

Lauren E. Bridges on Fantasies and Realities of Digital Transformation and the Data Center Industry
11 snips Apr 22, 2025
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Marrying Ideas and Material Realities
- Much of science and technology studies (STS) focuses too much on ideas and discourses rather than material realities.
- Lauren Bridges demonstrates the importance of coupling sociotechnical imaginaries with concrete analysis of their real-world effects.
From Publishing to Digital Research
- Lauren's previous careers in publishing and manufacturing shaped her interest in the material infrastructure behind digital technologies.
- She observed outsourcing and automation facilitated by centralized computing which spurred her research questions.
AWS Origin Story Explained
- Amazon Web Services originated from Amazon's need to manage logistics and computing for their retail business.
- AWS commercialized an internal scalable computing solution, revolutionizing cloud computing's accessibility.