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Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences
In this perceptive and provocative look at everything from computer software that requires faster processors and more support staff to antibiotics that breed resistant strains of bacteria, Edward Tenner offers a virtual encyclopedia of what he calls "revenge effects"--the unintended consequences of the mechanical, chemical, biological, and medical forms of ingenuity that have been hallmarks of the progressive, improvement-obsessed modern age. Tenner shows why our confidence in technological solutions may be misplaced, and explores ways in which we can better survive in a world where despite technology's advances--and often because of them--"reality is always gaining on us." For anyone hoping to understand the ways in which society and technology interact, Why Things Bite Back is indispensable reading. "A bracing critique of technological determinism in both its utopian and dystopian forms...No one who wants to think clearly about our high-tech future can afford to ignore this book."--Jackson Lears, Wilson Quarterly
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Edward Tenner
11 books21 followersEdward Tenner is the author of Our Own Devices and Why Things Bite Back, former college teacher and executive editor in book publishing, now an independent writer and speaker on technology and society and contributor to major newspapers, magazines, and web sites.
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March 22, 2021
Edward Tenner's trenchant and lively treatise Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences landed on my to-read list years before I joined Goodreads, and languished there for far too long before I picked it up. I shouldn't have waited—not only was it fun to read, I think Tenner's thesis remains entirely valid, even though many of his examples and some of his perspectives have, perhaps inevitably, become severely dated in the meantime.
I'd pair Why Things Bite Back with John Gall's witty and incisive Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail, which I obtained from the late, lamented independent press Loompanics Unlimited many years ago. Both volumes deal with the same cynical realization, one that's really hard to argue with: human innovations don't just backfire now and then. They usually backfire, and we should try to anticipate just how they're likely to revenge themselves upon us, so we don't get blindsided quite as badly when they do.
*
Tenner avoids taking any particular political stance, and seems entirely willing to annoy people at either end of whatever political spectrum you believe in:
Rather than wasting time with equivocation, Tenner uses these pages to define so-called "revenge effects," with numerous concrete examples, such as the way car alarms "screaming wolf" (p.8) teach people to ignore or even sabotage them, or the way that building more freeways tends to increase traffic.
Now, Tenner's evidence does often seem anecdotal, however well-footnoted, and sometimes intensely personal as well. He must have had a bad experience (possibly more than one) with automobile repair, for example, based on his comments about that occupation.
(And, while we're speaking of the personal, I must confess before we proceed further that for awhile I'd accidentally confused Edward Tenner with Edward Tufte, whose Visual Explanations was a marvel of clarity for me back in 2017. These are very different E.T.s!)
*
And Tenner's focus on AIDS may seem a little disproportionate now, but that's only because the disease has become so much more treatable since 1996. Again and again, his basic points can be seen to remain valid, even when their specific targets have shifted.
*
Throughout Why Things Bite Back, in fact, Tenner delivers extremely high-density content, replete with details supporting his claims. It's decidedly not a quick read, despite the clarity of Tenner's prose, and his occasional injection of sly humor. About people moving to Arizona for their health, for example, Tenner notes:
*
Tenner also examines the spread of desktop computing—and while his catalogue of specific hardware and operating systems is completely obsolete, and the dollar amounts he quotes so carefully now seem ridiculous, his analyses of the negative effects of work-related stress and office culture, and of repetitive stress injuries caused by mice and keyboards, remain dead-on.
One of Tenner's most incisive observations in this section regards how support for technology evolves:
*
Tenner's reasoning is not always above reproach. He indulges—twice, in fact, both times in the same chapter—in what I saw as very odd reversals of emphasis with regard to race. Buried in a discussion about sports equipment, he mentions in an aside
Then later, while discussing the Portland Trail Blazers, we get this:
At the very least, these passages seem a little tone-deaf to me now.
*
Still and all, though, Tenner's observations repeatedly resonated with me.
Why Things Bite Back includes an extensive list of further reading. In a book otherwise notably devoid of women's names, I was struck by Tenner's belated admission that
*
Even though many of the details in Why Things Bite Back have become obsolete, I still think it's worth reading today. Tenner's basic assertions remain as true as ever, after all, and his predictions have mostly been borne out since its publication in 1996. And while Tenner does spend most of his book pointing out where things went wrong, he does eventually get around to providing a few recommendations for getting them right:
I'd pair Why Things Bite Back with John Gall's witty and incisive Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail, which I obtained from the late, lamented independent press Loompanics Unlimited many years ago. Both volumes deal with the same cynical realization, one that's really hard to argue with: human innovations don't just backfire now and then. They usually backfire, and we should try to anticipate just how they're likely to revenge themselves upon us, so we don't get blindsided quite as badly when they do.
*
Tenner avoids taking any particular political stance, and seems entirely willing to annoy people at either end of whatever political spectrum you believe in:
Neither libertarians trusting in infallible market processes nor Greens prophesying starvation and environmental collapse had imagined the real future. But it was also impossible to refute either point of view. For the first, hardships and disasters are mere challenges to a boundless human ingenuity; for the second, any gain in living standards is just a charge against a dread future reckoning. Humankind is either on its way to the stars or hurtling out of a high-rise window to the street and mumbling, "So far, so good."Global climate change, for example—already a well-documented issue at the time—becomes just one more building block for Tenner's argument:
I am not trying to resolve this debate.
