Technological capabilities, invisible infrastructure and the un-social construction of predictability: the overlooked fixed costs of useful research

Unpredictability as a subject is examined critically, considering that it is a much more pervasive and important feature of technical change than is presumed traditionally. The construction of very specific, artificially predictable conditions is required to explain the economically important interactions between scientific explanations and technology, so that the explanations' implications match technology behavior. The iterative construction of these localized predictable conditions from the unpredictable starting conditions relies on, generates and is made much easier by reusable social and physical infrastructure.