Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

142 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
Exploration in Historical Analogy (1965); 2) raymond a. Bauer, ed., Social
Indicators (1966); and 3) raymond a. Bauer with richard S. rosenbloom
and Laure Sharp—and the assistance of Others, Second-Order Consequences. A
Methodological Essay on the Impact of Technology (1969). 27
the Committee on Space divided its mandate into three categories: 1)
Studies on the anticipation of the efects of Space eforts; 2) Studies on the
Detection of Such efects; and 3) Studies on the evaluation and Feedback of
Information about efects. 28
although its goal “should be to develop devices for anticipating, detecting,
evaluating and acting (on)” the inevitable consequences of technical change,
the committee claimed limits of time and money necessitated a focus on the
frst two kinds of devices. 29 Deciding that the development of the railroad
provided the most fruitful historical approach to analyzing “what the social
consequences of the space program might be,” the committee commissioned
eight papers under the guidance of Bruce Mazlish, a study group member, in
anticipation that “In all of these studies an efort will be made to move from
the impact of the railroad in the specifc area under consideration to an analogy
with the possible space impact today in similar areas.” 30 In this, the Committee
on Space would be disappointed.
StUDIeS ON the aNtICIpatION OF the
eFFeCtS OF SpaCe eFFOrtS
For an efort whose frst product was historical analogies, historians were
curiously absent. the Committee on Space had two social psychologists and a
political scientist, among others, but no historians. according to Bruce Mazlish,
no historians attended the 1962 summer workshop, nor did the members of the
Committee play an active role in choosing the historians or integrating their eforts
into the larger project. 31 history seems to have been an afterthought that was added
27 . this volume was originally intended to be edited by robert N. rapaport, and entitled Social
Change: Space Impact on Communities and Social Groups. the diferent title may have been an
attempt to appeal a larger audience (raymond a. Bauer, op. cit., p. 19).
28 . earl p. Stevenson, “report of the Committee on Space,” Records of the Academy (American Academy
of Arts and Sciences), 1963/1964, 150.
29 . Committee on Space eforts and Society, “Space eforts and Society: a Statement of Mission
and Work,” (Boston: aaaS, January 1963), reprinted in raymond a. Bauer with richard S.
rosenbloom and Laure Sharp and the assistance of others, Second-Order Consequences. A
Methodological Essay on the Impact of Technology (Cambridge: MIt press,
1969), p. 193.
30 . earl p. Steveson, “report of the Committee on Space,” Records of the Academy (American Academy
of Arts and Sciences), 1963/1964, 150-51. emphasis in original.
31 . Mazlish interview; July 11, 2007. Only recently did the aaaS hire its frst archivist; consequently,
its records are not accessible.