Rating: 
Summary: To Engineer is Human
Review: This book deserves a 5-Star rating for the depth of its research, the overall quality of descriptive analysis, and the scope of its coverage. It is full of well-documented examples of technological unintended consequences.It falls to a 3-Star rating for its failure to explain why these things happen, and for its dry, flat tone. I'm fairly sure this was written as a popular book on the subject, and not a text book, and as such we expect a different kind of writing. (College students are forced to read any number of numb, incomprehensible texts.) Other popular accounts of technical issues manage to hew to the science and engineering line with livelier writing. ("To Engineer is Human" is a good example.) "Why Things Bite Back" is clearly written, it just isn't a page turner, and lacks the sense of "I was there" that fosters a close relationship between the reader and the book. The book failed to touch on other examples of unintended consequences. In fairness to Tenner, he never pretends to cover non-technological issues. The examples and impact of the law of unintended consequences in the social sciences, law, and government is possibly even greater than technological issues. Just as an example, think of the unintended consequences of the U.S. income tax laws. Tens (or hundreds) of thousands of professionals are paid billions of dollars a year to help citizens negotiate what started as a method of financing government. These social issues are at least as interesting as the technology issues. Maybe Tenner needs to write a second book. Recommended, but not a good book for reading at the beach.
Rating:
Summary: To Engineer is Human
Review: This book deserves a 5-Star rating for the depth of its research, the overall quality of descriptive analysis, and the scope of its coverage. It is full of well-documented examples of technological unintended consequences. It falls to a 3-Star rating for its failure to explain why these things happen, and for its dry, flat tone. I'm fairly sure this was written as a popular book on the subject, and not a text book, and as such we expect a different kind of writing. (College students are forced to read any number of numb, incomprehensible texts.) Other popular accounts of technical issues manage to hew to the science and engineering line with livelier writing. ("To Engineer is Human" is a good example.) "Why Things Bite Back" is clearly written, it just isn't a page turner, and lacks the sense of "I was there" that fosters a close relationship between the reader and the book. The book failed to touch on other examples of unintended consequences. In fairness to Tenner, he never pretends to cover non-technological issues. The examples and impact of the law of unintended consequences in the social sciences, law, and government is possibly even greater than technological issues. Just as an example, think of the unintended consequences of the U.S. income tax laws. Tens (or hundreds) of thousands of professionals are paid billions of dollars a year to help citizens negotiate what started as a method of financing government. These social issues are at least as interesting as the technology issues. Maybe Tenner needs to write a second book. Recommended, but not a good book for reading at the beach.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid getting trampled in the technology "improvement" race.
Review: This book is a well researched and enjoyable examination of some of the most perplexing outcomes of technological innovation. A well intentioned intervention that leads to unforeseen negative consequences is what Tenner calls a "revenge effect", and it seems that our modern world is full of them. An airline concerned with safety may require that all infant passengers have their own seat rather than travelling on the lap of an adult. However, since the seat will cost money, many families choose to travel by car which is more dangerous than air travel, and so more injuries and deaths result. Thus, the airlines' safety intervention has resulted in the revenge effect of a net increase in passenger injury and death. Tenner claims, that the answer to many of these technological revenge riddles involves a deintensification of our technologies, and a better understanding of the greater system in which technological innovation takes place. Every new release of our technological products purports to be better, faster and stronger than the last, but hitting the problem harder with a more intense version of the same technology is not sustainable. Often this "improvement" race succeeds only in increasing the number and severity of revenge effects. Even in computing where advances have been exponential there is no hard evidence of anything more than a minimal increase in the efficiency of the average computer user. Better system understanding, coupled with technological deintensification will allow a more subtle, lasting, and better integrated solution to many problems.
Rating: 
Summary: Action and Reaction Again and Again
Review: This book is slightly mistitled; it probably should have been called "HOW Things Bite Back", since there's not a lot of "why" until the last few pages of the book. Tenner provides many discrete examples of how various technological solutions to problems of the past have resulted in unforseen consequences, but never really gets at the heart of the philosophical question of why there must always be such unintended consequences. Despite this, it's a fairly interesting little look at various disasters, big and small. Surprisingly, for someone who's not a sports fanatic, the foray into how technology has changed sports in unexpected ways turned out to be the most interesting section.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing thoughts on our world
Review: This book shows the intriguing, frustrating, path our civilization has wandered and continues to wonder through. It is as though we are on a roller coaster that can not stop and can not get off. Makes one ponder our future. By the way, on page 99, I believe it should read "Marina District" not " Mission District" I was living in the Mission at time of quake. We had no problems, but watched smoke from the Marina to northwest.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting stories, but what can we learn from it?
Review: This could more aptly be titled "Lots of Ways in Which Technological Improvements have Unexpected Consequences." There's really not much about the "why," just lots and lots of anecdotes: improved car safety leads people to drive faster, computer automation takes as much time to learn as it saves, improved transportation leads to the plague of exotic species taking over in new locations, and so on. It's a fascinating litany, with the sections on computer productivity and reduced biodiversity being of particular interest, but it wasn't clear to me how much we could learn from it other than to be more careful.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting stories, but what can we learn from it?
Review: This could more aptly be titled "Lots of Ways in Which Technological Improvements have Unexpected Consequences." There's really not much about the "why," just lots and lots of anecdotes: improved car safety leads people to drive faster, computer automation takes as much time to learn as it saves, improved transportation leads to the plague of exotic species taking over in new locations, and so on. It's a fascinating litany, with the sections on computer productivity and reduced biodiversity being of particular interest, but it wasn't clear to me how much we could learn from it other than to be more careful.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but terminally repetitave.
Review: This is a whole book built around a single premise, that once the simple problems have been solved the problems that remain are more difficult. This point is mode over and over again using medical, ecological, technical and social examples. In fact there are so many examples that after a while they all seem to merge into each other. You can only hammer a nail in so far, Mr Tenner. Personally I would have liked to have seen slightly fewer examples examined in more depth but you cartainly can't complain about the choice. Another problem with the book is that it is written with 20-20 hindsight. So many times whilst reading it I was tempted to say, "Well OK, given the limitations of knowledge and funds available to the protagonists in the examples, what would you have done instead?" Despite all the examples the book is a little short on alternatives and solutions and that, perhaps, is its main failing. Nevertheless, it is still a good book and one I would be happy to recommend. (c) Vince O'Sullivan.
Rating:
Summary: Many fascinating insights - a great read
Review: This is an excellent book that explores in a very interesting way the complex and often unforeseen consequences of "improved" technology. The author writes very well and unlike other books in the popular/technical genre he backs up what he says with firm scholarship and many citations. My only quibble is that I think that the book could have used - right up front at the beginning - some clear definitions regarding "revenge effects" "reverse revenge effects," "recombination effects," etc. It was somewhat annoying not to have these and have to distill them from the examples given in the book. But again, a minor quibble. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Not 'Why Things Bite Back' but "How things Bite Back'
Review: This is an interesting catalog of the how of technological unintended consequences but is lacking in the why. If all you need is more evidence of well-intentioned planners making errors in judgment read this book or your daily newspaper. If you are looking for insight into why man's plans 'oft gang agley' look elswhere. I enjoyed skimming this book but at the end I was disappointed. More meat less monday quarterback.
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