The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Harper) | Mechanics' Institute

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The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Harper)
With author Simon Winchester

LOCATION: Commonwealth Club, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco.

Precision is an essential component of the modern world. Much of what is important in our everyday lives—our cell phones, our computers, our cars, our ballpoint pens—is fitted together with precision to operate with near-perfection. But, what is precision and why is it important? Who invented it? Has the pursuit of the ultra-precise in our world blinded us to other things of equal value? Can the precise and the natural co-exist in society? No one is better suited to explore these questions than Winchester, whose own precise research and elegant narrative skills have given readers unconventional “biographies” of oceans, of scientists and scholars, and of geological forces.

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Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, Atlantic, Pacific, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006 Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He lives in western Massachusetts.

Meet the Author(s)

Admission: 
Mechanics' Institute Members $15
Commonwealth Club Members $15
Public $25
Location: 
Offsite: See description for location
Questions?
Information Desk - 415-393-0102

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