Of Thinkers and Tinkerers

Abstract

AbstractCary Campbell (ed.): This paper is one of four that were approved for publication in this journal prior to Fernández’s passing in 2017. Many of these backlogged articles did not have abstracts, so I have had to create them based on Fernández 's own in-text summary.In this brief presentation a crucial technological innovation of the early twentieth century – the invention of the triode thermionic valve – is used as a springboard for a historically informed discussion of the complex interrelations of theory and praxis in the generation of technological novelty. This episode was chosen for its critical role in triggering a whole chain of developments that culminated in the growing network of technologies and economic infrastructures that underpin our so-called “information society” and the evolving role of “technoscience.” This represents a starting point in a broadening cascade of innovations that led to the rise of television, digital computers and the expanding web of artifacts that shape our daily existence today. In the present era of technoscience, scientific and technological research are so closely entangled that it is hard to discern their respective natures and interrelations. Nevertheless, it is possible to partially distinguish both their common characteristics and their contrasting differences (i.e. in goals, cognitive styles, methods, etc.). In this context, some reflections are put forward on the activity of “tinkering” as a cognitive instrument (a form of what Peirce calledAbduction) in the generation of technological novelty.