The History And Future Of Technology

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The History and Future of Technology

Author : Robert U. Ayres
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Technology
ISBN : 9783030713935

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The History and Future of Technology by Robert U. Ayres Pdf

Eminent physicist and economist, Robert Ayres, examines the history of technology as a change agent in society, focusing on societal roots rather than technology as an autonomous, self-perpetuating phenomenon. With rare exceptions, technology is developed in response to societal needs that have evolutionary roots and causes. In our genus Homo, language evolved in response to a need for our ancestors to communicate, both in the moment, and to posterity. A band of hunters had no chance in competition with predators that were larger and faster without this type of organization, which eventually gave birth to writing and music. The steam engine did not leap fully formed from the brain of James Watt. It evolved from a need to pump water out of coal mines, driven by a need to burn coal instead of firewood, in turn due to deforestation. Later, the steam engine made machines and mechanization possible. Even quite simple machines increased human productivity by a factor of hundreds, if not thousands. That was the Industrial Revolution. If we count electricity and the automobile as a second industrial revolution, and the digital computer as the beginning of a third, the world is now on the cusp of a fourth revolution led by microbiology. These industrial revolutions have benefited many in the short term, but devastated the Earths ecosystems. Can technology save the human race from the catastrophic consequences of its past success? That is the question this book will try to answer.

Cool Technology

Author : Jenny Jacoby
Publisher : Rizzoli Publications
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2022-02-01
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781843655152

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Cool Technology by Jenny Jacoby Pdf

The latest title in the Cool… series introduces the creative and inventive world of technology with fun facts, timelines, experiments to try at home, and more! Technology is all about inventing new devices and tools—things that we use every single day! From Stone Age tech, such as hand axes and sewing needles, to microcomputers and nanotechnology, get stuck into the intriguing, exciting, and ingenious world of Cool Technology. From biographies of figures such as Bill Gates, Annie Easley, and Josephine Cochrane, to landmark technological advances such as the Iron Age, the Industrial Revolution, and personal computers, this book is sure to be the perfect gift for any budding inventor and tech-head. The book covers digital tech, electronics, robotics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical technology, virtual reality, and inclusive tech. Other titles in the series include: Cool Architecture; Cool Nature; Cool Coding; Cool Philosophy, Cool Art, Cool Mythology, Cool Engineering; Cool Astronomy; Cool Physics; Cool Science; Cool Math

War Made New

Author : Max Boot
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 640 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2006-10-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101216835

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War Made New by Max Boot Pdf

A monumental, groundbreaking work, now in paperback, that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield Combining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, War Made New focuses on four "revolutions" in military affairs and describes how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air strikes have remade the field of battle—and shaped the rise and fall of empires. War Made New begins with the Gunpowder Revolution and explains warfare's evolution from ritualistic, drawn-out engagements to much deadlier events, precipitating the rise of the modern nation-state. He next explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires. Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare and the rise of centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers. Finally, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq War—arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, "irregular" forces to become an increasingly significant threat.

Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past

Author : Erik van der Vleuten,Ruth Oldenziel,Mila Davids
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Engineering
ISBN : 9462985405

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Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past by Erik van der Vleuten,Ruth Oldenziel,Mila Davids Pdf

The world is in turmoil: we are witnessing steep social and environmental challenges. Technology is identified as both cause of and solution to these challenges. How can we use technology to solve problems - without creating new ones?Engineering the Future, Understanding the Past discusses the role of engineering in our age of grand challenges - by drawing lessons from the past. Since the birth of modern engineering roughly two centuries ago, technology has helped to reshape our modern world. At the same time, social challenges have shaped engineering science and practice. This book examines why and how engineers have engaged in solving social challenges -challenges for society, for business, and for users. It alsoasks why some technological solutions have unexpectedly created new problems. And it studies how engineers have coped with technology's puzzling ability to both help and harm.

The History and Future of Medical Technology

Author : Ira S. Brodsky
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Medical instruments and apparatus
ISBN : 0980038316

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The History and Future of Medical Technology by Ira S. Brodsky Pdf

The History and Future of Medical Technology tells the story behind today's advanced medical technologies: how they were developed, how they work their magic, and how they are likely to evolve over the next several years. The book gives readers a front row view of the discoveries and inventions that transformed medicine into an exact science. It demystifies the technologies found in modern hospitals and clinics showing how they satisfy real and pressing needs. And it covers the latest advances in areas including robotic surgery, brain-computer interface chips, artificial retinas, and nanomedicine.

The Future of Technology

Author : Tom Standage
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2005-08-01
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1861979711

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The Future of Technology by Tom Standage Pdf

From the industrial revolution to the railway age, through the era of electrification, the advent of mass production, and finally to the information age, the same pattern keeps repeating itself. An exciting, vibrant phase of innovation and financial speculation is followed by a crash, after which begins a longer, more stately period during which the technology is actually deployed properly. This collection of surveys and articles from The Economist examines how far technology has come and where it is heading. Part one looks at topics such as the “greying” (maturing) of IT, the growing importance of security, the rise of outsourcing, and the challenge of complexity, all of which have more to do with implementation than innovation. Part two looks at the shift from corporate computing towards consumer technology, whereby new technologies now appear first in consumer gadgets such as mobile phones. Topics covered will include the emergence of the mobile phone as the “digital Swiss Army knife”; the rise of digital cameras, which now outsell film-based ones; the growing size and importance of the games industry and its ever-closer links with other more traditional parts of the entertainment industry; and the social impact of technologies such as text messaging, Wi-Fi, and camera phones. Part three considers which technology will lead the next great phase of technological disruption and focuses on biotechnology, energy technology, and nanotechnology.

The History, Present State, and Future of Information Technology

Author : Andrew Targowski
Publisher : Informing Science
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2024-05-20
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9781681100029

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The History, Present State, and Future of Information Technology by Andrew Targowski Pdf

In Part I, Prof. Targowski takes us through the evolution of modern computing and information systems. While much of this material is familiar to those of us who have lived through these developments, it would definitely not be familiar to our children or our students. He also introduces a perspective that I found both refreshing and useful: looking at the evolution on a country by country basis. For those of us who live in the U.S., it is all too easy to imagine that evolution to be a purely local phenomenon. I found my appreciation of the truly global nature of computing expanding as he walked me through each country’s contributions. In Parts II and III, constituting nearly half of the book, Targowski provides what I would describe as an in-depth case study of the challenges and successes of informatics in Poland. As he tells each story—many of which involved him personally—the reader cannot help but better understand the close relationship between the freedoms that we in the west take for granted and the ability to produce innovations in IT. Even after Poland left the orbit of the former Soviet Union, the remaining vestiges of the old way of thinking remained a major impediment to progress. Being right and being rigorous were far less important than being in tune with the “approved” ways of thinking. There are important lessons to be learned here, particularly as we try to project how IT will evolve in rapidly developing economies such as China. But, from my experience, they apply equally well to western academia, where moving outside of preferred values and patterns of research can lead a scholar to be ignored or even disparaged. In Part IV, Targowski presents a bold, forward-looking synthesis of informatics and informing science in the future. Building upon articles recently published in Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline, he presents a conceptual scheme of historical informing waves that builds upon historians such as Toynbee. He then considers how these trends will necessarily force us to rethink how we develop and apply IT. He does not steer away from the controversial. But he also provides cogent arguments for all his predictions and recommendations.

Rocketing Into the Future

Author : Michel van Pelt
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2012-05-30
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781461432005

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Rocketing Into the Future by Michel van Pelt Pdf

This book describes the technology, history, and future of rocket planes. Michel van Pelt journies into this exciting world, examining the exotic concepts and actual flying vehicles that have been devised over the last hundred years. He recounts the history of rocket airplanes, from the early pioneers who attached simple rockets onto their wooden glider airplanes to the modern world of high-tech research vehicles. The author visits museums where rare examples of early rocket planes are kept and modern laboratories where future spaceplanes are being developed. He explains the technology in an easily understandable way, describing the various types of rocket airplanes and looking at the possibilities for the future. Michel van Pelt considers future spaceplanes, presenting various modern concepts and developments. He describes the development from cutting edge research via demonstrator vehicles to operational use. He also evaluates the replacement of the Space Shuttle with a seemingly old-fashioned capsule system, the parallel developments in suborbital spaceplanes such as SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, piloted versus automatic flight, and related developments in airliners and military aircraft.

Imagining Tomorrow

Author : Joseph J. Corn
Publisher : Mit Press
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0262031159

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Imagining Tomorrow by Joseph J. Corn Pdf

Looks at past predictions of the future, discusses how x-rays, radio, nuclear energy, and plastic were expected to change the future, and considers the impact of skyscrapers, computers, and electricity

The Work of the Future

Author : David H. Autor,David A. Mindell,Elisabeth Reynolds
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 189 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2023-10-03
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780262547307

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The Work of the Future by David H. Autor,David A. Mindell,Elisabeth Reynolds Pdf

Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.

Future Histories

Author : Lizzie O'Shea
Publisher : Verso Books
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2021-08-17
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781788734318

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Future Histories by Lizzie O'Shea Pdf

A highly engaging tour through progressive history in the service of emancipating our digital tomorrow Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Australia When we talk about technology we always talk about tomorrow and the future—which makes it hard to figure out how to even get there. In Future Histories, public interest lawyer and digital specialist Lizzie O'Shea argues that we need to stop looking forward and start looking backwards. Weaving together histories of computing and progressive social movements with modern theories of the mind, society, and self, O'Shea constructs a “usable past” that can help us determine our digital future. What, she asks, can the Paris Commune tell us about earlier experiments in sharing resources—like the Internet—in common? How can Frantz Fanon's theories of anti colonial self-determination help us build digital world in which everyone can participate equally? Can debates over equal digital access be helped by American revolutionary Tom Paine's theories of democratic, economic redistribution? What can indigenous land struggles teach us about stewarding our digital climate? And, how is Elon Musk not a future visionary but a steampunk throwback to Victorian-era technological utopians? In engaging, sparkling prose, O'Shea shows us how very human our understanding of technology is, and how when we draw on the resources of the past, we can see the potential for struggle, for liberation, for art and poetry in our technological present. Future Histories is for all of us—makers, coders, hacktivists, Facebook-users, self-styled Luddites—who find ourselves in a brave new world.

