Systematics as Cyberscience Inside Technology edited by Wiebe E. Bijker, W. Bernard Carlson, and Trevor Pinch A list of books in the series appears on p. 293. Systematics as Cyberscience Computers, Change, and Continuity in Science Christine Hine The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. For information about special quantity discounts, please email
[email protected] mitpress.mit.edu This book was set in Stone and Stone Sans by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India, and was printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hine, Christine. Systematics as cyberscience : computers, change, and continuity in science / by Christine Hine. p. cm.—(Inside technology series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-08371-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Biology—Classification—Data processing. 2. Information storage and retrieval systems—Biology. I. Title. QH83.H56 2008 578.01'2—dc22 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2007018944 For Dennis John Hine, 1926–2007 Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Introducing the Study of a Cyberscience 1 2 Science, ICTs, and the Imagining of Change 3 Computers and the Politics of Systematics 19 63 4 Behind the Scenes and Across the Globe: Virtualizing the Material Culture of Systematics 99 5 Communication and Disciplinarity 14