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48

TECHNOLOGY REvIEwFEBRUARy/MARCH 1996

ContentsFEATURES

26 TECHNOLOGYAMISH SmEBY ERiC BRENDE

Contrary to popular belief, the Amish do not automatically reject newtechnology-in fact, they have created some key innovations. But theydo evaluate each potential change to ensure that it complements theircommunity-minded way of life. This approach has served as the basisfor a stable society where shared know-how provides cohesion.

INTERFACING WISELY OR Too WELL

34 INTERACTMlYWITH A HUMAN FACEBY HUGH ALDERSEY- WILLIAMS

As the complexity of human-machine encounters continues to grow,professionals such as psychologists and anthropologists are joiningwith product designers to make these interactions frustration-free.

41 SESSION WITH THE CYBERSHRINK:AN INTERVIEW WITH SHERRY TURKLEThe "Margaret Mead of the computer culture" discusses identity (actually,multiple identities) and social interaction (or the lack thereof) in the Ageof the Internet. And while she is exhilarated.by the potential for usingskills learned in virtual communities to enhance real life, she warns thatsome individuals might so immerse themselves in cyberspace as to createa shortage of commitment and resources where we physically live.

48 A DOWN-TO-EARTH APPROACHTO CLEAN PRODUCTIONBY NICHOlAS GERTLER AND JOHN R. EHRENFELD

Aseaside town in Denmark provides one of the world's most sophisticatedexamples of industrial symbiosis, in which companies exchange theirwastes and reuse their byproducts in a complex arrangement that mimicsthe workings of natural ecosystems. Fostering similar pollution-reducingand energy-saving initiatives in the U.S.will require friendlier signalsfrom regulators as well as a little help from entrepreneurial matchmakers.

COVER: PHOTOGRAPH BY SETH RESNICK

5 FIRST LINE

8 LETTERS

13 MIT REpORTERRobot Ant-ics; Nuclear-Age Sleuthing

17 17 TRENDSVideoconferencing for tile Rest of Us;Staying on the Road While Taking a Spin;Fertilizing Scientist-Fanner Collaborations; ASelf-Cleaning World

55 REFORMING THE REFORMERSLANGDONWm 'ER on how Congress's single-minded quest to shrink governmentis trashing the institutions that help tile nation chart its technological future.ROBERTM WHITEon fine-tuning, not dismantling, essential environmental laws.DANIELS.GREENBERGon the need for scientists to apply the aggressive, playing-for-keepspolitical tactics of some of the nation's heaviest-hitting interest group.

62 FORUMDANIEL A./ASHOPIndividuals and industries can help relieve global warming a lot faster ifmotivated by incentives, such as rebates or funding awards, that provokeserious investments in energy-efficient technologies and alternative fuels.

65 REVIEWSLorenR. Graham onThe Making of a Soviet Scientistby Roald Sagdeev.Arnold Barnett onA Mathematician Reads the NewspaperbyJohn Allen Paulos.Stephen D. Solomon onShowstopper! The Breakneck Race to CreateWindows NT and tbeNext Generation at Microsoftby G. Pascal Zachary.

65 80 PHENOME AHall of Progre

Technology Review (ISSN 0040·1692), Reg. .5. Patent Office,is published eight times each year Oanuary, February/March, April, Mayljune,July, AugusllSeptember, October, and NOl'ember/IJecember)by the Association of Alumni and Alumnae of the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnolog)'. Entire contents© 1')96. TIle editors seek diverseviews, and authors' opinionsdo not represent the official policies oftheir institutions or those of MIT. Wewelcome leiters to the eduor, Pleaseaddress them 10leiters Editor, c/o address below or by e-mall to: <technology-""'ew·letters@mitedu>.

Editorial, circulation, and advertising offices:Technology Review, BUilding W59, MIT, Cambridge, MA02139, (617) 253-8250; FAX(617)258·n64. Printed by Lane Press, S. Burlington, Yr.Second-class postage paid at Boston, MAand additional mailing offices Postmaster: send address changes toTedJ1lol0K!' RI!1.';ew, MIT. Building W59, Cambridge, MA02139, or e-mail to <lraddress@mltedu>

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TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

VOL.99/No.2

DEPARTMENTS

Printed inU.S.A.

