The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell
Tetrads: Past

The potential predictive power of the tetrad holds the most allure to the technological futurist. However, it is using the tetrad to analyse the past where the concept of the four points of the process pattern become clear. With the power of hindsight, we are able to draw on historical and social resources to come to a more complete understanding of the artifact in question.

Creating and studying tetrads of past technologies is essential towards building the pattern recognition and rhetorical tools for illuminating the processes occurring in the present and future. Here are three tetrads of past technologies, taken from The Global Village (although these technologies are still with us, their side effects on society have mostly run their course):

Introduction | The Global Village | Tetrad:Concept | Tetrads:Present | Tetrads:Future | Bibliography
copyright ©1996 by Anthony Hempell.