Neal Stephenson On Rockets and Innovation

Dr. Gamera writes "Science-fiction author Neal Stephenson gives us his perspective on the history of the development of rocketry. He uses that history to illustrate the phenomena of path dependence and lock-in."

Comments

Re:Engineering Culture

[Anonymous Coward]

My favourite example of this came from a graduate social science course an ex of mine was taking. The professor maintained, vehnemently, that rockets and bullets looked the way they did because engineers were historically all male, and obsessed with the destructive power of their own penises.

I wonder what that professor imagined a rocket designed entirely by women would look like.