Stringed instruments also have symbolic meanings that transcend their technological, sound-producing function.
His problem is that technological prognostications sound credible only if underpinned by physics known today.
It would be more than a decade before the movies faced their own technological challenge: sound.
The book's arguments were made so reasonably -- and the economic and technological arrangements sounded so plausible and inviting -- that for a considerable portion of the readership, "Looking Backward" had the feel of inevitability.
But there is a technological problem with sound delay, that makes the music broadcast out of sync with the band.
Mr. Sneller and others in the industry remain optimistic that technological innovations and sound public policy will keep the industry afloat.
But the center, housed in a new building on West Thirty-seventh Street, actually got going earlier this year, when it inaugurated fellowships for young artists, who are given studio space, technological support (light, sound, video), and some money to get their shows together.
Mr. Young's rambling thoughts and memories are as disarmingly candid as his music, whether he's recalling high times in Laurel Canyon or passionately promoting the technological projects (better sound quality for recorded music, an electric car with the heft of a Lincoln) to which he now devotes himself.
"People always want to know: 'How do you get the human element to it?' Well, I guess because I'm making it," says Doyle. "I am a human, by the way!" says Eno in an faux-indignant tone, going on to explain that when he first got to grips with recording studios, the new-found technological possibility to sound inhuman was actually rather exotic.
Without a sound technological and scientific basis, industrial ecology will remain in theory and philosophy books.
