lauf-s wrote:
in a book on inventors and invention Thomas P. Hughes
wrote about a certain approach that looks for weak-
points in which major innovations are a result of
what he described as 'reverse salients'. i do not
know which book it was (american genesis or networks
of power) though it was a key idea, and i think the
word 'salients' is used in military planning, etc.
3.2 Reverse Salients and Simultaneous Inventions
http://repo-nt.tcc.virginia.edu/book/chap3/chapter3sec2.html
The Social Construction of Technology
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/280/soconstr.html
// it may have been this essay in another book...
"The Evolution of Large Technological Systems" by T. Hughes
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/280/techsys.html
SCOT examples
http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/cs294.dir/notes4.htm
'6. Reverse Salients: analogy to fluid flow; the progress in development is slowed by certain components, so engineering often focused on these. ex: Edison had to compete financially with gas lighting, so high cost of copper conductors was reverse salient -- he focused on high-resistance filament to create low-current demand, thus lowering amount of copper in wires. Edison failed to solve the dc reverse salient; ac was introduced.'
Can it be said that precisely attacking flaws engenders paradigm shifts?
in a book on inventors and invention Thomas P. Hughes
wrote about a certain approach that looks for weak-
points in which major innovations are a result of
what he described as 'reverse salients'. i do not
know which book it was (american genesis or networks
of power) though it was a key idea, and i think the
word 'salients' is used in military planning, etc.
3.2 Reverse Salients and Simultaneous Inventions
http://repo-nt.tcc.virginia.edu/book/chap3/chapter3sec2.html
The Social Construction of Technology
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/280/soconstr.html
// it may have been this essay in another book...
"The Evolution of Large Technological Systems" by T. Hughes
http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/280/techsys.html
SCOT examples
http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/cs294.dir/notes4.htm
'6. Reverse Salients: analogy to fluid flow; the progress in development is slowed by certain components, so engineering often focused on these. ex: Edison had to compete financially with gas lighting, so high cost of copper conductors was reverse salient -- he focused on high-resistance filament to create low-current demand, thus lowering amount of copper in wires. Edison failed to solve the dc reverse salient; ac was introduced.'