—p.x
Slow climate change can increase the likelihood of devastating floods, and possibly of tropical storms as well. Chronic conditions may have acute episodes. Acute shocks may have chronic consequences.This leads to some pretty perceptive predictions, such as this (long before Hurricane Katrina):
—p.26
A big storm could have twenty feet of water in downtown New Orleans and flood evacuation routes.
—p.119
Rather than wasting time with equivocation, Tenner uses these pages to define so-called "revenge effects," with numerous concrete examples, such as the way car alarms "screaming wolf" (p.8) teach people to ignore or even sabotage them, or the way that building more freeways tends to increase traffic.
On the road, finesse means a calmer approach to driving, improving the speed and economy of all drivers by slowing them at times when impulse would prompt accelerating. It can mean moving more traffic by metering access to some roads and even closing off others.Eventually, Tenner establishes a whole taxonomy of consequences, whether intentional or—much more often—not.
—p.353
Now, Tenner's evidence does often seem anecdotal, however well-footnoted, and sometimes intensely personal as well. He must have had a bad experience (possibly more than one) with automobile repair, for example, based on his comments about that occupation.
(And, while we're speaking of the personal, I must confess before we proceed further that for awhile I'd accidentally confused Edward Tenner with Edward Tufte, whose Visual Explanations was a marvel of clarity for me back in 2017. These are very different E.T.s!)
*
"Better a vaccine without an epidemic than an epidemic without a vaccine," as one vaccination advocate put it later.Tenner's discussion of medical matters and the unintended consequences of public health policy is extensive and, if anything, even more pertinent now. He (along with many others, of course) foresaw how easily a global pandemic could spread, although his then-current example was the quickly-contained swine flu outbreak of 1976.
—p.51
And Tenner's focus on AIDS may seem a little disproportionate now, but that's only because the disease has become so much more treatable since 1996. Again and again, his basic points can be seen to remain valid, even when their specific targets have shifted.
*
Throughout Why Things Bite Back, in fact, Tenner delivers extremely high-density content, replete with details supporting his claims. It's decidedly not a quick read, despite the clarity of Tenner's prose, and his occasional injection of sly humor. About people moving to Arizona for their health, for example, Tenner notes:
They brought Bermuda grass with them and showered it with the water that federal projects were diverting from Western rivers for their benefit, in the best traditions of self-reliant American individualism.That's some dry sarcasm...
—p.134
*
Tenner also examines the spread of desktop computing—and while his catalogue of specific hardware and operating systems is completely obsolete, and the dollar amounts he quotes so carefully now seem ridiculous, his analyses of the negative effects of work-related stress and office culture, and of repetitive stress injuries caused by mice and keyboards, remain dead-on.
One of Tenner's most incisive observations in this section regards how support for technology evolves:
Filling the gap is peer support, the person down the hall who becomes a resource without any amendments to the job description.This is precisely how I got into my own career.
—p.253
*
Tenner's reasoning is not always above reproach. He indulges—twice, in fact, both times in the same chapter—in what I saw as very odd reversals of emphasis with regard to race. Buried in a discussion about sports equipment, he mentions in an aside
{...}the bridge abutments of Robert Moses' Long Island parkways, which may have been designed in part to exclude buses and thus limit mass transit and low-income development on Long Island."May have..."—I am pretty sure it was already widely known, even then, that Moses did design those low overpasses specifically to keep buses full of Black people off of Long Island. After all, Robert Caro's biography of Moses, The Power Broker, was published in 1974.
—p.273
Then later, while discussing the Portland Trail Blazers, we get this:
In fact, few professional sports still use instant video replays to help make or verify official decisions. The NFL dropped it in 1992. Officials resented its challenge to their authority and decisiveness; fans and broadcasters resented the time it added to games. The video record may well turn out to be as controversial as whatever memories the officials and spectators may have of the original call—as the Rodney King and Reginald Denny cases showed in very different contexts in the courtroom.
—p.301
At the very least, these passages seem a little tone-deaf to me now.
*
Still and all, though, Tenner's observations repeatedly resonated with me.
If we learn from revenge effects we will not be led to renounce technology, but we will instead refine it, watching for unforeseen problems, managing what we know are limited strengths, applying no less but also no more than is really needed.
—p.147
Why Things Bite Back includes an extensive list of further reading. In a book otherwise notably devoid of women's names, I was struck by Tenner's belated admission that
I have largely left housework out of this book because Ruth Schwartz Cowan treats it so well in More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave (New York: Basic Books, 1983).There's also about 50 pages of Notes and an Index to round out the book.
—p.357
*
Even though many of the details in Why Things Bite Back have become obsolete, I still think it's worth reading today. Tenner's basic assertions remain as true as ever, after all, and his predictions have mostly been borne out since its publication in 1996. And while Tenner does spend most of his book pointing out where things went wrong, he does eventually get around to providing a few recommendations for getting them right:
Reducing revenge effects demands substituting brains for stuff.That still sounds like a really good idea to me...
—p.351
June 5, 2011
Edward Tenner's book is rather dated by now (1997!), but in everything but its discussion of software and the internet it still seems relevant. It is an informative collection of instances in which new technologies, upon their adoption, have been found to result in unintended consequences. Consequences which happen to have undermined the very reasons for having pursued the new tools. Tenner cites cases across five broad areas: office efficiency and safety, medicine, environmental resource management, animal, plant, and pest introductions into ecosystems, and sports technology. Some of the cases have become common knowledge by now, such as how forest fire management tends to increase the intensity of fires or how antibiotic soaps can create incredibly dangerous and unstoppable diseases. There are scores of well known cases of revenge effects like these listed in Tenner's book. A few that I found to be interesting:
*Beach jetties, which are installed to limit beach erosion, tend to massively increase the erosion of all of the surrounding beaches.