EngineeringReflections:

Ken Jacob, in one of the Bose" Acoustic Research Labs.

Bose Corporation is among the most successful

American companies competing in the international con-

sumer products marketplace. We welcome exceptional

engineers with imagination and courage who wish to

pursue their ideas in an innovative team environment.

SENIOR UNIX SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATORApply your advanced technical and leadership skills in a fast growing anddiverse environment. This is a ground floor opportunity tobe involved inthe complete overhaul of our networked UNIX systems infrastructure.Requirements: Candidate must have a BS in Electrical Engineering orComputer Science,with a minimum of 5 years of directly related experienceand a high levelof expertise in: Perl, Bourne, and C scripting, systems man-agement utilities, system sizing and planning, bridging, routing, switching,TCP/IP, X, Motif, C, SunOS, Solaris, HP-U)(, internet connectivity.

"Iamconstantlyamazedby two things here: theraw caliber ofthe engi-neers and thepassionthey have for theirwork "

The Engineer: Ken]acob, Manager AcousticResearch, MS, Mechanical Engineering,Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Date Hired: May, 1984

Last Position: "I had left school and was work-ing at a technically very advanced theater, inaudio production. 1was really interested inprofessional audio butIknew nothing wouldseparate me from others in the field unlessIlearned the theory behind what1was doing.That was my incentive toreturn to school.1wanted to learn everything about sound."

The Goal: "IT you ask people how they feelabout sound systems in public places, they say'It's awful.' 1think there's an opportunity todramatically improve the sound quality ofthese systems by developing and applying newtechnologies. There's no reason why commer-cial sound systems can't sound every bit asgood as the best home systems."

1heResult:"The work herehas been unbeliev-ably challenging. Each day is different, eachproduct is different. I've worked on everythingfrom the world's firsthigh fidelity ceilingspeaker to the sound designs for the AlbertvilleOlympics. The work I've done herehas.madea real contribution to the professional soundindustry. At times it'sbeen very hard but therewards have made itall worthwhile."

For more information on opportunitiesatBose, pleasewrite, inconfidence, toPaul ',.McKinley, Director, Engineering Opera-tions, Bose Corporation, The Mountain,Framingham, MA 01701-9168.Bose is an Affirm.,ri,·e Action Employer.

-BIIS~Better sound through research ..

OI99Sb~ jN9SS91

Y cousin Mel is a professional"liquidator"--or, as he likes tocall himself, a "master mer-chant." He acquires the physi-

cal assets of defunct businesses and thenprofitably resells them, either as productsor raw materials, in other markets.

A few years ago he told me that he hadjust purchased a warehouse full of sliderules, some several hundred thousand ofthem. The "master merchant," I sadlyinformed him, had been duped-the sliderule, traditionally an indispensable tool for

, engineers,had been rendered totally obsoleteby the electronic calculator. "Oh, I knewthat," he replied. "I threw them all away.What I wanted was their leather cases."

My colleagues throughout the publish-ing industry are openly worrying thesedays that another traditional tool-theprint magazine-might suffer a similarfate. With the ascendancy of the Internet,and its potential for changing the worldof journalism to one that is virtually all-electronic, we fantasize that our belovedand hard-earned products will one dayretain only salvage value, say, for makingwallboard or grocery bags.

At the recent American Magazine Con-ference, the event of the year for the busi-ness's leaders, this dominant concern wasclear. In formal sessions and casual con-

I versations alike, participants made con-stant reference to the perceived threat thatthe "online revolution" poses to conven-tional magazines. Commentators wouldthen quickly follow up, in whistling-past-the-graveyard fashion, with reasons whycyberspace couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn'tkill print. The World Wide Web servessizzle, we serve steak. "Electronic publish-ing" (seemingly an oxymoron) is light-weight, while our stuff is serious. Printhas "primacy," asserted Tina Brown, edi-tor of theNew Yorker, while online is "anapproximate world" that cannot matchprint's "complexity, sophistication, andstaying power."

