Technology and society: While politicians struggle with communications and energy policy, GE `engineers' the perfect tomato

The heat generated at the interface between technology and society is by now expected. Less expected, but encouraging, are those moments when the sociotechnical interface produces light. Two of the "hottest" topics are energy and communications. In the United States, for example, there has been a continuing "battle of the advocates": in energy, among those pushing nuclear, those fighting it, the pro-solar cadres, the anti-solar forces, the environmentalists, the coal and oil lobbies, etc.; and in the area of communications, among the Bell System, the data-processing giants like IBM, and a raft of communications and data processing pygmies struggling to survive in a world of "Watusies."