The Story of Technology: How We Got Here and What the Future Holds

by Daniel M. Gerstein

A leading technology expert examines ways to manage the rapid proliferation of technology and come to grips with its pervasive influence.

Technology--always a key driver of historical change--is transforming society as never before and at a far more rapid pace. This book takes the reader on a journey into what the author identifies as the central organizing construct for the future of civilization, the continued proliferation of technology. And he challenges us to consider how to think about technology to ensure that we humans, and not the products of our invention, remain in control of our destinies?

In this informative and insightful examination, Dr. Daniel M. Gerstein--who brings vast operational, research, and academic experience to the subject--proposes a method for gaining a better understanding of how technology is likely to evolve in the future. He identifies the attributes that a future successful technology will seek to emulate and the pitfalls that a technology developer should try to avoid. The aim is to bring greater clarity to the impact of technology on individuals and society.

In particular, he considers three technologies now converging that will shape the future: biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and the "internet of things." He asks: Will we continue to develop new technologies in these fields merely because basic research shows that we can, or should we first consider the likely effects of these technologies on the quality of life at the individual, societal, and global levels? Dr. Gerstein makes a compelling case that rational and informed evolution of our technological options is the best course for ensuring a brighter future.

288 pages, Hardcover

Published August 6, 2019

Reviews

[Steve Barrera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting this book to be a history, full of insights into the story of technology from the early Stone Age into modern times. Instead, I got something of a dry textbook on the complexities of technology development in the post-World War II era. The author has had a long and distinguished career in the U.S. military and as a civilian defense official, and the decades he has spent as a high level bureaucrat have obviously affected his writing style. This book is like a 300-page long memo, very wordy and dull. Even the appendices are boring. The main takeaways are that technology is as much about operational use as it is about science, and that the complexity of modern technology, which consists of systems within systems, warrants elaborate bureaucracies employing a tangle of acronymic jargon to manage its development and use. A lot is covered, but never very deeply, making this book a sort of overview of the modern technocratic bureaucracy and process in the United States. Read it if that interests you.

[Roger Smitter · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the first words in the book are get “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” The well known statement is given from either Yogi Berra or Niels Bohr.
The author says we don’t know who said it.

Be clear that this book is not a statement about baseball It’s about how your country developed and is developing.

Fortunately, author Gerstein gives us a sub-book name: “How We Got Here and What the Future Holds.” He tells is that it was 1855 when farming began a hugh chance of work and growing food. He writes a relatively short book that descirbes how farming and then many other pieces work changed.

He writes in short pieces about America and many other parts of the world. There’s plenty of material for future reading, with a statement of what might come.

The Story of Technology would be a good book for many classes in many different parts of history.