The Wreckage of IntentionsThe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain saw the proposal of so many endeavors called "projects"a catchphrase for the daring, sometimes dangerous practice of shaping the futurethat Daniel Defoe dubbed his era a "Projecting Age." These ideas spanned a wide variety of scientific, technological, and intellectual interventions intended for the betterment of England. But for all the fanfare surrounding them, few such schemes actually