Wired Life

Fülszöveg

I
For the lay person and expert aHke, the question of how the new technologies will really affect our lives is becoming more and more central. If we believe the forecasts of the technology enthusiasts, a world increasingly dominated by screens and keyboards is not only inevitable but desirable, and the 'thinking machine' is just around the corner. Many of us feel instinctively uncomfortable with this view and the claims being made for the so-called technological revolution, and yet countless books and articles on the subject reinforce this perspective.
In this authoritative and entertaining book, Dr Charles Jonscher presents the other side of the argument. While acknowledging that technology has notched up some fabulous successes, he demystifies the more extravagant claims, putting into sharp perspective the degree to which it can transform society. What did Turing discover about the limitations of digital processing, and why will computers never overcome them? Why will these... Tovább

Fülszöveg

I
For the lay person and expert aHke, the question of how the new technologies will really affect our lives is becoming more and more central. If we believe the forecasts of the technology enthusiasts, a world increasingly dominated by screens and keyboards is not only inevitable but desirable, and the 'thinking machine' is just around the corner. Many of us feel instinctively uncomfortable with this view and the claims being made for the so-called technological revolution, and yet countless books and articles on the subject reinforce this perspective.
In this authoritative and entertaining book, Dr Charles Jonscher presents the other side of the argument. While acknowledging that technology has notched up some fabulous successes, he demystifies the more extravagant claims, putting into sharp perspective the degree to which it can transform society. What did Turing discover about the limitations of digital processing, and why will computers never overcome them? Why will these machines never turn data into knowledge? The top-performing information-processing device on this planet, he reminds us, has always been, and still is, the human brain.
Lively and informative, rich in insights from hterature, philosophy and the history of ideas, WiredLife relates how the digital era unfolded from the invention of alphabetic language 3,700 years ago to the Information Superhighway; and key questions are asked about its imphcations in the areas of business, manufacturing, health and education. Determined that the discussion of the information revolution should not be dominated by specialists, Dr Jonscher gives fundamental facts -scientific, technical and economic - which we need to understand in order to contribute to the debate about how these new forces should shape our world.
The message is a reassuring one. There is more evolution and less revolution in digital technology than meets the eye. It is we, with our imprecise but deeply creative and original minds, who will remain at the centre of life's drama. Grasp a few basics, and we can all have an inside track on the future.
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Dr Charles Jonscher trained in electrical sciences at Cambridge University before moving to the United States. He held teaching appointments at Harvard University and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was Co-Director of the Research Program on Communications and pubHshed widely cited research on the productivity impact of information technology. He now runs the London-based investment firm Central Europe Trust Co, while maintaining his academic base at Harvard University's Program on Information Resources Policy. Vissza