The Bicycle: Vehicle for Societal Change, STS 2690
Steve Jobs described the computer as “ a bicycle for the mind.” This course explores the reasons why the founder of the personal computer industry and Apple Computer equates the sophisticated electronic technology of the computer with the simple mechanical technology of the bicycle. Both inventions have had farreaching effects on global society in the past, through the present, and will have into the future. This course will study the role of the bicycle as the most efficient form of personal transportation ever devised, and its influence on the development of other means of transportation such as the automobile and the airplane. The course also examines the bicycle as a source of good roads, modern production technology, global business competition, and mass marketing techniques. The bicycle's historical role in war and as a vehicle of emancipation for women and blacks, and its modern and future roles in both developed and developing countries also will be explored.
