Introduction

In the classic story of industrialization, machines replaced human and animal muscles. Waterwheels replaced the oxen that turned grindstones in mills. Steam engines replaced the mules that had pulled boats upstream. Gunpowder replaced the arms that had drawn bows or flung spears. Gasoline engines replaced the horses that had drawn plows, wagons, and carriages. Electricity replaced the hands that had beaten eggs and scrubbed clothes. Somewhere along the way, our understanding of “technology” followed suit. In the minds of many historians, technology has consisted of machines and, more recently, systems of machines and humans. Hiding behind this view is an assumption about the relationship between technology and nature: technology replaced or modified nature, but nature was not technology. But since machines are always made from metal, wood, rubber, and other products of nature, the assumption boils down to-put bluntly-nature having to be dead to be technology.