Stories of technologically induced change focus on results not the genesis of inventions.

In such stories technology is conceived in almost exclusively artificial terms. Tangibility of mechanical devices contributes to the ascribing of causal efficacy to such tech.

Develops the idea of technology as a virtually autonomous agent of change - complex events are "explained" as the result of technological innovation.

Indeed invention once introduced to society is depicted as taking on a life of its own.

Technological determinism takes several forms along a continuum from hard to soft.

Hard - the power to effect change is imputed to technology itself.

Soft determinists remind us that the history of technology is a history of human actions. To understand the origin of a particular technology we must first learn about the actors.

However soft determinism still suggests that once a technology is introduced to society that that technology as the power to determine the future shape of that society.

Contrast to technological determinism - social shaping view of technology (Brian Winston) /social construction of Technology (SCOT) (Weibe Bijker).

Social shaping of technology perspective - little in the history of technology to indicate that significant technological changes have not been accommodated by existing social formations.

Thus SCOT posits a model which implicitly suggests that the social sphere is a primary influence on technological development not just in the prototype and invention phase but thereafter, when the product has reached the market.

Winston’s model treats the historical pattern of change in communications as a field (social sphere) in which two elements (Science and Technology) intersect. Technologies are a performance of scientific competence. Successful innovations are the result of a series of transformations from science knowledge to working prototype to marketable commodity.

The first transformation is ideation - to express the idea that a given scientific competence could be transformed into a particular technology. The devices built to demonstrate this are prototypes.Before continuing Winston makes the point that the technologist is part of a given society and asks what the implications of this are. Answers his own question by setting three more:

- Why are some prototypes abandoned while others aren’t?- Why are some inventions classed as inventions when they are necessarily technically superior to other devices which remain classed as prototypes?- Why are many inventions created more or less simultaneously by technologists working in isolation from one another?Winston's answer identifies a second transformation impacting on technological performance - the concentration of the generalised social forces or supervening social necessities (SSNs).

SSNs work on prototypes to move them into the world at large. Different SSNs define the various types of prototypes. Winston proposes four possible classes of prototype:1. Rejected. Because a SSN has not yet operated and no possible use for the device is seen

2. Accepted. Early and incomplete version of SSN has created a partial need the prototype partially fulfils.

3. Parallel. Device already in operation for something else become useful for a newly emerged SSN.

4. Partial. Machines designed to perform effectively in a given area but which do not.

Important to stress that from a technical perspective all the above work well. The success of their diffusion depends more on the operations of the SSN transformation than on their efficiency.

All these devices then are impacts due to SSNs. These too can be classified into three sub-types:1. That occasioned by consequences of other technological innovation.

2. Concentration of social forces working directly on innovation - discern set of SNNs.

3. Strictly commercial needs for new products and other limited marketing considerations.

From invention to innovation - simply because an SNN is operating does not imply that a new technology will be straightforwardly adopted by society at large.

Winston refers to the brake and accelerator version of technological progress. SNNs are the accelerator.

The brake refers to those general social constraints limiting the potential of a device to disrupt existing social formations.

Winston refers to these latter social factors as "the law of suppression of radical potential."

The "law" shouldn't be taken literally but Winston notes that despite a ling history of new technologies presented as having "revolutionary" potential some of basic institutions of our culture have remained largely unaffected.

Specifically Winston cites the survival of the family, the home, workplace, Church, government and especially the corporation as instances.