Examines relationships among technology, culture, and politics in a variety of social and historical settings in an attempt to answer the question: has technology produced a better world? Contexts range from 19th century factories to 21st century techno dance floors, from hospitals to biotech firms, from colonial Melanesia to capitalist Massachusetts. Discussions organized around three questions: What cultural effects and risks follow from treating biology as technology; how have computers changed the way we think about ourselves; and how are politics built into our infrastructures?