The politics of laser eye surgery

In the spirit of self-experimentation (and perhaps a mid-life crisis), Jack Stilgoe bravely gets his eyes lasered.

This post is a response to two questions: What do you do? and Why aren't you wearing your glasses?

I'm a sociologist of science and technology. I'm interested in how scientists know what they know. I look at how successful technologies move from magical to mundane while failed ones are written out of history. I try to teach my students to think critically about new science and technology: to ask who wins, who loses and who should decide. As well as the scientific data, I want to know what it means for people to live with difficult, uncertain knowledge and disruptive technologies.