Amazon.com
Do you sometimes feel you're serving the computers and other techno-gadgets in your life, rather than them serving you? If so, you have prestigious company in Michael L. Dertouzos, who has headed up the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science for more than 25 years. In
The Unfinished Revolution, Dertouzos unmasks the deficiencies of our present systems and makes a compelling case for "human-centric computing," which has the potential to dramatically reduce our techno-aggravation, while improving our productivity and effectiveness.
Written for people who use computers, and for the technologists who design and build them, Dertouzos's latest work clearly lays out a vision of human-centric computing. But it doesn't stop there. As in his previous works, Dertouzos connects his strong vision of the near future with practical ways computer users and designers can help create that future.
At the book's core, Dertouzos identifies five human-centric forces--speech understanding, automation, individualized information access, collaboration, and customization--and then provides specific examples of how each can be used to improve how we work with information technology.
He goes on to offer vignettes that show how human-centric computing, when implemented, may improve health care, commerce, disaster control, medicine in developing countries, financial services, and even play.
Michael Dertouzos has already helped shape the information age, most recently in the 1997 bestseller What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives. With his latest book, he is destined to prove prescient once again. --Fred Zahradnik
Book Description
In a world spiralling into a state of technological excess, Michael Dertouzos shows us how to make technology - in all its infinite varieties - work for, rather than against, us in our everday business lives. Now includes a new foreword by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
At its core, Dertouzos' manifesto is this: Simplify the use of technology to the point where it works FOR us rather than having it dictate the way we live and work. This book is about getting to the point where computer fads give way to a true Information Revolution. To get there, we must abandon our current preoccupation with machine complexities and set a goal that is as simple as it is powerful: Information technology should help people do more by doing less.
Dertouzos offers a look at the future and place of technology in everyday life: Where would a world of truly easy to use technology lead the human race? How might people change their way of life and work, their politics, their self perception and their quest for the meaning of life in such an environment?
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