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Trillions: Thriving in the Emerging Information Ecology
We are facing a future of unbounded complexity. Whether that complexity is harnessed to build a world that is safe, pleasant, humane and profitable, or whether it causes us to careen off a cliff into an abyss of mind-numbing junk is an open question. The challenges and opportunities--technical, business, and human--that this technological sea change will bring are without precedent. Entire industries will be born and others will be laid to ruin as our society navigates this journey.
There are already many more computing devices in the world than there are people. In a few more years, their number will climb into the trillions. We put microprocessors into nearly every significant thing that we manufacture, and the cost of routine computing and storage is rapidly becoming negligible. We have literally permeated our world with computation. But more significant than mere numbers is the fact we are quickly figuring out how to make those processors communicate with each other, and with us. We are about to be faced, not with a trillion isolated devices, but with a trillion-node a network whose scale and complexity will dwarf that of today’s Internet. And, unlike the Internet, this will be a network not of computation that we use, but of computation that we live in.
Written by the leaders of one of America’s leading pervasive computing design firms, this book gives a no-holds-barred insiders’ account of both the promise and the risks of the age of Trillions. It is also a cautionary tale of the head-in-the-sand attitude with which many of today’s thought-leaders are at present approaching these issues. Trillions is a field guide to the future--designed to help businesses and their customers prepare to prosper, in the information.
There are already many more computing devices in the world than there are people. In a few more years, their number will climb into the trillions. We put microprocessors into nearly every significant thing that we manufacture, and the cost of routine computing and storage is rapidly becoming negligible. We have literally permeated our world with computation. But more significant than mere numbers is the fact we are quickly figuring out how to make those processors communicate with each other, and with us. We are about to be faced, not with a trillion isolated devices, but with a trillion-node a network whose scale and complexity will dwarf that of today’s Internet. And, unlike the Internet, this will be a network not of computation that we use, but of computation that we live in.
Written by the leaders of one of America’s leading pervasive computing design firms, this book gives a no-holds-barred insiders’ account of both the promise and the risks of the age of Trillions. It is also a cautionary tale of the head-in-the-sand attitude with which many of today’s thought-leaders are at present approaching these issues. Trillions is a field guide to the future--designed to help businesses and their customers prepare to prosper, in the information.
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 27, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 16, 2013
This a very misleading book. I thought it was a book about the future, the after web era, the Internet of Things and all this kind of stuff. It barely discusses the matter. It is just a self promoting book about some Maya Consulting company, lead by people who more easily talk about what they did in 90's than what happened more recently. It is sometimes rather reactionary ("Open Source software is unreliable"). Spends most of the time discussing all sorts of subjects that don't have the slightest relation to a pervasive computing. There are lengthy chapters about how they work at Maya (generally on projects and methodologies found in any design agency).
In a nutshell, the take away message of this book is: "a Trillion Node world (that it never describes) will be complex, and will need to scale, so we need to be careful in designing it. We at Maya are pretty good at designing things." Waow, as if nobody knew that it would be complex and would need to scale. Thanks Maya for realizing that the times have changed since 1989.
In a nutshell, the take away message of this book is: "a Trillion Node world (that it never describes) will be complex, and will need to scale, so we need to be careful in designing it. We at Maya are pretty good at designing things." Waow, as if nobody knew that it would be complex and would need to scale. Thanks Maya for realizing that the times have changed since 1989.
June 22, 2018
Trillions is extremely thought provoking, I 'read' this as an audiobook on my walks to work for a few weeks and really enjoyed it. The broad themes of persuasive design, generative architecture, data liquidity, and taming complexity made all my gears turn.
Persuasive Design: I appreciate the design fundamentals sprinkled throughout the book, and the vivid narratives of what the future might be like. My favorite was the hardware store of the future. How can we simplify our everyday electronics into components? What would that look like? Would shopping for a replacement IoT component be like picking up a 2" diameter right angle pipe at Home Depot when your plumbing broke? Fascinating thoughts.
