Biography
Image from www.ted.com
Edward Tenner is a blogger and writer with his own website: www.edwardtenner.com. Along with writing blogs, he has also published numerous books and essays, one of his most well known being ‘Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences.’ The first chapter in this book is titled ‘Ever Since Frankenstein,’ and in this chapter Tenner talks about how “the machine … passes from stubbornness to rebellion” (Tenner, 1997). He goes on to talk about how our various technologies and the theme of revenge seem to be reoccurring. In addition to his book ‘Why Things Bite Back,’ Tenner was also featured in a TED talk titled ‘Unintended Consequences.’ In this TED talk he speaks about how new inventions change our world both expectedly and unexpectedly. For example, Tenner mentions how our teeth are constantly growing smaller due to our change in diet vs the diet of our homosapien ancestors. Although not necessarily a bad change, he makes a point to show that this change was most unexpected and unintentional when we decided to alter the ways in which we eat. “So many important things can happen when people learn from disaster” (Tenner, 2011) speaking about the Titanic and how it should have been necessary to make sure every passenger aboard had room on a life raft. Overall, Edward Tenner is mostly known as an independent writer, speaker, and editor. As far as his personal life goes, not much is known about him. Nowhere does it say anything about how old he is, where he was born, who his parents are, and if he is married or has children. We do know one thing for sure though, and that is that when it comes to talking about technology and how it’s advancing through out time, Tenner definitely has some interesting points and angles to make.
Works Cited:
Tenner, E. (1997). Why things bite back: Technology and the revenge of unintended consequences. New York: Knopf.
Tenner, Edward (speaker). (2011). Edward Tenner: Unintended Consequences. Vancouver: TED2011.
Works Cited:
Tenner, E. (1997). Why things bite back: Technology and the revenge of unintended consequences. New York: Knopf.
Tenner, Edward (speaker). (2011). Edward Tenner: Unintended Consequences. Vancouver: TED2011.