*Office technology implemented for the purposes of increasing efficiency and paring down employee costs usually results in having to hire teams of expensive specialists and technicians to maintain the new hardware or software. It also tends to disrupt the work that people should be doing by introducing a plethora of new minor tasks that have to be individually nursed. For example, the replacement of secretaries with fast communication, sorting, and planning tools saved money on wages, but it required the hiring of programmers, system administrators, and other (higher wage) employees. It also forced managers and professionally trained individuals to devote a much larger part of their day on the tasks that secretaries once handled.
*In sports, new equipment that increases the safety of a sport tends to allow the game to be played much rougher before people get hurt - which ultimately makes accidents far more deadly when they happen.
* Almost all of the carp in the United States were introduced through a program that promoted carp as a tasty, sustainable and cheap food source. This proved not to be the case (they were not tasty) and then the carp got into US rivers and lakes and destroyed most of the ecosystem that supported the natural fishstock and waterfowl, ultimately reducing foodstocks.
Tenner does a terrible job of being explicit about any sort of over-arching take away from this book but there are a few themes that can be picked out across the chapters:
1) Technology tends to displace or lessen the impact of discrete problems and replace them with chronic ailments that have to be constantly nursed. This effect is, interestingly, credited with creating the feeling amongst the general public that life getting continually worse despite the fact that by most objective measures people live longer, healthier, more affluent, better lives than they once did.
2)That what is underestimated in nearly every aspect of technological improvment are the damping effects that come from the environment's response to the new technology.
3) That "intensification" of a technology almost always results in a revenge effect (such as increasing the safety, speed, or size of a thing without thinking about how those factors might change how it is used.)
These themes, however, are anything but explicit in Tenner's book. He mentions them in the first and last chapters, but the rest of the book reads like a recitation of interesting research findings with no particular clear ordering or framework to tie them together. Tenner's bibliography, however, is impressive and contains a very good list of works for readers actually interested in frameworks that explain how technology and culture interact. Why Things Bite Back ultimately never addresses the question posed by the book's title in any satisfying way. Instead it appears that Tenner has consulted with the literature of others who have grappled with this question and merely repeated the interesting evidence used in justifying their theories, but not the theories themselves. Why do these revenge effects matter and why do they happen? Tenner is silent on this matter and offers no good or coherent explanatory framework, which is a shame considering the title suggests one will be offered.
*Beach jetties, which are installed to limit beach erosion, tend to massively increase the erosion of all of the surrounding beaches.
*Office technology implemented for the purposes of increasing efficiency and paring down employee costs usually results in having to hire teams of expensive specialists and technicians to maintain the new hardware or software. It also tends to disrupt the work that people should be doing by introducing a plethora of new minor tasks that have to be individually nursed. For example, the replacement of secretaries with fast communication, sorting, and planning tools saved money on wages, but it required the hiring of programmers, system administrators, and other (higher wage) employees. It also forced managers and professionally trained individuals to devote a much larger part of their day on the tasks that secretaries once handled.
*In sports, new equipment that increases the safety of a sport tends to allow the game to be played much rougher before people get hurt - which ultimately makes accidents far more deadly when they happen.
* Almost all of the carp in the United States were introduced through a program that promoted carp as a tasty, sustainable and cheap food source. This proved not to be the case (they were not tasty) and then the carp got into US rivers and lakes and destroyed most of the ecosystem that supported the natural fishstock and waterfowl, ultimately reducing foodstocks.
Tenner does a terrible job of being explicit about any sort of over-arching take away from this book but there are a few themes that can be picked out across the chapters:
1) Technology tends to displace or lessen the impact of discrete problems and replace them with chronic ailments that have to be constantly nursed. This effect is, interestingly, credited with creating the feeling amongst the general public that life getting continually worse despite the fact that by most objective measures people live longer, healthier, more affluent, better lives than they once did.
2)That what is underestimated in nearly every aspect of technological improvment are the damping effects that come from the environment's response to the new technology.
3) That "intensification" of a technology almost always results in a revenge effect (such as increasing the safety, speed, or size of a thing without thinking about how those factors might change how it is used.)
These themes, however, are anything but explicit in Tenner's book. He mentions them in the first and last chapters, but the rest of the book reads like a recitation of interesting research findings with no particular clear ordering or framework to tie them together. Tenner's bibliography, however, is impressive and contains a very good list of works for readers actually interested in frameworks that explain how technology and culture interact. Why Things Bite Back ultimately never addresses the question posed by the book's title in any satisfying way. Instead it appears that Tenner has consulted with the literature of others who have grappled with this question and merely repeated the interesting evidence used in justifying their theories, but not the theories themselves. Why do these revenge effects matter and why do they happen? Tenner is silent on this matter and offers no good or coherent explanatory framework, which is a shame considering the title suggests one will be offered.
June 16, 2015
You know the old saw. "The best laid plans of mice and man soon fall asunder.""Why Things Bite Back" a real fun exposition of clever humans doing clever things which backfire. Tenner discusses subjects near and dear to my heart -- like how computers, created to simplify rote secretarial work and thus save organizations money by eliminating support staff, but instead leads to the need to hire higher-priced IT talent. And he also discusses things I've learned about in different contexts, like the higher chimneys of coal-burning plants making the immediate area's air more breathable, but sullying air remote to the plants.
You know. Blow-back.
