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

148 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
StUDIeS ON the DeteCtION OF SUCh eFFeCtS
the second research area focused on three questions:
1. Can efects which have been guessed at or discerned be measured with
accuracy?
2.Can procedures be devised for locating efects which have not been
thought of?
3.Is it possible to segregate efects of the space program from study of the
efects of other factors in our society? 55
Under the direction of robert N. rapoport, an anthropologist and sociologist
at Northwestern University, the Committee on Space commissioned papers in
1964 to look at the impact of NaSa installations on local communities; of NaSa
on functional groups like businessmen, students, and engineers; of NaSa needs
on education and labor; and of the process of technology utilization.
Second-Order Consequences appeared in 1969. Congressman emilio Q.
Daddario (D-Ct) introduced the studies as “an important initial contribution to
the development of technology assessment” and predicted analyzing secondary
consequences would “become an integral part of the research-developmentapplication
sequence.” 56
Unlike the other books, Second-Order Consequences received poor reviews
and vanished into obscurity. the criticism addressed “simply trite and
fragmentary” fndings, “the unsystematic attack on substantive phenomena, and
the lack of a broad theoretical orientation,” but also refected the more skeptical
academic and political environment of the late 1960s. had the researchers been
captured by their client, producing supportive reports that did not question
NaSa goals or costs? Why were the results so passive instead of identifying
“the need for action”? 57
55. earl p. Stevenson, “report of the Committee on Space,” Records of the Academy (American Academy
of Arts and Sciences), 1963/1964, 151-152.
56. emilio Q. Daddario “Foreward,” 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 Ma: MIt press, 1969), p. vi. Daddario’s interest was more than
perfunctory: he later served as director of the congressional Ofce of technology assessment and
president of the american association for the advancement of Science.
57. Ilkka heiskanen,“Second Order Consequences,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 16, 2. (June
1971): 232; see also, William D. Nordhaus, “economics of technological Change,” Journal of
Economic Literature 8, 3 (September 1970), 864-867.