| Chapter 1: | Converting Consumers: The Conceptual Dependence of Controversial Artifacts |
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Black Boxes
Bruno Latour, who pioneered actor-network theory with the publication of Science in Action, considers nonhuman actors a relevant group.39 These nonhuman actors, once they are “black boxed,” diffuse into “thousands of copies all over the world.”40 For example, Latour traces the history of the diesel engine from concept development through prototype development, product diffusion, and product recall, to its inventor’s suicide. Latour describes the engine during the diffusion stage as “incorporated as an unproblematic element in factories, ships and lorries.”41 Diffusion, for actor-network theorists, is synonymous with commodification.
According to Latour, if a particular commodity malfunctions, it ceases to be taken for granted because people must find the defect. Mechanics and engineers began opening the black-boxed diesel engines when they failed repeatedly.42 An artifact may also fail if it is unable to satisfy user needs, another condition that could prompt the opening of black boxes. Kline and Pinch show how technically competent farmers did not merely accept the Model T, but instead modified it in various ways to suit their needs.
In actor-network theory the model of diffusion does not suggest that innovations travel through some inherent force; rather, diffusion becomes a matter of eliminating reasons to open black boxes. Diffusion occurs when “people do not do anything more to the objects, except pass them along, reproduce them, buy them, believe them.”43 In other words, trust accompanies diffusion as long as artifacts perform reliably and problems go away, a condition that resembles the notion of stabilization in the third stage of SCOT.44 In many ways, the last stage of SCOT represents the culmination of an artifact becoming black-boxed.
Does flawless technical execution, then, become the primary incentive for users to pick up an artifact and use it? Actor-network theory suggests that for adoption to occur, an artifact must enroll the interests of users. As Latour states, if no player takes up the ball in a game of rugby, “it just sits on the grass.”45 Enrollment occurs when various interests and goals become aligned.46 This enrollment is so critical that, lacking it, an artifact “dies,” as Latour seeks to show in his narration of Aramis.47