Of course, online can do things thatprint cannot do so well, or at all. It can bea prodigious engine for informationsearching. It is not one-way, but interac-tive. And it is unsurpassed as a global com-munications medium permitting not only

FirstLine-

MAGAZINES

MEETmONLINE

REVOLUTION

-Lfs be nice tothe kid.

When hegrows ttp,

he may be our boss.

low-cost conversations or transactions butthe establishment of whole new social andprofessional networks.

Ali that is very promising and exciting.But why should it threaten print? Even thecyberspace aficionados concede that whenyou actually have to read something longerthan a couple of paragraphs, nothing beatsink on paper. "The computeris remarkablyclumsy for delivering prose," Raymond W.Smith, chairman and CEO of the BellAtlantic Corp., admitted at the magazineconference. "People turn to online notto

read but to become part of a community."In that spirit, print magazines are

increasingly establishing electronic pres-ences. One can sampleTime and theAtlantic Monthly on America Online, forexample, or visit theTechnology Reviewhome page on the World Wide Web. Byso doing, you can tap into some of themagazines' archives or converse with theirstaffs. But although these cyberspace ver-sions provide some unique services, theyare adjuncts to, not replacements of, ourmain bu iness. Because print can t do thejob of online, and online can't do the job ofprint, the two must coexist. Such comple-mentarity satisfies the needs of the audi-ence to alternatively read and reach out,each in their optimal domains.

That s true for the pre ent. But what ifcyberspace continues to expand and

mature so much that it eventually is ca-pable of taking over areas, like much ofprint, previously considered sacrosanct?Asplaywright George S. Kaufman noted, chil-dren didn't botherhim. He objected onlythat they grew up and crowded the sub-ways. What if the Internet also grows up?If reading from a computer is currentlyclumsy, who says it can't become graceful,maybe even more convenient than print?

"Digital documents," predicts com-puter-industry entrepreneur Bill Gates inhis new bookThe Road Ahead,ultimately"won't even be fully printable on paper.They will be like a movie or a song istoday." Likewise, "incremental improve-ments in computer and screen technol-ogy will give us a lightweight, universalelectronic book" that "will be able tohelp us in new ways."

If such predictions indeed come to pass,they will clearly begin fulfilling some ofprint journalists' wor t fears. But as spiri-tual leader Meher Baba used to advi e,"Don't worry. Be happy." Even in theextreme and unlikely case that printbecomes utterly obsolete, the skills andstandards behind magazines would not diewith it. The new medium would still needto be replete with "software" types-peo-ple who do the actual journalism anddeliver high-quality products. The samedefenders of the language, crafters of intel-lectual beats, and explorers of policy issues,and their commitment to telling a goodstory and satisfying the audience, would beas crucial as ever. They would just be doingbusiness in a new location.

So our task is not necessarilyto holdonto a medium that's in the process of fad-ing out-if that's in fact what is happen-ing-but to be open to gradual and mean-ingful opportunities for applying our skillsand pursuing our visions in ever moreinteresting, diverse, accessible, and usefulways. If my cousin Mel ever comes to pur-chase and re ellTR's stock of past issuessimply for the paper, I hope I'll have longsince stopped worrying. The concepts,talents, and materials the magazineem bodies will ideally ha ve been recy-cled to new and possibly more produc-tive enterprises .•

-STEVEN J. MARc s

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 5

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Easy activities that makelearning math fun! Packedwith illustrations, Math forEvery Kid uses simple prob-lems and activities to teachkids about measurements,fractions, graphs, geometryfigures, problemsolving and more!

