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Douglas Robertson knows perfectly well that trying to predict the future is difficult enough at any time. In a period of extreme technological change, with great social change fast on its heels, accurate prediction is a dice toss at best. But that doesn't stop him from trying to convey the scope of changes coming.
In The New Renaissance, Robertson begins by looking at how previous, pivotal communications advancements have remade society. He considers, for example, the revolutions that came about with the creations of language, writing, and printing. He argues that advances in scientific theory--from mathematics to cosmology--have transformed our world. He then demonstrates the increasing rate of transformation brought on by computers and concludes that the computer revolution may be the most dramatic of them all. Finally, he looks at some of the potential problems tomorrow's civilization may have to solve, while admitting that some of his speculations should be taken with a grain of salt. Will the world of dance, for example, ever be dominated by computer-generated performers of infinite grace? Perhaps not. But Robertson's goal is not to showcase the true future so much as to demonstrate the level of change coming. In that regard, he provides ample food for thought. --Elizabeth Lewis
From Publishers Weekly
So much printer toner has been spilled on the computer revolution that no one should be surprised to find that the future has arrived, its little green LCD eyes gleaming. We're reminded that microprocessors are found in dishwashers, VCRs and wristwatches, and that home banking, cellular phone communication and inventory control at the grocery check-out counter are electronically mediated. Good stories could certainly be found in the details?growth of computer crime, use of computers in dance, computers as aids to the handicapped and much more, but University of Colorado geologist and environmentalist Robertson doesn't really flesh these topics out, preferring to spend more time on theory. He divides civilizations into five levels based on how they handle information (0 is pre-language; 1, language; 2, writing; 3, printing; and 4, computers) and draws comparisons. For example, modern accelerator experiments in high-energy physics generate in five minutes as much data as was in the whole Library of Alexandria in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. He also discusses mathematical paradoxes and the limits to scientific knowledge, advocates the use of "quartal" rather than our out-moded decimal number system, and lays out requirements for a stripped-down "universal language." He believes that instructional computer games will revitalize education, and that famine, pestilence, poverty, war, illiteracy and tolerance can be reduced with a massive influx of information. Which would be nice, but seems a little naive.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