Tenner goes on to discuss things I wasn't aware of. Like how America's ill-tasting carp, the bane of fisherfolk flike myself, were actually imported and farmed by American farmers as a cheap, easy-to-raise, tasty food fish. And the history of plant importations that backfire... like kudzu for food which has, in turn, begun devouring the southeast. Or how eucalyptus trees, imported to California en masse for timber ended up not only producing unusable lumber due to the conditions in the American south west, but actually increase the fire hazards due to their volatile oils.
The downside of this book is that it is a catalog with very few analytic pegs to hang one's hat on. But the individual incidents are quite amusing.
What I really appreciate is that Tenner is neither a "doom and gloomer" nor a Pollyanna chirping "technology will save us all." Instead, he ends by indicating that, by and large, human cleverness has improved our lives, and odds are will continue to do so. Lives should continue to become safer, more convenient and our use of materials more efficient. But we will always end up producing effects no one could ever foresee.
This book is a bit old, but did not feel dated to me (except when discussing computer operating systems -- Windows 95 -- and hardware, of course, or making casual references to the Twin Towers). But the core still applies, and always will.
I'd recommend reading this in conjunction with Duncan Watts's more contemporary "Everything is Obvious (Once You Know the Answer)" which explores similar ground, but instead focuses on how we often finger point to the clever "culprits," accusing them of creating the blow-back.
Overall enjoyable, light and yet fascinating science read. Part history, part technology, it should be on any engineers or technophile's shelf. Just as a reminder of that "mice and men" bit. Which turns out to be quite relevant.
You know. Blow-back.
Tenner goes on to discuss things I wasn't aware of. Like how America's ill-tasting carp, the bane of fisherfolk flike myself, were actually imported and farmed by American farmers as a cheap, easy-to-raise, tasty food fish. And the history of plant importations that backfire... like kudzu for food which has, in turn, begun devouring the southeast. Or how eucalyptus trees, imported to California en masse for timber ended up not only producing unusable lumber due to the conditions in the American south west, but actually increase the fire hazards due to their volatile oils.
The downside of this book is that it is a catalog with very few analytic pegs to hang one's hat on. But the individual incidents are quite amusing.
What I really appreciate is that Tenner is neither a "doom and gloomer" nor a Pollyanna chirping "technology will save us all." Instead, he ends by indicating that, by and large, human cleverness has improved our lives, and odds are will continue to do so. Lives should continue to become safer, more convenient and our use of materials more efficient. But we will always end up producing effects no one could ever foresee.
This book is a bit old, but did not feel dated to me (except when discussing computer operating systems -- Windows 95 -- and hardware, of course, or making casual references to the Twin Towers). But the core still applies, and always will.
I'd recommend reading this in conjunction with Duncan Watts's more contemporary "Everything is Obvious (Once You Know the Answer)" which explores similar ground, but instead focuses on how we often finger point to the clever "culprits," accusing them of creating the blow-back.
Overall enjoyable, light and yet fascinating science read. Part history, part technology, it should be on any engineers or technophile's shelf. Just as a reminder of that "mice and men" bit. Which turns out to be quite relevant.
June 18, 2024
“It is obvious that technology (humankind’s modification of its biological and physical surroundings) makes things better. It is also obvious that we are still unhappy with those surroundings […]
We are unhappy for two reasons. First, in controlling the catastrophic problems we are exposing ourselves to more elusive chronic ones that are even harder to address. And second, our greater safety demands more and more vigilance.”
Dernière phrase:
“Revenge effects mean in the end that we will move ahead but must always look back just because reality is indeed gaining on us.”
Okay ce livre est slay, parfois long et outdated (1996), mais overall crissement alarming et eye-opening.
Edward Tenner doit chier ses pants live en voyant l’intelligence artificielle nous dépasser frl…
We are unhappy for two reasons. First, in controlling the catastrophic problems we are exposing ourselves to more elusive chronic ones that are even harder to address. And second, our greater safety demands more and more vigilance.”
Dernière phrase:
“Revenge effects mean in the end that we will move ahead but must always look back just because reality is indeed gaining on us.”
Okay ce livre est slay, parfois long et outdated (1996), mais overall crissement alarming et eye-opening.
Edward Tenner doit chier ses pants live en voyant l’intelligence artificielle nous dépasser frl…
September 22, 2016
This is a book about the "revenge effects" of technology. In technology there are trade-offs (gain a certain benefit at the cost of something else) and side-effects (a trade-off that has impacts other than what was intended). Revenge effects are when you try to solve a problem using a technology and that technology ends up just making the problem even worse. Some examples: antibiotics fight diseases while simultaneously strengthening the microbes that cause disease. Titanic, the ship that was so unsinkable that it led to over-confidence that ended up sinking it.
A lot of what this book talks about is supposed to be revenge-effects, but are actually trade-offs. For example, much of what it discusses is the increased vigilance so many technologies require, and yet technology is supposed to free us from toil. Except that the examples this book gives aren't of technologies that are designed to free us from toil, but to improve our lives in other ways. Like all the health technologies, remembering dosages, maintaining sophisticated equipment, training doctors, etc. The point is to alleviate suffering, not toil.
In fact, this book is packed with so much data noise that I kept forgetting the point he was trying to make. There's way too much research here. It kept feeling like he discovered things that weren't relevant for this book, but he thought they were interesting so he squeezed it in there anyway. I kept tuning out, like I was sitting in some boring lecture.
