The auto accident, as a general event, and car repair, as an industry built around the breakdown of the car, can tell us a great deal about technology in the time in which we live. By taking on the perspective that the history of technology is a history of contingencies, we can build a history of technology in which even accidents have their place. 

The car accident, as a general event, and car repair, as an industry built around the breakdown of the car, can tell us a great deal about technology in the time in which we live. By taking on the perspective that the history of technology is a history of contingencies, we can build a history of technology in which even accidents have their place. In other words, every event in the evolution of technology has had an effect on the present state of things.

When considering the car repair industry as an organ of the overall technological support system of the car, it should be noted that networks and systems are often a matter of perspective. The car, as an object, fits into other technological systems, such as its role in moving people from their homes to their workplaces and vice versa. Furthermore, looking specifically at the car repair industry, it is its own system, with its own organs, its own system of objects and tools.

A car, like any other technological object (or theory of technology), must also be highly adaptable in its design. Cars can be made to fit fewer people, such as sports cars, or made to fit large families, such as sport utility vehicles. A variety of forms are possible, although they are constrained by certain considerations. Any changing system has constraints that push the drive toward adaptation. 

The car repair industry itself imposes certain constraints on the design of cars, and the changing design of cars is also having an effect on the industry. This feedback loop situation is commonplace in adaptive systems. Ecosystems also work largely off of feedback loops that create equilibrium, but can also cause adaptive change. Each change in a system is contingent upon the history of that system.

Some historical contingencies worth exploring include the fact that human body did not evolve to survive traffic accidents. Biological evolution and technological evolution come up against each other in conflict. It can also be noted that the design of the interior of the car reproduces the relations of the nuclear family, with the father at the wheel, the mother in the passenger seat, and the children in the back seat. Both biological and social organization has had a profound effect on the direction of how technological objects are designed. 

The human body and the nuclear family both have an effect on the design of the car. Cars are constantly being re-designed to increase safety and to accommodate the various needs of modern families. The car repair industry has had to adapt to keep up with changing design. The different available forms that vehicles take each require specialized knowledge. 

Mechanics are becoming knowledge workers as much as they are mechanical workers. Computers have become an integral part of the mechanic’s workshop as well as inside of every vehicle. Computers have become a network, couched within the network of our existing technologies.

As you can see, adaptive systems include many complex relationships that form a dense network of interactions. Cars change size, shape, and color to suit certain needs, and mechanics have had to adapt, leading to an explosion of repair techniques and technicians. 
                                                                     
                                                                                                 This Article Is Written By:Alfred Ardis