Ages 8-12, Paperback,215pages, $10.95

Bill Nye The ScienceGuy's Big Blast of Science

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A highly cool handbook forthe laws of nature frommolecules to the Milky Way.With science projects andawe orne fun for everyone.Bill Nye the Science Guyknows how cool science canbe! After a 11,everything inthe universe involves science.You already think scientifically every day, even ifyou don't know it!Ages 10-14, Paperback,171pages, $12.95

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Combining the fun of mak-ing a piece of paper fly withthe science of aeronauticalengineering, here is an all-you-need book for begin-ners and experienced flyersalike. Written with soaringenthusiasm by the world-record holder Ken Black-burn, it includes: 16 differ-ent designs,100 full-colorready to fold airplanes, plus a tear-out runwayand custom flight log.All ages, Paperback, $12.95

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8 FEBRUARY/MARCH 1996

Letters

DON'T DISCONNECTTIlE BRIGHT LIGHTSIn "The National Labs Unplugged?"(Trends,TR October 1995), Seth Shul-man lumps the Department of Energy'sweapons laboratories with the non-weapons multiprogram laboratories.The Brookhaven National Laboratory,which belongs in the latter category, wasestablished after World WarIT by scien-tists from nine eastern universities (in-cluding MIT), not to build bombs but tocreate research tools for universities andindustry that otherwise could not indi-vidually handle such projects.

Brookhaven has been remarkably suc-cessful in its mission. Eight scientists havereceived obel Prizes for work that wasconducted in our facilities. The NationalSynchrotron Light Source, one of themost intense sources of x-rays and ultra-violet light in the world, attracts morethan 2,300 users each year. The lightsource has enabled IBM and AT&T todevelop x-ray lithography, Exxon andMobil to study catalysts, and Du Pont tocategorize chemical waste. MIT re-searchers have three beamlines for x-rayscattering studies at the light source. U.S.industries and universities have showntheir support for Brookhaven by addingmore than $100 million dollars' worthof their own experimental equipment.

Shulman refers to the Galvin report'sclaims of "'increasing overhead, poormorale, and gross inefficiencies' in the fed-erallaboratory system." But by omittingthe rest of the phrase, " ... as a result ofthe overly prescriptive Congressional man-agement and excessive oversight by theDepartment," Shulman leaves the impres-sion that this statement was aimed at thelaboratories. The Galvin report, far fromcriticizing Brookhaven, had high praisefor the laboratory, as stated directly byMr. Galvin to 300 users of the NationalSynchrotron Light Source at their annualmeeting in 1995. Indeed, most of thereport's barbs were directed at the DOEbureaucracy and not at the laboratories.

MARTI BLUME

Deputy DirectorBrookhaven National Laboratory

Upton,N.Y.

DIS-ORGANIZATIONEven more disturbing than the demise of"the organization man" that LangdonWinner discusses in "The Age ofExpendability" (TR August/September1995) is that this phenomenon has gonebeyond the corporate world. Thus,institutions that were createdto providelong-term vision, reflection, and guid-ance have been deemed expendable aswell. An example is the recent closure ofthe Office of Technology Assessment,which was highly regarded not only inthe United States but in other parts ofthe world.

Even here at the United Nations,fewer and fewer of us are part of aninternational civil service while moreand more work is being done by short-term consultants. Although the reasonsfor this trend are manifold, political andfinancial pressures to deprofessionalizethe U.N. under the pretext of ineffi-ciency are obvious.

The long-term social costs of thistrend surpass the suffering of individu-als thrown out of their jobs and ca-reers. A society where people no longerhave a sense of belonging to an orga--nization, and where there are no insti-tutions to soundly analyze and guidepolitical decision making, is unlikelyto be a stable one.

DIETER KOEN) G

Division for Science and TechnologyUnited ations Conference on Trade

and DevelopmentGeneva, Switzerland

FITIING IN TIlE POOR AT A PRICEThe opening to "Fitting the Poor into theEconomy" (Forum,TR October1995) isas eloquent a statement as I've read coun-tering the general notion of the poor asundeserving and the specific notion thatthey are the cause of social and economicproblems.

However, author HerbertJ. Gans'ssugge tion that we discourage the devel-opment and use of labor-saving technol-ogy stopped me cold. Although ornetechnology should be discouraged, Iwould not collectively label all labor-sav-ing technology as bad. I doubt many peo-