Forthcoming: The Best of Technology in Cyberlibris

The Future of Technology, Tom Standage, The Economist, Profile Books

Twenty years ago the internet was virtually unknown and only a few people had (very cumbersome and expensive) mobile phones. What has happened in the intervening period is remarkable. Technology has been one of the main drivers of business change and globalisation. It has also become an increasingly integral and important part of our daily lives, both at work and at home. This collection of surveys and articles from The Economist examines how far technology has come and where it is heading.

Part one covers information technology. It examines how the industry is maturing in the post-bubble era, so that competitive advantage now depends on how the technology is applied, rather than the technology itself; explains why work still needs to be done to make information technology more secure and less complex for users; and reveals how the world of work is being transformed by technology, through outsourcing.

Part two examines the importance of consumer electronics, a field that has become the new centre of technological innovation, as the fruits of the computer and internet revolutions are applied to almost every aspect of everyday life. In particular, it examines mobile phones, video games and the idea of the digital home.

Part three evaluates three candidates for the next big technological revolution - biotechnology, energy technology and nanotechnology - and also considers the prospects of robots and artificial intelligence.

About the Author
  Tom Standage is technology editor of The Economist and author four books, including A History of the World in Six Glasses and The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of The Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers.

Now, for those who are more skeptical about technology or who enjoy controversial views, here is:

Future Hype: The myths of technology change, Bob Seidensticker, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, 2006

"We’re not the first generation to feel overwhelmed by technology, not the first to rearrange our lives to accommodate technology, and not the first to ask ourselves if technology’s good outweighs its bad.

Generations past have dealt with disruptions every bit as challenging and exciting as our own. Our awe of today’s technology isn’t unique—it isn’t even particularly substantial. Today, progress is quick in a few areas and slower in all the rest, as it has been for centuries.

The PC and Internet are indeed unprecedented—just like every other major technology before them. The clumsy exponential-growth model must be replaced by a more accurate paradigm. Three decades ago, Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock created a sensation with its portrayal of technology spinning out of society’s control.

Future Hype approaches the same topic but arrives at a very different conclusion: that the popular view of technology change is wrong and that the future won’t be so shocking. Read this book to see how technology change really works and how to better evaluate it, anticipate it, and control it."

What they say about the book:

"Future Hype takes us on a technological rollercoaster over a landscape of exaggerated promises and failed dreams.  Required reading for journalists, teachers, business managers and, well, everybody else.”

— A. K. Dewdney, author of Beyond Reason and Yes, We Have No Neutrons

"A wise and clear-eyed book, Future Hype challenges the conventional wisdom about technological change and provides a fresh perspective on our so-called computer age.”

— Nicholas G. Carr, author of Does IT Matter?

More on the same topic here

Some excerpts:

- Getting real about technology
- Top 10 forgotten technologies
- Top 10 technology disappointments
- High-Tech deprogramming


About the author :

Bob Seidensticker graduated from MIT with a degree in Computer Science and spent twenty-five years in the technology industry, including working at IBM and an eight-year stint at Microsoft as a project manager. He is the author of The Well-Tempered Digital Design and holds thirteen software patents. He resigned from Microsoft in 1997 to write software as an independent developer and to further pursue his writing career.