What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives – The Essential Examination of Technology, Medicine, and Telecommunications

by Michael L. Dertouzos, Bill Gates

Michael Dertouzos has been an insightful commentator and an active participant in the creation of the Information Age.Now, in What Will Be, he offers a thought-provoking and entertaining vision of the world of the next decade -- and of the next century. Dertouzos examines the impact that the following new technologies and challenges will have on our lives as the Information Revolution progresses:


all the music, film and text ever produced will be available on-demand in our own homes
your "bodynet" will let you make phone calls, check email and pay bills as you walk down the street
advances in telecommunication will radically alter the role of face-to-face contact in our lives
global disparities in infrastructure will widen the gap between rich and poor
surgical mini-robots and online care will change the practice of medicine as we know it.
Detailed, accessible and visionary, What Will Be&nbsp is essential for Information Age revolutionaries and technological neophytes alike.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Business, Computers

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kaethe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing Mr. Dertouzos does in this book is introduce a useful paradigm in which to view the digital future. His initial description of (and continual references to) "the Information Marketplace," offers the most complete and concrete metaphor for the Digital Age. This is an example anyone can understand and use. His specifics, however, will leave many readers disappointed. It isn't that he's wrong, it's that constant media hype on innovations has made his examples familiar and a little stale. Strongly recommended for the technical novice, but a miss for those already online.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought of this boook, given to me by one friend, in coversation with another. Dertouzos was there at the birth of the Internet and computer age and one of the original visionaries. Some of the problems he saw then - why do we have to wait for an electronic device to "boot up"? - are still an issue. However, the years and experience he has had give such a bright future, hopeful vision that it seems like wishful dreaming to me ... I tend to think for the centuries ahead computer technology will lag behind the easy, intuitive and obvious... at least in key areas.

[JP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never found a book harder to finish -- not because it is uninteresting as much as it is disgusting. Let us hope that this is not what will be. The author has witnessed every step of the computer revolution from ENIAC to the Web Consortium. He sees a world where intelligent machines do everything for us (much like in the Jetsons), where we wear a full cast of instruments, and where we are always accessible to everyone. That is not so much disturbing as the opinion that this is all "improvement." I doubt that in my lifetime everything in my home will understand what I say.

[Johnny Galt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting and somewhat revealing to the way computers were thought of in earlier days and what they thought it would be today. Most of it is although vague somewhat true. Some of it however is outlandish and way off the mark by today's standards but still something to shoot for! Overall a great book but probably dated.

[Alon Gutman · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is just interesting to see today what was the thoughts back in 1995 about the internet, from one of its early pioneers.

[Sidone]

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