discourse and language and latour

Following Beth's lead, I'd like to approach another of Pam's points for consideration and attempt to summarize some of what Latour has to say about the role of discourse and language in the development of technologies.

I think pages 80 and 81, as well as 222-223, are helpful. Here Latour makes a telling remark: "To study a technological project, one must constantly move from signs to things, and vice versa." For Latour any technological project starts out as a discourse--usually an "exciting" discourse. People talk about, conceptualize, draw schematics, calculate logistics, produce statistics, create texts, write reports and offer explanations of a project before its ever made. Latour says that a project is first and foremost "a story," "a fiction." Eventually, if a project is well-received, the textual form of it shifts to an objective reality. The calculations and commands are "delegated" to a part of the technological apparatus. A chip, for instance, is compelled to do the work of a person. However, the object is always, and variously, interpreted and understood through discourse. Thus, the thing shifts back to realm of signs. And the signs, in turn, continue to work at creating things. Technologies themselves are texts which carry human inscriptions. An object always begins with signs, is always covered over with signs, and is always inscribed with signs. As Latour says, programs are written and chips are engraved. The interesting thing is that once technologies are written, they do what they say--they act.