Tools for Thought

Author : Howard Rheingold
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2000-04-13
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 0262681153

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Tools for Thought by Howard Rheingold Pdf

In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the patriarchs, pioneers, and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J. C. R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, and Alan Kay. The digital revolution did not begin with the teenage millionaires of Silicon Valley, claims Howard Rheingold, but with such early intellectual giants as Charles Babbage, George Boole, and John von Neumann. In a highly engaging style, Rheingold tells the story of what he calls the patriarchs, pioneers, and infonauts of the computer, focusing in particular on such pioneers as J. C. R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Bob Taylor, and Alan Kay. Taking the reader step by step from nineteenth-century mathematics to contemporary computing, he introduces a fascinating collection of eccentrics, mavericks, geniuses, and visionaries. The book was originally published in 1985, and Rheingold's attempt to envision computing in the 1990s turns out to have been remarkably prescient. This edition contains an afterword, in which Rheingold interviews some of the pioneers discussed in the book. As an exercise in what he calls "retrospective futurism," Rheingold also looks back at how he looked forward.

The Future of Change

Author : Ray Brescia
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2020-04-15
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781501748134

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The Future of Change by Ray Brescia Pdf

In The Future of Change, Ray Brescia identifies a series of "social innovation moments" in American history. Through these moments—during which social movements have embraced advances in communications technologies—he illuminates the complicated, dangerous, innovative, and exciting relationship between these technologies, social movements, and social change. Brescia shows that, almost without fail, developments in how we communicate shape social movements, just as those movements change the very technologies themselves. From the printing press to the television, social movements have leveraged communications technologies to advance change. In this moment of rapidly evolving communications, it's imperative to assess the role that the Internet, mobile devices, and social media can play in promoting social justice. But first we must look to the past, to examples of movements throughout American history that successfully harnessed communications technology, thus facilitating positive social change. Such movements embraced new communications technologies to help organize their communities; to form grassroots networks in order to facilitate face-to-face interactions; and to promote positive, inclusive messaging that stressed their participants' shared dignity and humanity. Using the past as prologue, The Future of Change provides effective lessons in the use of communications technology so that we can have the best communicative tools at our disposal—both now and in the future.

A Brief History of the Future

Author : John Naughton
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2015-09-24
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9781474602778

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A Brief History of the Future by John Naughton Pdf

The Internet is the most remarkable thing human beings have built since the Pyramids. John Naughton's book intersperses wonderful personal stories with an authoritative account of where the Net actually came from, who invented it and why and where it might be taking us. Most of us have no idea how the Internet works, or who created it. Even fewer have any idea what it means for society and the future. In a cynical age, John Naughton has not lost his capacity for wonder. He examines the nature of his own enthusiasm for technology and traces its roots in his lonely childhood and in his relationship with his father. A Brief History of the Future is an intensely personal celebration of vision and altruism, ingenuity and determination and, above all, of the power of ideas, passionately felt, to change the world.

Technology and Society

Author : Deborah G. Johnson,Jameson M. Wetmore
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 853 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-17
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9780262303385

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Technology and Society by Deborah G. Johnson,Jameson M. Wetmore Pdf

An anthology of writings by thinkers ranging from Freeman Dyson to Bruno Latour that focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values and how these may affect the future. Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values. It offers writings by authorities as varied as Freeman Dyson, Laurence Lessig, Bruno Latour, and Judy Wajcman that will introduce readers to recent thinking about technology and provide them with conceptual tools, a theoretical framework, and knowledge to help understand how technology shapes society and how society shapes technology. It offers readers a new perspective on such current issues as globalization, the balance between security and privacy, environmental justice, and poverty in the developing world. The careful ordering of the selections and the editors' introductions give Technology and Society a coherence and flow that is unusual in anthologies. The book is suitable for use in undergraduate courses in STS and other disciplines. The selections begin with predictions of the future that range from forecasts of technological utopia to cautionary tales. These are followed by writings that explore the complexity of sociotechnical systems, presenting a picture of how technology and society work in step, shaping and being shaped by one another. Finally, the book goes back to considerations of the future, discussing twenty-first-century challenges that include nanotechnology, the role of citizens in technological decisions, and the technologies of human enhancement.