1<br > Taken Aback In Michigan<br > n the fall of 1979 the humanities department of the Uni-<br > versity of Michigan s College of Engineering sponsored a<br > ~mposium entitled "Technology and Pessimism." The<br > purpose of the event， as announced in the prospectus， was<br > "tO - -<br > examine wny and in what ways technological develop-<br > ment has led to pessimistic assessments of the futute."Just<br > a few years ago such a statement would have made no<br > sense. Today it sounds like the most appropriate theme<br > that could possibly be selected for an academic conclave.<br > ~lI was invited to participate in the opening session of the<br > three-day program， and found myself paired with Melvin<br > Ktanzberg， professor of the history of technology at Geor-<br > gia Tech and long.time editor of the quarterly Technology<br > and Culture. Kranzberg spoke at 4:00 in the afternoon and<br > I at 8:00. The following morning we were both scheduled<br > to participate in a panel discussion， tjlf the planners of<br > the. cw:ul h:t，] I.~[wd to start off with speakers who them-<br > ，， Iw. hh 1，， ~，!，u)fi~fic about tecimology， they had chosen<br >