I think the subject matter is interesting though. Technology is often thought of in terms of solutions to problems, not in ways that they create new problems. Not all change is progress, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who knows this. People are so enamored with their damn gadgets.
This book is not at all anti-technology, or pessimistic about its potential to improve our lives. Usually, it's extremely optimistic. But the best way to get the most out of our technologies and our innovation is to think through all the potential effects these technologies might have, and that's really what this book encourages.
A lot of what this book talks about is supposed to be revenge-effects, but are actually trade-offs. For example, much of what it discusses is the increased vigilance so many technologies require, and yet technology is supposed to free us from toil. Except that the examples this book gives aren't of technologies that are designed to free us from toil, but to improve our lives in other ways. Like all the health technologies, remembering dosages, maintaining sophisticated equipment, training doctors, etc. The point is to alleviate suffering, not toil.
In fact, this book is packed with so much data noise that I kept forgetting the point he was trying to make. There's way too much research here. It kept feeling like he discovered things that weren't relevant for this book, but he thought they were interesting so he squeezed it in there anyway. I kept tuning out, like I was sitting in some boring lecture.
I think the subject matter is interesting though. Technology is often thought of in terms of solutions to problems, not in ways that they create new problems. Not all change is progress, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who knows this. People are so enamored with their damn gadgets.
This book is not at all anti-technology, or pessimistic about its potential to improve our lives. Usually, it's extremely optimistic. But the best way to get the most out of our technologies and our innovation is to think through all the potential effects these technologies might have, and that's really what this book encourages.
September 1, 2019
A reminder that life is always two steps forward and one step back
In medicine we conquered (to some extent) the catastrophic only to succumb to the chronic. This is an example of what Tenner means by things biting back. My house has very good water pressure. I can put a lot of water on the lawn in a hurry. Unfortunately, the pressure is so great that the water hose cannot be set down on the lawn with the water on since it will jump and squirm and shoot about until something anchors it. The other morning at five a.m. one of the hoses to the washer burst spraying gallons of hot water against the wall and onto the floor. I was experiencing "the revenge of unintended consequences."
There's a certain "Peter Principle" logic to Tenner's thesis. It seems that we have the ability to devise technological wonders but the inability to completely account for everything they can and will do. The computer brought us not only incredibly rapid calculations and a greatly enhanced ability to write, as well as the Internet, but also carpal tunnel syndrome. Who could have predicted that? We thought we were heralding in the paperless society when in fact the use of paper increased. The expanding speed and availability of global transportation has lead to the rapid proliferation of disease and unwanted alien species. We could and probably did predict that.
Tenner covers a lot of ground in this very interesting book, from medicine and natural disasters to plant and animal pests to machinery and software to how better running shoes lead to more injuries. In short what we have here is a warning: we are not as smart as we think we are. We are not as completely in control of our lives as we would like to believe. We are in danger of really screwing up the works at any time, so we ought to be modest and, as Tenner suggests, practice a constant vigilance because "reality is indeed gaining on us."
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
In medicine we conquered (to some extent) the catastrophic only to succumb to the chronic. This is an example of what Tenner means by things biting back. My house has very good water pressure. I can put a lot of water on the lawn in a hurry. Unfortunately, the pressure is so great that the water hose cannot be set down on the lawn with the water on since it will jump and squirm and shoot about until something anchors it. The other morning at five a.m. one of the hoses to the washer burst spraying gallons of hot water against the wall and onto the floor. I was experiencing "the revenge of unintended consequences."
There's a certain "Peter Principle" logic to Tenner's thesis. It seems that we have the ability to devise technological wonders but the inability to completely account for everything they can and will do. The computer brought us not only incredibly rapid calculations and a greatly enhanced ability to write, as well as the Internet, but also carpal tunnel syndrome. Who could have predicted that? We thought we were heralding in the paperless society when in fact the use of paper increased. The expanding speed and availability of global transportation has lead to the rapid proliferation of disease and unwanted alien species. We could and probably did predict that.
Tenner covers a lot of ground in this very interesting book, from medicine and natural disasters to plant and animal pests to machinery and software to how better running shoes lead to more injuries. In short what we have here is a warning: we are not as smart as we think we are. We are not as completely in control of our lives as we would like to believe. We are in danger of really screwing up the works at any time, so we ought to be modest and, as Tenner suggests, practice a constant vigilance because "reality is indeed gaining on us."
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
July 26, 2020
This was a really intriguing read, regardless of how dated it can feel since it talks about technology as it was in the late 90s...and a lot has happened since then! Despite this, the concept of "revenge effects" is a helpful schema, especially when contrasting its definition with side effects, rearranging effects, repeating effects, recomplicating effects, regenerating effects, and recongesting effects. He goes on to describe examples of all of these in a wide range of fields - medicine, the environment, biology, technology, and sport - and illustrating how and why the different effects have occurred. What was particularly interesting about reading this in 2020 is how well known some of these things are now (the suppression of forest fires leading to more devastating burns, the overuse of antibiotics creating resistant bacteria, the introduction of a pest control then becoming a pest, labor-saving technology leading to more chronic types of pain), while others remain less discussed and more hidden (football helmets creating a more dangerous game, productivity tools leaving productivity stagnant, the improvement of medicine leading to deaths that wouldn't have occurred otherwise). The contrast says a lot about the society we live in. Also interesting was how many of the effects seem more prominent now than at the time of the book's publication, as well as imagining how many more revenge effects must have occurred since! (I certainly think that Tenner would define "fake news" as a revenge effect of social media.) Worth reading for the definitions alone, and as a jumping off point for reflecting on the choices we make in society and the consequences of those in our world.
