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Title: Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing by Peter J. Denning, Robert M. Metcalfe ISBN: 0-387-98588-3 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The next 50 years look bright
Comment: A compilation of 20 essays which speculate about the impacts of future technological advances on society. Divided into sections, the essays address three themes: The Coming Revolution (speculation about hardware, software and networks); Computers and Human Identity (the impact cheap computing may have in regard to the way people live and work); and Business and Innovation (the impact technology will have on business practices and on the process of innovation). The individual authors whose essays were included in the book are all members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The authors responded to a call, in 1997, for papers which would attempt to look 50 years into the future to, "...examine the current realities of how people are using computers and what they [authors] are concerned about, and then project the consequences over the next few decades." (xv)
A 'futures' book, Beyond Calculation offers a positive look at how technology might interact with us in the not-so-distant future. The most impressive quality of the book is the grounded-ness of the essays. As readers, we are not presented with a mountain of pie-in-the-sky predictions that have no basis in reality, or Star Wars-like oohs and ahs. To the contrary, anyone with any knowledge of technology will see that these are serious essays, by qualified technologists taking care to work within a framework of common sense. The futures they paint seem plausible, yet are still surprising. I found myself saying, "of course" many times as I read through the scenarios.
The book itself should be of great interest to anyone who is struggling to get a view of how technology will impact us in the future. Thankfully, these authors, save one, believe that if we can keep our perspective on the idea of technology serving and expanding us, the rush rush of today's hyperculture can subside. Educators, business people and those with an interest in learning what technology can (and might) do should definitely open and read this book. It is a hopeful look at a future too many are willing to paint in gray.
Rating: 5
Summary: WOW! What the future can hold...
Comment: A compulation of essays by some awesome minds. This book examines the ideas of the future via a technique of developing scenarios.
Each author was asked to predict what the next fifty years would bring. Some of the authors look at advancement of technology itself. Other authors review what some of those advancements might mean with regards to our living space. Additional essays explore what business will look like in the year 2047.
A key theme running through the essays is the ubiquitious nature technology will have in years ahead. Having technology inter-woven and abundant in our lives will change many social and political institutions. "Beyond Calculation" depicts these ideas with both tactical information to consider as well as futuristic ideas of what might be possible.
The book also works through ideas about how technology will become more user friendly and design simplificaton will become essential.
All of the ideas are exciting and interesting. Great read if you like considering the unknown, the reachable, or endless possiblities.
A BOOK TO REALLY MAKE YOU THINK!
Rating: 1
Summary: Sample of a 1-star review (I'd otherwise give 0)
Comment: I attended ACM'97, the Conference for which this text is supposed
to the Proceedings. I've also signed non-disclosure agreements
with some of the firms of the attendees, and I am the pub. reviews
editor for an academic quarterly journal, and I know one of the
Editors (he was an Editor-in-Chief of CACM), and this text is a
real disappointment to me (back when it first came out). A few
of these people are friends.
A more detailed personal set of reviews (chapter by chapter)
can be found on groups.google.com in comp.sys.super.
Editorially, 1st printings are particularly bad. The book and the
meeting reads and felt like "Bob Metcalfe and a few of his friends
get together to pontificate to the world." You can tell a 1st
printing by opening the cover to the Preface (so early?) and
noticing that 2 Roberts (should be a Peter and a Robert)
authored the Preface (corrected after I pointed this out to
Peter in subsequent printings [why?]). Unfortunately, this also
bodes the rest of the book, too.
In the first chapter by Bell and Gray (2 of the most distingushed
computer scientists) there was a log-linear graph where the
left hand log scale was characterized by prefixes
([kilo, mega, giga, ...] with little base-10 exponents) where
the higher exponents had an error (one of the exponents was
repeated twice).
These are merely the easiest to find and rememebr mistakes on
first glance of the book. Fortunately I was given a copy as
a member of the press. I can't recommend buying this book,
and I barely recommend institutinal purchases as an example of
how not to assemble a book.
These are all basic copy editing mistakes which prevade the book.
I normally try to ignore these kinds of things to get to the
content because of my own poor writing skills (really).
Readers should also be aware that many of these authors
would not be working for companies like Microsoft and broadcasting
deep corporate secrets: this does not happen. The content is also
consistently shallow and inconsistently considered (sometimes
self-contridictory).
Subsequent printings can get rid of the typographic errors
I reported to the Editors, but new printings can't change
the shallow content.
I am amazed that this book is rated as high as it is. The other
1-star review is right.
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Title: A History of Modern Computing : Second Edition by Paul E. Ceruzzi ISBN: 0262532034 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Silicon Snake Oil : Second Thoughts on the Information Highway by Clifford Stoll ISBN: 0385419945 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Social Life of Information by John Seely Brown, Paul Duguid ISBN: 1578517087 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Me++ : The Cyborg Self and the Networked City by William J. Mitchell ISBN: 0262134349 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee ISBN: 006251587X Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 07 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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