argues, the only way to render nuclear weapons in particular "impotent and obsolete" is to get rid of them."

—

Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Victor W. Sidel

"This extraordinarily detailed yet remarkably readable book provides a warning of the imminent problems that new technologies pose. Along with pointing out the dangers, this indispensible book also teaches us what we can do to help avoid these risks. The facts presented should be understood and the advice heeded by every thoughtful policy-maker and by every responsible person with the power to warn and to prevent disaster."

—

Victor W. Sidel, MD, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY; past President, Physicians for Social Responsibility and American Public Health Association

Victor W. Sidel

"This extraordinarily detailed yet remarkably readable book provides a warning of the imminent problems that new technologies pose. Along with pointing out the dangers, this indispensible book also teaches us what we can do to help avoid these risks. The facts presented should be understood and the advice heeded by every thoughtful policy-maker and by every responsible person with the power to warn and to prevent disaster."
— Victor W. Sidel, MD, Distinguished University Professor of Social Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY; past President, Physicians for Social Responsibility and American Public Health Association

David Krieger

"It will remain impossible to effectively control, manage or eliminate the technologies that threaten us until we awaken to the extreme dangers, including extinction, which these technologies, combined with human fallibility, make possible -- even probable. If you care about the future, read The Technology Trap and share it with a politician."

—

David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Bill Joy

"Those who wish -- and we all should -- to reduce the risks of catastrophe from human fallibility, from use or abuse of powerful technologies, would benefit from reading -- and heeding -- The Technology Trap."

—

Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems

Herbert L. Abrams

"No one could provide a better understanding of the risks of complex technology than Dumas has achieved in this volume. . . Dumas has constructed a compelling and powerfully documented warning on the dangers that we ignore at our own risk as a society. He deserves not only a wide reading but equally our gratitude for his majesterial sounding of the alarm."

—

Herbert L. Abrams, M.D., Philip H. Cook Professor and Chairman of Radiology, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Radiology, Emeritus, Stanford University; Member in Residence, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation

Bill Joy

"Those who wish -- and we all should -- to reduce the risks of catastrophe from human fallibility, from use or abuse of powerful technologies, would benefit from reading -- and heeding -- The Technology Trap ."
— Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems

Lawrence Korb

"Dumas' powerful and carefully documented analysis clearly demonstrates that the inherent fallibility of human beings is compatible with the increasing global proliferation of dangerous technologies. Most assuredly, as he convinvingly argues, the only way to render nuclear weapons in particular "impotent and obsolete" is to get rid of them."
— Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

David Krieger

"It will remain impossible to effectively control, manage or eliminate the technologies that threaten us until we awaken to the extreme dangers, including extinction, which these technologies, combined with human fallibility, make possible -- even probable. If you care about the future, read The Technology Trap and share it with a politician."

— David Krieger, President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Editorial Reviews

Recommended. Public and academic undergraduate library collections.” —Choice

From the Publisher