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2017 | Book

INTRODUCTION Read chapter Read first chapter

Transports of Delight

How Technology Materializes Human Imagination

Author: Peter Hancock

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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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.’

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
INTRODUCTION
ONE NARRATIVE OF MANY STORIES
Abstract
My book is not just an historical account of each of the respective ‘transports’ that I describe. In fact, their creation, their existence and their destruction have been documented elsewhere, and in more detail than I accomplish here [2]. For my present purposes, I have drawn liberally from these various sources and I am happy to acknowledge my profound debt to each of them.
Peter Hancock
GHOSTS OF THE TEMERAIRE
Abstract
In order to frame each of the individual stories of the respective transports that I focus on, I first want to found my discourse on one wonderfully evocative, and indeed provocative, vision. Sadly, this vision is not my own. Rather, it derives from the inspiration of a nineteenth century artist who created an image that has become one of the most emblematic of a nation.
Peter Hancock
WHAT A SIGHT IT IS
Abstract
With the above words, the radio commentator Herbert Morrison decorated his live broadcast on WLS, the Chicago-based, Prairie Farmer Station, on the night of Thursday May 6, 1937.
Peter Hancock
THE LARGEST MOVING OBJECT EVER BUILT
Abstract
Almost exactly one-quarter of a century before the Hindenburg crash, at 11:40 pm on the night of Sunday 14th, April, 1912, the triple-screwed 46,328 ton, 882 foot White Star Liner ‘Titanic,’ the then largest moving object ever built by human hands, hit an iceberg south of Cape Race in the North Atlantic and sank in just over two and a half hours.
Peter Hancock
REACHING FOR GOD
Abstract
The Cathedrals of Chartres and Rheims are among the greatest buildings in all of human civilization. Their respective stories have been largely ones of sustained success.
Peter Hancock
SURVIVING SISTERS
Abstract
Up to this point I have focused upon the specific stories of the three ‘transports’ which each suffered a sudden and disastrous destruction. One obvious reason for this is that the stories associated with the Hindenburg, the Titanic and to a lesser extent Beauvais Cathedral, are well-known.
Peter Hancock
THE RIDDLE OF THE LABYRINTH
Abstract
I realize that in what I have written so far, there is a danger of seeing the ‘transports’ I’ve described as essentially passive experiences. That is, they appear to be journeys that happen to you, or are imposed upon you, rather than you generating the experience yourself.
Peter Hancock
SHIPS OF THE SOUL
Abstract
Having provided what are predominantly fact-based accounts of the respective ‘transports’ and further, having considered aspects of the ‘human’ and the ‘technical’ facets of their individual stories as well as those of their near siblings, it is now time to delve deeper and look specifically at certain physical characteristics and dimensions that they each share.
Peter Hancock
THREADS THROUGH TIME
Abstract
At this juncture, I want to elaborate on one particular thread through time which serves to link these various transports directly together. This connection emanates, not from the German airship industry but rather from the English efforts to keep pace with, or even outpace, their Teutonic rivals.
Peter Hancock
TRANSPORTS OF DELIGHT
Abstract
It is here in my penultimate chapter, that I now need to go beyond all individual stories and beyond the simple links founded upon physical comparisons or even the intriguing spatial and temporal conjunctions.
Peter Hancock
AUTOBIOMIMESIS
Abstract
Now that we have come to our final chapter, I will look exclusively at the issue of purpose in technology. As we have already seen, one primary purpose for, and indeed perhaps the origin of, technology, is to provide prosthetic replacement for, and/or orthotic extensions to, resident human capabilities.
Peter Hancock
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Transports of Delight
Author
Peter Hancock
Copyright Year
2017
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-55248-4
Print ISBN
978-3-319-55247-7
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55248-4

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