November 1, 2019
The concept of unintended consequences is fascinating because it affects so much of modern life: natural resources, technology, politics, healthcare. Revenge effects are ideas or technologies that are devised to solve a particular problem, but end up either making it worse, or create additional problems in their wake.
Although Tenner's concepts on technology are a bit dated given he wrote the book in 1996, the rest is still quite relevant.
Sudden, acute catastrophic hazards that were once discrete and localized (eg: train crashes and shipwrecks) have been exchanged with gradual dispersed, accumulative chronic hazards (everything from network security to climate change) that affect a much greater number of people and require constant attention and maintenance (rearranging effect). Some examples:
- New technologies that induce behaviour that cancels out the very reason for using it
- Pesticides help certain pests flourish by eliminating their natural predators
- Antibiotics that naturally select for strains of bacteria that are more resilient and resistant
- Automotive safety measures that increase accident rates
- Safety regulations in sports that induce more violent play
- How certain sunscreens that block UVB (that causes tanning/burning) can induce behaviour that increases rates of melanoma (which is why sunscreen manufacturers are careful not to claim cancer prevention)
- How seawalls behind high tideline and groynes (walls of stone perpendicular to shorelines) can actually promote beach erosion
Although Tenner's concepts on technology are a bit dated given he wrote the book in 1996, the rest is still quite relevant.
Sudden, acute catastrophic hazards that were once discrete and localized (eg: train crashes and shipwrecks) have been exchanged with gradual dispersed, accumulative chronic hazards (everything from network security to climate change) that affect a much greater number of people and require constant attention and maintenance (rearranging effect). Some examples:
- New technologies that induce behaviour that cancels out the very reason for using it
- Pesticides help certain pests flourish by eliminating their natural predators
- Antibiotics that naturally select for strains of bacteria that are more resilient and resistant
- Automotive safety measures that increase accident rates
- Safety regulations in sports that induce more violent play
- How certain sunscreens that block UVB (that causes tanning/burning) can induce behaviour that increases rates of melanoma (which is why sunscreen manufacturers are careful not to claim cancer prevention)
- How seawalls behind high tideline and groynes (walls of stone perpendicular to shorelines) can actually promote beach erosion
April 27, 2020
Really this book should have been called “How Things Bite Back,” inasmuch as it was really long on the history and awfully short on the explanation. I’m also not sure I follow some of Tenner’s definition of “revenge effect.” For example, I can understand how over-medication’s production of super-germs could be considered a revenge effect of technology, but I’m not quite so clear on how “revenge” comes into play when the cures for diseases that commonly kill young people increase the incidence of diseases common in old age. If a long life (even with eventual deterioration) is a revenge effect, then please take vengeance on me. The book features some interesting anecdotes, but as a whole it falls short of expectations.
March 27, 2021
I plan to re-read this book at some point which is why I snatched it up when I saw it at a thrift store. But I read this for a class -- something about technology and society. I was rapt! This is a really good, really fascinating book. I'm always wanting to reference it but can't remember enough specifics. Which is why I plan to re-read it at some point! Unintended consequences man, they're prolific.
August 13, 2018
This was more of a descriptive catalog and less prescriptive than I’d hoped. I was already painfully aware of the problems, and was hoping for approaches to avoid and mitigate the hurt that I am bound to inflict in my life as an engineer.
March 3, 2019
This ended up being more of a skimmer for me. There was nothing wrong with the book, but after awhile I began to lose interest in all the different ways he was saying “Technology has done some amazing things for us, but it also comes with consequences”.
October 7, 2019
Tenner's _Why Tings Bite Back_ is now a quarter century old. While many books that address present concerns in technology age quickly, becoming quaintly outdated, his consideration of technology revenge effects remains fresh and compelling.
November 9, 2021
As a kind of 'popular' book, the content is pretty dated. It gets really political, but then the main question of why technology is never the answer to any kind of problem is never even touched. No discussion about cybernetic as well—or at least philosophy of engineering.
August 3, 2022
I didn't finish this one. It's pretty technical, but also a bit dated. The general ideas still apply, but of course, the specific technological examples are no longer relevant. An interesting book to skim, but a bit to scholarly to really enjoy.
July 18, 2017
Started well, then got political. I quit then. DNF.
November 9, 2017
20 years old, but probably even more relevant than ever. As in a more recent book, Pandora's Lab, all "progress" and technological advancement has a cost.
December 21, 2017
some parts better than others.
January 15, 2018
great abook about the unintendedd consequnces of technology. Read before 2000
June 10, 2019
Typo, page 231: “Questions that begin with seatpans and backrests, forward and backward tilts, micro-switch clicks and wrist supports turn out to be have answers that are psychological, organizational, and even political.”
December 27, 2010
This is a study of technology gone bad - a pastiche of Robert Sheckley's "Watchbird", Murphy's Law and those ancient Greek stories about gods punishing mortals for their hubris. Better emergency medicine in the second half of the 20th century meant that wounded soldiers or civilian accident victims, who would have died before, now survive for decades permanently disabled, physically or mentally, and require either paid caretakers or family members to care for them. Antibiotics cause antibiotic-resistant germs to appear, and pesticides - pesticide-resistant pests. Bigger hard drives and larger RAM beget operating systems and applications with features of questionable utility that fill them all. Sports safety equipment such as hi-tech climbing gear causes athletes to take more risks; preventing acute traumas, it lulls them into thinking that nothing is dangerous, and allows small injuries to accumulate, which have a cumulative impact that is just as bad. It was thought that automobility would save people time, while in fact if you add up the time spent sitting in traffic and earning the money to buy and maintain the car, the driver could just as well ride a bicycle. And so on; Tenner cites many examples from sports, medicine, ecology, computers and other fields where technology has had unintended consequences that are comparable to, if not worse than the problem it was meant to solve. He argues that "finesse" instead of "brute force" should be the main principle of technology.
