This book symposium stems from the conversations that took place following the launch in December 2019 of a new book by Juan Carlos Skewes at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado. The diverse reactions to the work during university presentations, in the feedback of results to the local territories in which the ethnography was based, and in the various academic circles through which it has passed – anthropology, science and technology studies, geography and sociology – have convinced us of the value of collecting these comments together and inviting Juan Carlos to respond. We have organized the results as follows. We begin by presenting the structure and central argument of the book before putting forward our comments. The symposium closes with Skewes’ reactions to our thoughts.