Data liquidity: We have all of this data being transmitted from trillions of devices, what is going to be the innovation that streamlines all of it? What is the protocol that will be analogous to the shipping container in the 1950s that will create an explosion of growth?
Generative Architecture: I loved the theme of buildings things with strong fundamentals and having good architecture. There is an interesting trade off in software development that is going on between the open source wild west programmer and structured programming as if we're electricians following building code. (If you've ever read Snow Crash, this made me think of the government programmers vs. the hackers delivering pizza). The example of the Mississippi River, how farmers could alter the banks by creating small channels and change an entire course of a river. We need to build products that tame complexity by having this good, generative architecture.
Taming Complexity: I can't stop thinking about how complexity is conserved. Another amazing example with the 420 sailboat. Now, I know nothing about sailboats, but understanding that the complexity stayed the same as the design evolved, it just got transferred to how it was manufactured instead of a frustrating consumer experience. How can we tame complexity in the products that we build?
There was a LOT of reference to Maya Design, which I found to be OK. It really helps give context as to why these three guys wrote this book. It was great to hear the stories and anecdotes from Mickey, Peter, and Joe. This came through excellent on the audiobook, providing additional context and clarity to each chapter's concepts.
Overall, I'd recommend this book for folks in the technology space and people that are curious as to the impacts design has for building good products as we climb up "Trillions Mountain"
Persuasive Design: I appreciate the design fundamentals sprinkled throughout the book, and the vivid narratives of what the future might be like. My favorite was the hardware store of the future. How can we simplify our everyday electronics into components? What would that look like? Would shopping for a replacement IoT component be like picking up a 2" diameter right angle pipe at Home Depot when your plumbing broke? Fascinating thoughts.
Data liquidity: We have all of this data being transmitted from trillions of devices, what is going to be the innovation that streamlines all of it? What is the protocol that will be analogous to the shipping container in the 1950s that will create an explosion of growth?
Generative Architecture: I loved the theme of buildings things with strong fundamentals and having good architecture. There is an interesting trade off in software development that is going on between the open source wild west programmer and structured programming as if we're electricians following building code. (If you've ever read Snow Crash, this made me think of the government programmers vs. the hackers delivering pizza). The example of the Mississippi River, how farmers could alter the banks by creating small channels and change an entire course of a river. We need to build products that tame complexity by having this good, generative architecture.
Taming Complexity: I can't stop thinking about how complexity is conserved. Another amazing example with the 420 sailboat. Now, I know nothing about sailboats, but understanding that the complexity stayed the same as the design evolved, it just got transferred to how it was manufactured instead of a frustrating consumer experience. How can we tame complexity in the products that we build?
There was a LOT of reference to Maya Design, which I found to be OK. It really helps give context as to why these three guys wrote this book. It was great to hear the stories and anecdotes from Mickey, Peter, and Joe. This came through excellent on the audiobook, providing additional context and clarity to each chapter's concepts.
Overall, I'd recommend this book for folks in the technology space and people that are curious as to the impacts design has for building good products as we climb up "Trillions Mountain"
August 10, 2020
This book was so amazing. I read it about 4 years ago and it just laid out conceptually block chain and iot.
July 12, 2017
I wanted to like this book.
This book presents an idealized view of where technology might go (and take us) from here. It is worth reading, with a grain of salt, if this concept interests you. Essentially, the authors envision unity across anything that generates or shares information. However, the authors are designers and I believe they wrote this book themselves, but I think they would have done well to get the help of career tech writers.
Many books (and people, especially in tech) do what this book does: take interesting abstract ideas and be annoying about how those ideas are conveyed, which makes it painful to accept the ideas. Annoying here means, first, that the authors assume to know things that no one knows. They make projections about the future that *will* come true throughout the book, and don't seem to realize that that is what they are doing. Second, annoying means the authors are extremely, very, frustratingly pretentious: they use the word 'esthetic' instead of 'aestheic' for no apparent reason, they tout reduced complexion in tech but can't be bothered to write in a straightforward way, they use confusing and unnecessary analogies, the only good design that exists in their world view is anything from their firm and Apple, the book's website describes it as a 'guide to the future.' To the authors: I want to read about your ideas, so get a tech writer to help write a better version of this book. Please.
