IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 50

engineering in the national interest, and insights about
the new scale and societal implications of "big science,"
a term he popularized [21].
As Weinberg later recalled,
I began to look upon nuclear energy as a symbol
of a new technologically oriented civilization -
the ultimate "technological fix" that would forever
eliminate quarrels over scarce raw materials. I
coined the phrase "technological fix" to connote
technical inventions that could help resolve predominantly social problems....
Figure 5. Alvin Weinberg teaching at the Oak Ridge Institute
for Nuclear Studies, 1946. Courtesy of Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL).

Engineering and Applied Physics at Harvard. Brooks,
too, had participated in nuclear reactor design and had
an interest in applying scientific expertise for societal
benefit [18]. In an era of growing technological confidence, these hopeful analysts and their peers offered a
rational route for societal improvement.

Weinberg's Formulation: National Labs
for Societal Problems
Alvin Weinberg's optimism identified rational analysis
and technological innovation as the key drivers of societal progress. He argued that it was "the brilliant

Weinberg promoted the belief that
technological innovation could
resolve any social issue as an
article of faith.
advances in the technology of energy, of mass production, and of automation," not social systems or ideologies, that "created the affluent society" [19].
Weinberg (1915-2006, Figures 5 and 6) focused his
postwar career on the design, applications, and wider
implications of nuclear reactors, becoming Director of
the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in 1955. His
high-profile position allowed Weinberg to represent not
just the nascent field of nuclear engineering, but also
the closer integration of technological innovation with
the goals of modern American society [20]. His networking provided him with experience as a senior administrator in the new environment of publicly funded

So closely was he identified with the concept that
Weinberg later characterized his career as that of a
"technological fixer" [22]. (On the gestation of his ideas
see [23]).
Weinberg's cogent articles did not present the polemics of an interwar technocrat. He was cautious not to
reveal his own political views, and avoided blaming politicians and economists for societal imperfections. Instead,
Weinberg packaged the concept of the technological fix
in a form that invited responses from policy-makers.
Weinberg's examples of technological fixes ranged
from common-sense solutions to provocative examples
that seemed to lie on an ethically slippery slope. His
easy-to-accept cases included consumer campaigner
Ralph Nader's contention that engineering safer cars
might provide quicker reduction of traffic deaths than
trying to change driving behaviors. Similarly, he argued
that cigarette filters were obviously better than legislation or health education campaigns to convince smokers to give up cigarettes. But Weinberg also offered
more uncomfortable illustrations, for example the
notion of providing free air conditioners to literally cool
down urban tensions in American cities of the late
1960s, or the benefits of intrauterine devices (IUDs)
to limit family size and economic deprivation [24].
As a member of government policy panels during
the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations, Weinberg gained the ears of legislators. Besides
the air-conditioning of slums, he lobbied for a wall
between North and South Vietnam to limit enemy
incursions and thus scale down the war, although he
quickly labeled it an "amateurish notion" after feedback from his peers [25], [26].2 Weinberg disclaimed
other ideas - notably the general provision of soma
pills to relieve unhappiness, as portrayed in Aldous
Huxley's Brave New World, to suggest there were limits
to how far technological fixes should go. He adapted to
2

As Weinberg realized, his Vietnam wall - like Hadrian's Wall across northern Britain, the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, and Donald Trump's
proposed Mexican wall - is a technological fix for controlling population
movements.

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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march 2018

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