SAFE: The Race to Protect Ourselves in a Newly Dangerous World - Hardcover

Baer, Martha; Heron, Katrina; Morton, Oliver; Ratliff, Evan; Oliver Morton; Evan Ratliff

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060577150 ISBN 13: 9780060577155

Publisher: Harper, 2005

Synopsis

If our society is the most technologically sophisticated on Earth, then why can't we protect ourselves from terrorists and other threats to our safety and security?

This is the question that frustrates—and scares—all of us today, and the answers have proved maddeningly elusive. Until now. Through dramatic, enlightening, and often entertaining narratives, SAFE makes visible—and understandable—the high-stakes work being done by some of the most ingenious problem-solvers across the country and around the world, people committed to creating real and dependable security in the twenty-first century.

The characters in these pages, from scientists and engineers to academics, entrepreneurs, and emergency workers, take us into a fascinating world of inquiry and discovery. Their stories reveal where our greatest vulnerabilities lie and where our best hope deservedly shines through. They show why the systems we rely on to protect ourselves can also be exploited by others to create catastrophe—and what we can do to outsmart the terrorists. We have ample proof that terrorists will go to great lengths to understand how our technologies can be put to destructive use. Now it's time to ask ourselves a question: Are we willing to let them keep beating us at our own game? For the brilliant and colorful innovators in these pages, the answer is no.

Among them are Eric Thompson, an expert digital code breaker instrumental in deciphering hidden Al Qaeda messages; Mike Stein, a New York City firefighter turned technologist who is working to overcome the numerous communications failures of 9/11; Eve Hinman, who conducts structural autopsies at the scene of explosions, including the Oklahoma City bombing, in order to develop more blast-resistant designs; Ken Alibek, the infamous architect of the former Soviet bioweapons program and now an American entrepreneur working in the business of defending his adopted country from bioterrorism; Kris Pister and Michael Sailor, university researchers developing sensors no larger than a speck of dust; Rafi Ron, former head of security for Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv and now a leading strategist on U.S. airport security; Tara O'Toole, who stages doomsday bioterror scenarios in order to craft better biodefense systems; and Jeff Jonas, a high-rolling Las Vegas software entrepreneur whose methods for spotting casino cheats might just have uncovered the 9/11 plot.

Readers of SAFE will come away understanding the unique challenges posed by technological progress in a networked, and newly dangerous, world. Witnessing the work of this gathering force of innovators up close, they'll be inspired by the power of the human intellect and spirit—and realize how important the contributions of individual citizens and communities can be.

About this title

About the Author:

Martha Baer is a former senior producer at Wired Digital and the author of As Francesca, a novel about online anonymity and intrigue.

Katrina Heron is the former editor-in-chief of Wired and a contributing editor at GQ.

Award-winning science journalist Oliver Morton is the author of Mapping Mars, a contributing editor at Wired, and a contributor for The New Yorker, Science, and The American Scholar. He lives with his wife in Greenwich, England.

Evan Ratliff is a regular contributor to Wired and Ready Made magazines whose work has also appeared in Outside, the New Yorker, and the New York Times.

From Booklist:

This is not a book you should read if you're in a suspicious frame of mind. The authors explore an aspect of the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks that hasn't been widely discussed. The world is full of new technology, affecting everything from home entertainment to commerce to communications to security, but do we understand fully the potential downside of such wondrous innovations? The authors argue that we can't ignore the fact that communications technology (for example) has made it much, much easier for terrorists to talk among themselves without fear of being overheard. New technologies, in other words, have the potential to be turned against us, and it's up to the men and women profiled in the book--scientists, inventors, government workers, and academics--to be aware of the dangers and to develop ways to guard against them. A fascinating study of how our future security is being protected behind-the-scenes by those who view technologies as complex systems with long-range implications for both good and ill. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060577150
• ISBN 13: 9780060577155
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416