''Aramis, or the Love of Technology'' was written by French sociologist/

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

Bruno Latour Bruno Latour (; ; 22 June 1947 – 9 October 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.Wheeler, Will. ''Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations'' Critical Theory for Library and Information Science. Librari ...

. ''Aramis'' was originally published in French in 1993; the English translation by Catherine Porter, copyrighted in 1996, , is now in its fourth printing (2002). Latour describes his text as "scientifiction," which he describes as "a hybrid genre... for a hybrid task" (p. ix). The genre includes voices of a young engineer discussing his "sociotechnological initiation," his professor's commentary which introduces Actor-network theory (ANT), field documents - including real-life interviews, and the voice of Aramis—a failed technology (Latour, Bruno. (1996). Aramis, or the Love of Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. x). The book is a quasi-mystery, which attempts to discover who killed

Aramis René d'Herblay, alias Aramis, is a fictional character in the novels ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844), '' Twenty Years After'' (1845), and '' The Vicomte de Bragelonne'' (1847–1850) by Alexandre Dumas, père. He and the other two musketeers, ...

. Aramis was supposed to be implemented as a

Personal Rapid Transit Personal rapid transit (PRT), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis, is a public transport mode featuring a network of specially built guideways on which ride small automated vehicles that carry few (generally less than 6) passenge ...

(PRT) system in Paris. Simultaneously, while investigating Aramis's demise, Latour delineates the tenets of Actor-network theory. Latour argues that the technology failed not because any particular actor killed it, but because the actors failed to sustain it through negotiation and adaptation to a changing social situation.

* Preface * Prologue: Who Killed Aramis? # An Exciting Innovation # Is Aramis Feasible? # Shilly-Shallying in the Seventies # Interphase: Three Years of Grace # The 1984 Decision: Aramis Exists for Real # Aramis at the CET Stage: Will it Keep its Promise? # Aramis is Ready to Go (Away) * Epilogue: Aramis Unloved * Glossary

References

{{Bruno Latour 1993 books Actor-network theory Harvard University Press books Works by Bruno Latour Science and technology studies works Books in philosophy of technology

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