Word: sst
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Angeles Times, which supported the SST, admitted that the aircraft "became a symbol to a lot of people-a symbol of resistance to the so-called 'militaryindustrial complex.' a symbol of resistance to technological spoliation of the environment, even a symbol of distaste for President Nixon." Senator Adlai Stevenson III declared: "Congress has not been faced with an issue of such symbolic importance in many years." It was a rare occasion, notes TIME Senior Correspondent John Steele, for asking some fundamental questions: "Do we really need this? Is it so important to be first in every phase...
Genuine Advance? To John Burke, dean of social sciences at U.C.L.A., the defeat of the SST marks "a change in our civilization's idea of progress." If that is so, it has its dangers, for, as Boorstin points out: "We can't give up the exploring spirit. We can't legislate against progress. Our problem is to find ways of continuing to explore the unknown and still keep our lives decent...
...death of the SST need not be seen as a vote against exploring the unknown. It is not a triumph for the hysterical foes of all technology. For one thing, the SST was vulnerable to the criticism that it does not represent a genuine technical advance. Much of the know-how necessary to build a Mach 3 aircraft-in titanium metallurgy and engine intake design, for example-was already in hand from development of the X-15, the SR-71 and the B-70. Says Harvard Sociologist Daniel Bell: "The technology argument made no sense to anybody who followed...
...SST was not the kind of advance that the jet was over the prop plane...
Seen in that light, the fate of the SST represents a serious break with the compulsion to pursue any technological height only "because it is there." But that is not the same as turning against all progress; it means redefining progress. The new mood could lead to a new sophistication, a new selectivity about what kinds of technology are worth pursuing and at what pace. "Technological wizardry is not an end in itself," Arnold Toynbee observed recently. "It is desirable only if it makes for human welfare, and this is the test that any tool ought to be made...