The Unfinished Revolution: How to Make Technology Work for Us--Instead of the Other Way Around

by Michael L. Dertouzos

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 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 Information technology should help people do more by doing less. Dertouzos offers a look at the future and place of technology in everyday 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?

Genres: Technology

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Gareth Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book may feel a little dared now but is still important as a) the guide for what Google has done and b) what technology still fails to do more often than not. Revisit this every couple of years

[Ar3emis He · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great predictor. Can’t believe this is written before 2001. Two third of the prompts become the true concerns of today’s world.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Unfinished Revolution begins with the same thesis statement as The Humane Interface: computers and applications are too complicated. I agree but only to a point: operating systems are often too complicated for the average user to debug or modify but the basic ways in which computers are used on a day to day basis are fairly straightforward.

The Unfinished Revolution proposes to fix this unwanted complexity through a combination of voice activated software, XML tags and collaboration. With the hundreds of languages spoken in the world and the thousands of dialects, it is impossible to expect voice activated programs to work efficiently or intuitively. Take for instance how frustrating the few voice operated phone tree systems some companies use to direct calls. Nothing gets me swearing at my phone faster than one of those voice operated trees!

XML is certainly a powerful and flexible language and it is making the internet more flexible through things like RSS and for the way database results are presented on dynamically generated pages (Amazon's catalogue and BookCrossing are prime examples).

But XML and tags (the blog model) are not the catch-all answer to all of complexity to using computers. Amazon.com's new tag cloud for recommendations, their new "plog" which I can't figure out how to turn off, and their instance on having reviewers tag their reviews are new "blog features" about Amazon that I absolutely hate. Amazon.com is not a blog; it is a vendor. It sells books, music and a whole bunch of other stuff. It isn't a blog. I don't want to go there to read blog entries.

Finally that brings up the problem of collaboration. Yes, there are times when people have to collaborate over distances for work, education, and what-not. But that doesn't mean I always want to go to my friends or family first for recommendations on things. My friends and family have very different tastes than I do on a number of things. They aren't necessarily unbiased enough to give me the pros and cons when I'm searching for information. On the flip side, I'm not sure I want my computer searched without my knowledge!

So far I've yet to read a book that seems to see computers the same way I do. I don't often find myself wasting my time — certainly not on email or searching the internet. Spam filters are wonderful devices when programmed correctly and Boolean logic makes searching a snap if the information exists on the internet. When the internet fails, there is always the library!

[James King · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book with tremendous vision for what technology can accomplish. The book is slightly dated but you can see hints of the authors technology vision in a large number of applications that we currently use every day. If we can fulfill 80% what the vision in this book, technology will certainly make our lives easier.

[Ariel Rodriguez Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dertouzos, one of my personal heros, was a strong proponent of the "human centered computing", and this book, where he talks about Oxygen, is a description of a what can be achieved with a lot of imagination, and the desire to put humans, and not computers, at the center of the scene.