All this has been told many times before Tenner; technophobic thought goes all the way to Plato, who argued in some dialogue that writing ruined memorization, if not earlier. Yet I had the impression that a larger picture eludes him. Not all personal computing power gained in the last 30 years went into animating cute icons; Pentium-based PCs can play DVDs, which 80386-based PCs were not powerful enough to do. The fact that the Green Revolution averted mass starvation predicted by people like Paul Ehrlich shows that some solutions are preferable to their absence. And "finesse" is quite in line with many examples of contemporary technology: magnetic locks on refrigerators, which solved the problem of children locking themselves in abandoned refrigerators and suffocating, is an elegant example. I once took a software safety class; the professor told us that if her friends in the nuclear power industry had their way, they would have installed automatic alarms and pumps with autonomous power sources in all refrigerators. Yet even nuclear power plant designs nowadays have passive safety features.
All this has been told many times before Tenner; technophobic thought goes all the way to Plato, who argued in some dialogue that writing ruined memorization, if not earlier. Yet I had the impression that a larger picture eludes him. Not all personal computing power gained in the last 30 years went into animating cute icons; Pentium-based PCs can play DVDs, which 80386-based PCs were not powerful enough to do. The fact that the Green Revolution averted mass starvation predicted by people like Paul Ehrlich shows that some solutions are preferable to their absence. And "finesse" is quite in line with many examples of contemporary technology: magnetic locks on refrigerators, which solved the problem of children locking themselves in abandoned refrigerators and suffocating, is an elegant example. I once took a software safety class; the professor told us that if her friends in the nuclear power industry had their way, they would have installed automatic alarms and pumps with autonomous power sources in all refrigerators. Yet even nuclear power plant designs nowadays have passive safety features.
December 15, 2021
This book is a thorough survey of the various conditions in which man’s use of technology has backfired to create unintended consequences and sometimes self-defeating consequences. The title should be ‘When Things Bite Back’ as the text does not examine the causes or mechanics of what Tenner calls the ‘revenge effect’ and rather provides detailed descriptions of the prominent examples. For this, the book provides a definitive if not comprehensive treatment.
Despite what other reviewers have said, the book is not dated. The section on the computerized office is almost entirely valid still and lacks only a few references to contemporary trends to speak to today’s office workers. At the same time, the lessons behind the revenge effect that Tenner covers are timeless and can be adapted to any similar circumstances. While carpal-tunnel syndrome doesn’t get as much press these days with ergonomic keyboards, it still plagues thumb-happy mobile device users. Readers will be astounded at just how universal the problem is. As Tenner describes it: ‘The nineteenth-century division of labor and the intensification of small but fast-repeated tasks created such ailments as “weaver’s hand,” “sprout-picker’s thumb,” “stitcher’s wrist,” and “cotton-twister’s hand.” By 1840, the French physician D.M.P. Velpeau had devoted a whole monograph to upper-limb disorders.’
If anything, this lesson is even more relevant today than it was twenty-five years ago, and additions could help to explain issues that have intensified or worsened since. I am particularly interested in how the author would view our medicalization and widespread use of drugs for everyday conditions. Readers interested in a more recent survey of the topic might refer to Paleo Family: Raising Natural Kids in an Unnatural World by J.S.B. Morse.
Despite what other reviewers have said, the book is not dated. The section on the computerized office is almost entirely valid still and lacks only a few references to contemporary trends to speak to today’s office workers. At the same time, the lessons behind the revenge effect that Tenner covers are timeless and can be adapted to any similar circumstances. While carpal-tunnel syndrome doesn’t get as much press these days with ergonomic keyboards, it still plagues thumb-happy mobile device users. Readers will be astounded at just how universal the problem is. As Tenner describes it: ‘The nineteenth-century division of labor and the intensification of small but fast-repeated tasks created such ailments as “weaver’s hand,” “sprout-picker’s thumb,” “stitcher’s wrist,” and “cotton-twister’s hand.” By 1840, the French physician D.M.P. Velpeau had devoted a whole monograph to upper-limb disorders.’
If anything, this lesson is even more relevant today than it was twenty-five years ago, and additions could help to explain issues that have intensified or worsened since. I am particularly interested in how the author would view our medicalization and widespread use of drugs for everyday conditions. Readers interested in a more recent survey of the topic might refer to Paleo Family: Raising Natural Kids in an Unnatural World by J.S.B. Morse.
September 8, 2007
This book challenges its readers to rethink the assumptions we place in our technological world. There are many examples given in the book, but there is one I thought that was quite interesting. There has been a study done with physicians and level of patient care. There are initiatives coming from both government and private sectors to create much documentation concerning patient information. The assumption is that the providers can give better diagnosis and create less errors with more information on the patients being treated. Allergy and Medication list as well as comprehensive medical history record are some of the examples. However, there was a study created that proved exactly the opposite. It is true too little information can lead to mistakes and bad diagnoisis, but too much information seem to have silimar effect. Being in medical information technology business, I thought this was quite interesting. This book is a pretty good and quick read and I recommend it to all, but especially to people working in the technology sector, as it may give fresh and different perspective. My comment may give notion that this is an anti-technology book, but it is not. It questions some of the assumptions we all take for truth. Questioning assumptions and truth is a good thing. Sometimes it is the key to changing the world.
