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Are winning technologies always the best ones? Do new technologies always replace the old ones? And is every possible innovation really bound to happen, after all? We can find the answers while reading the tales of “technosaurs”, creations and inventions that were never successful, or died out in spite of their indisputable qualities: flying machines, films for cameras, the Betamax video recording system, pneumatic mail, electric cars, vinyl discs, fax, and so on.
Such anti-heroes are analysed like biological species, in their struggle for life – on the market, in our homes and offices... The stories of this unfortunate creatures will unmask our commonplaces about technology, showing what today’s world could have become, and instead is not.
A genuine joy for technology addicts, a new way to tell history of technology.

1. May the best win: Edison’s mistake – Betamax and its brothers – The net before the Net – Smile, please
2. The old and the new: Who framed the vinyl disc? – Cassette tapes live on – The late springtime of the fax machine
3. Waiting for Godot: What the eye doesn’t see... – God save the electric car – Fear of flying
4. The origin of species: A standard for everyone – The typewriter’s saga – The evolution of machines – Towards mass extinction?

Nicola Nosengo, science writer, specializes in technologies, neuroscience and medicine. He collaborates with «Nature» and is a columnist for the Italian edition of «Wired», where he tells tales of technosaurs. He’s currently employed at the Communication office of the Italian Space Agency. With Daniela Cipolloni he is the author of Comrade Darwin. Is evolution left or right winged? (Sironi, 2009).