In
four sequences, Simon Schaffer reflects on the ways in which nature
and machines are considered in east and west. In the west, nature
is seen as a complex, nested, set of machines, from which profit can
be extracted. In Daoism and other eastern philosophies, people should
live in harmony with machines. The profound attitudinal difference,
which itself is partly the result of technology, is one of the great
divergences and lies behind the industrial revolution.