December 13, 2015
Interesting. Tenner's thesis is that "revenge effects" often (if not always) accompany innovation: no matter what it is, any new way of doing things will have not only unintended consequences but often ones that specifically counter the very achievement being aimed for--e.g. the so-called "paperless office" actually leading to more paper use, or better antibiotics leading to more virulent bugs--are the revenge effects. The book is formidably researched. Tenner covers a lot of ground, from things like information technology through species diversification, even developments in sports technology that lead to more risky, aggressive play and therefore to potentially worse injuries. His style is quite accessible, occasionally even witty, so despite its academic-ish subject, his is a fairly easy book to read. A weakness is that at times it feels like Tenner is merely enumerating examples of the revenge effect rather than engaging in much in the way of analysis. That approach does show the ubiquity of the revenge effect, but it doesn't help much in understanding it. indeed, it makes it seem at times as if such outcomes are merely the inevitable outcome of literally any change, which seems a rather trivial point to be arguing. Nevertheless, this book is a goldmine of interesting and surprising information about how our efforts to improve our lot tend to backfire--or at least stutter.
December 17, 2012
Though I expected this book would take a deterministic stance (based on how it is marketed? when it was written? I'm frankly not sure), I was pleasantly surprised by how Tenner's account instead provides a lucid historical trajectory of the many technological changes that characterize the 20th century. He aims to demonstrate that such change -- though often understood as a type of teleological progress -- is often, equally, negative. Coining the term revenge effects, Tenner describes the unintended consequences of technological advancements as varied as seat belts on aircrafts to automatic crop planters. Though many of the stories he tells are familiar ones, his perspective draws attention to historical preconceptions and ideas that are often forgotten over time. Both well-researched and well-written, this is a book that benefits from the academic rigor behind it without being marred by jargon or theory that would make it inaccessible for a more popular audience.
December 21, 2007
Continuing with my interest in human factors and technology, I checked this out from the library.
Tenner discusses the "revenge effect" - where improvements in technology cause related problems - such as building seawalls to protect beachfront property causing the property on the edges of the seawall to erode even more quickly. He looks at these effects in terms of medicine (antibiotic resistant bacteria), the environment (kudzu and killer bees), the computerization of the workplace (carpal tunnel syndrome), and even the sporting world (football helmets).
Nearly 100 pages are dedicated to further reading, footnotes and an index - the book is very well researched, and still quite readable without being too dry.
Recommended for anyone interested in exploring the intersection of human nature and technological developments.
Tenner discusses the "revenge effect" - where improvements in technology cause related problems - such as building seawalls to protect beachfront property causing the property on the edges of the seawall to erode even more quickly. He looks at these effects in terms of medicine (antibiotic resistant bacteria), the environment (kudzu and killer bees), the computerization of the workplace (carpal tunnel syndrome), and even the sporting world (football helmets).
Nearly 100 pages are dedicated to further reading, footnotes and an index - the book is very well researched, and still quite readable without being too dry.
Recommended for anyone interested in exploring the intersection of human nature and technological developments.
Currently reading
April 23, 2008the story so far...
i'm enjoying this book a great deal. the 'history of science-and-technology'-thing is sooo my schtick. i've owned this book for a number of years; high time i got around to reading it.
the book itself is a bit other-than-expected, in that it does read like a bit like an academic monograph. it is more readable than the average one of those, though. so far it appears to center on an author-generated construct. but it's an interesting construct that is anchored in reality; and i am willing to suspend my disbelief for a bit to see where tenner is going with his argument. so far it feels like it can be summarized with something i always say about software upgrades: "what one hand giveth, the other taketh away." but the examples he uses are interesting and fun, and tenner's sense of humor comes across in the book. so far. stay tuned.
i'm enjoying this book a great deal. the 'history of science-and-technology'-thing is sooo my schtick. i've owned this book for a number of years; high time i got around to reading it.
the book itself is a bit other-than-expected, in that it does read like a bit like an academic monograph. it is more readable than the average one of those, though. so far it appears to center on an author-generated construct. but it's an interesting construct that is anchored in reality; and i am willing to suspend my disbelief for a bit to see where tenner is going with his argument. so far it feels like it can be summarized with something i always say about software upgrades: "what one hand giveth, the other taketh away." but the examples he uses are interesting and fun, and tenner's sense of humor comes across in the book. so far. stay tuned.
July 14, 2009
This is a book that must be read to the end. The beginning and most of the book goes to excruciating detail about various things and convinces one of revenge and other effects. But only in the quite last chapter where conclusions are drawn do we get a peek at possible solutions. The details are sometimes quite surprising and even entertaining. How can a well-intentioned action turn into a truly bad result and how can it happen all the time all over the world? These are questions the book shows and tries to answer.
The problem is intensification and answer is softening the approaches used. Because of the statistical nature of the examples, everybody is important, yet nobody alone can do much.
This book was a fight to read and now that it is over, I'm happy. I did create a dozen or so notes out of it, which shows that there is direct value for me.
The problem is intensification and answer is softening the approaches used. Because of the statistical nature of the examples, everybody is important, yet nobody alone can do much.
This book was a fight to read and now that it is over, I'm happy. I did create a dozen or so notes out of it, which shows that there is direct value for me.
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