If the idea of a united information 'ecology' (as they call it) interests you, and if you have the self restraint to do no more than scream at your book/kindle/computer when you are frustrated with the authors, then, sure, read this book.
This book presents an idealized view of where technology might go (and take us) from here. It is worth reading, with a grain of salt, if this concept interests you. Essentially, the authors envision unity across anything that generates or shares information. However, the authors are designers and I believe they wrote this book themselves, but I think they would have done well to get the help of career tech writers.
Many books (and people, especially in tech) do what this book does: take interesting abstract ideas and be annoying about how those ideas are conveyed, which makes it painful to accept the ideas. Annoying here means, first, that the authors assume to know things that no one knows. They make projections about the future that *will* come true throughout the book, and don't seem to realize that that is what they are doing. Second, annoying means the authors are extremely, very, frustratingly pretentious: they use the word 'esthetic' instead of 'aestheic' for no apparent reason, they tout reduced complexion in tech but can't be bothered to write in a straightforward way, they use confusing and unnecessary analogies, the only good design that exists in their world view is anything from their firm and Apple, the book's website describes it as a 'guide to the future.' To the authors: I want to read about your ideas, so get a tech writer to help write a better version of this book. Please.
If the idea of a united information 'ecology' (as they call it) interests you, and if you have the self restraint to do no more than scream at your book/kindle/computer when you are frustrated with the authors, then, sure, read this book.
September 29, 2013
This book is about what we will need to do to change our thinking about information and how we manipulate and access it. Starting from where we currently are today, it outlines what will need to happen to get to the next level of complexity when most things we interact with will be imbedded with technology. Written by three authors from MAYA, it is peppered with stories and insights that help illustrate their thinking on the future of the digital age.
While I don’t think that I was able to grasp all of the concepts in this book fully, it did allow me to look into the world of the future as envisioned by people who are invested in the cutting edge of computing technology and the future of information. Many of the things they describe are yet to exist. They describe some clever parallel innovations that make the concepts easy to grasp as well as familiar examples of interactions with devices that illustrate the problems and opportunities that are on the horizon.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the future of computing and technology and how it will continue to shape our lives.
While I don’t think that I was able to grasp all of the concepts in this book fully, it did allow me to look into the world of the future as envisioned by people who are invested in the cutting edge of computing technology and the future of information. Many of the things they describe are yet to exist. They describe some clever parallel innovations that make the concepts easy to grasp as well as familiar examples of interactions with devices that illustrate the problems and opportunities that are on the horizon.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the future of computing and technology and how it will continue to shape our lives.
December 9, 2012
This is a fantastic book. Highly recommended. I did not know anything about MAYA consulting till i met Mickey McManus at a conference together with Gordon Bell. He happened to have some early prints of this book, and signed one for me. It's a must read book if you want to get a feel of the catastrophic complexities that we will be facing when trillions and devices and entities start conversations at scale over the grid. Especially if you have interest in Design with a big "D" and Architecture with a big "A", i ensure you will enjoy this book from start to finish.
September 15, 2013
A challenging book about the future of our internet, from the firm that invented usability as a term and a discipline. Not a linear text but a series of observations and case studies that weave together.
March 10, 2013
My brother Mickey wrote a book! Of course it's mind bending. Read it!
September 23, 2013
While a little verbose at times, this book has some very insightful speculations on what the future of information and the technology that will govern information will/should be.
November 8, 2013
Look beyond the distractions of a million apps in the app store, the twitter ipo, or vc funding your silly social network app and imagine a world of connected everything.
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February 19, 2015Location: GIC IRC
Accession no: DL026808
Accession no: DL026808
August 21, 2016
Highly boring ad for the MAYA corporation.
No insight, and the title is misleading, it is not of informatics, but pre-2012 marketing!
OMG
No insight, and the title is misleading, it is not of informatics, but pre-2012 marketing!
OMG
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews