MIT freshman seminar on drivers of technology (Eagar/Hosler)

Tom's military-needs theory vs. Hosler's art-and-ritual theory of what drives technological development; the students' chocolate presentations; Tom's realization that students no longer use libraries.

They are bigger. When you sell fewer of them and you're sort of specialized — one of the big problems in manufacturing is that a lot of our technology is built around military needs. I taught a freshman seminar — Mike reminded me he was a freshman in that seminar — with Professor Hosler, who teaches archeology, when I was a department head. She asked if I'd do a freshman seminar with her, and we did one on what drives technology. My theory was, military needs have driven technology through the ages — catapults and things like that.