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Transports of Delight

How Technology Materializes Human Imagination

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Peter Hancock

    1. Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida Department of Psychology, Orlando, USA

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  • Offers an important history lesson on technologies

  • Provokes enjoyable discussions on how even unsuccessful historical examples can inspire us to materialize our dreams with technology

  • Shows how technology offers people new perspectives on the world around them

  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
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  2. INTRODUCTION

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 1-14

  3. GHOSTS OF THE TEMERAIRE

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 15-27

  4. WHAT A SIGHT IT IS

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 28-52

  5. THE LARGEST MOVING OBJECT EVER BUILT

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 53-73

  6. REACHING FOR GOD

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 74-96

  7. SURVIVING SISTERS

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 97-112

  8. THE RIDDLE OF THE LABYRINTH

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 113-127

  9. SHIPS OF THE SOUL

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 128-149

  10. THREADS THROUGH TIME

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 150-166

  11. TRANSPORTS OF DELIGHT

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 167-192

  12. AUTOBIOMIMESIS

    • Peter Hancock
    Pages 193-210

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 211-235
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Keywords

About this book

This inspiring book shows how the spiritual side of life, with its thoughts, feelings, and aspirations, is intimately bound up with our material technologies. From the wonder of Gothic Cathedrals, to the quiet majesty of lighter than air flight, to the ultimate in luxury of the north Atlantic steamers, Peter Hancock explores how these sequential heights of technology have enabled our dreams of being transported to new and uncharted realms to become reality. Sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively, technology has always been there to make material the visions of our imagination. This book shows how this has essentially been true for all technologies from Stonehenge to space station.
But technology is far from perfect. Indeed, the author argues here that some of the most public and tragic of its failures still remain instructive, emblematic, and even inspiring. He reports on examples such as a Cathedral of the Earth (Beauvais), a Cathedral of the Seas (Titanic), and a Cathedral of the Air (Hindenburg) and tells their stories from the viewpoint of material transcendence. By interweaving their stories he reveals how technologies can succeed in elevating human beings and, in taking them to whole new realms of being, he explores and explains why these experiences are ‘Transports of Delight.’

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida Department of Psychology, Orlando, USA

    Peter Hancock

About the author

Peter Hancock is Provost Distinguished Research Professor, Pegasus Professor, and University Trustee Chair in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida where he directs the Minds in Technology, Machines in Thought Laboratory. He focuses on issues concerning human-technology interaction, specifically within the realm of highly complex operations in risk-laden environments. Most particularly, Professor Hancock has conducted extensive research on individual and team performance in high stress and high cognitive workload circumstances. He has an abiding interest in time and within that context he has written an internationally best-selling book on King Richard III of England. Professor Hancock has been awarded the Liberty Mutual Medal of the International Ergonomics Association as well as the Jastrezbowski Medal of the Polish Ergonomic Society for his scientific contributions. He is a Fellow of nine scientific societies including the American Psychological Association (APA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Transports of Delight

  • Book Subtitle: How Technology Materializes Human Imagination

  • Authors: Peter Hancock

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55248-4

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Engineering, Engineering (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-55247-7Published: 22 May 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-85607-0Published: 28 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-55248-4Published: 11 May 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXV, 235

  • Number of Illustrations: 52 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Popular Science in Technology, Applied Psychology, History of Technology, Philosophy of Technology

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