Ideas and Information: Managing in a High-Tech World

A scientist probes the nature of computer information, exploring the assemblage of symbols, numbers, words, and pictures that make up information, the degree to which machines extract meaning, and the destined role of machines in our lives

This is a positive, readable book about computers and people, not as in Sherry Turkle's best-selling The Second Self ( LJ 6/15/84), but told historically, and through anecdote. The author, a Nobel Prize winner and Bell Labs vice president, reveals the most through the insightful and diverse examples he gives. He talks about the computer's origins, workings, applications, limitations, management, artifical intelligence, and super capabilities. Penzias emphasizes that "the world's most powerful information tool will continue to be the human mind." This is a rare title to be enjoyed by the technical and nontechnical reader alike.
- Janice Dunham, John Jay Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.