Technology and the future - Softcover

Albert H. Teich

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9780312789985: Technology and the future

Softcover

ISBN 10: 031278998X ISBN 13: 9780312789985

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 1986

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Stamped used by cal poly bookstore. Cover is shelf worn. Highlighting throughout.

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About the Author:

Albert H. Teich has been Director of Science and Policy Programs at the venerable American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1990 and has held positions at George Washington University, the State University of New York, and Syracuse University. He currently chairs the Advisory Board of the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech, serves on advisory boards at Columbia University and the Loka Institute, and is Codirector of the new Center for Innovation Policy Research and Education in Budapest. A widely quoted, well-known author and speaker on science and technology policy, Dr. Teich is an advisory board member for several scientific journals and a consultant to various companies and organizations. Dr. Teich holds a BS in physics and a PhD in political science, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"We need to remember that the measure of a civilization is not the tools it owns but the use it makes of them." So cautioned an editorial entitled "The Limits of Technology" that appeared in the New York Times in early January 1999. A more appropriate note on which to open this book is hard to imagine.

The unpredictable consequences of technological change have long been a source of worry to society. Today, however, new technologies and their anticipated benefits are increasingly welcomed, while the possible negative impacts of these technologies are often given little more than lip service. For example, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and an individual with unique influence in global economic affairs, credits rapid technological change for the "sparkling performance" of the U.S. economy in the late 1990s. The utopian prospects of accelerating technological change - epitomized by the transformation of the Internet from a tool for researchers into an entirely new global medium of communication in the space of less than a decade - are touted by technologists, entrepreneurs, political leaders, and the mass media. Undoubtedly, we are seeing great technological progress. But is it human progress?

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