Technological complexity and change characterise modern life. Yet people often feel alienated from recent science based technology and are barely conscious of its human content and implications. The richness of creativity that has produced this technology is not commonly appreciated, and we do not seem to attach as much value to this kind of creativity as we accord that displayed in art or literature. This is a disturbing situation in a society so dependent on technology, but in which so few young people are keen to enter careers in science and engineering. Young people in particular are often unaware of the significance of their technological heritage, and how important technological change has been in influencing the lives of people in the twentieth century.

In the living memories of those who shaped and used the changing technology of the last fifty years lie the human stories of technology. These stories allow technology to speak to us with a human voice. They tell us how people have felt about, made sense of and coped with technological changes. Ordinary people need to hear these stories if they are to appreciate their technological heritage more fully; young people especially need to hear them if they are to own, and participate in creating, the technology of the future; academic historians need to give them due weight in their explanations of social and technological change. But we risk losing the oral heritage of mid-twentieth century technology if we do not act swiftly. Those who lived with technological change in the 1930's and 40's are now advanced in years. Within a decade most of these memories will be forever lost if this precious archive is not captured and preserved.

Talking About Technology aims to capture some of this vanishing oral history of twentieth century technology. It will use a novel approach in which images and recollection are intimately related. It will give the archive it secures a public presence which will help people to perceive their technological heritage in a new and more human light. This project will help people see that technology has as much to do with people as with things, and to value this crucial component of their heritage.

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