Technology and the Future - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Albert H. Teich is director of Science and Policy Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a position he has held since 1990. He holds a Ph.D. in political science and a B.S. in physics, both from MIT and has taught at George Washington University, the State University of New York at Albany and Binghamton, and Syracuse University. Teich is the editor of several books and the author of numerous articles and book chapters. He is quoted frequently in the press and has made many appearances on radio and television. He is well-known as a speaker on topics of science, technology, policy, and society and has served as a consultant to government agencies, Congress, national laboratories, industrial firms, and international organizations.

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"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?