The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of CivilizationThe electronic computer, argues Douglas Robertson, is the most important invention in the history of technology, if not all history It has already set off an information explosion that has changed many facets of civilization beyond recognition. These changes have ushered in nothing less than the dawn of a new level of civilization. In The New Renaissance, Robertson offers an important historical perspective on the computer revolution, by comparing it to three earlier landmarks of human development--language, writing, and printing. We see how these three inventions changed how we capture, store, and distribute information, and how each thereby triggered an information explosion that transformed society, ushering in a new civilization utterly unlike anything before. But history has never seen a revolution on the scale of the one being sparked by computers today. What can we expect from the most important technological breakthrough in human history? Robertson lays out possible scenarios regarding transformations in science and mathematics, education, language, the arts, and everyday life. School children, for instance, will forsake pencil and paper for keyboard and calculator, much as their forebears forsook clay tablets and abaci for pencil and paper. In films, the computer simulations of Jurassic Park could be eclipsed by "synthespians," artificial actors indistinguishable from living ones. Whether one is a computer enthusiast, a popular science buff, or simply someone fascinated by the future, The New Renaissance provides a breathtaking peek at the magnitude of changes we can expect as the full power of computers is unleashed. |
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Page 119
... Basic English is how small the language turned out to be : It has a vocabulary of only 850 words . It can be learned with fluency in only a few weeks , yet text written in Basic English is not readily dis- tinguishable from standard ...
... Basic English is how small the language turned out to be : It has a vocabulary of only 850 words . It can be learned with fluency in only a few weeks , yet text written in Basic English is not readily dis- tinguishable from standard ...
Page 127
... Basic English . Any attempt would probably have more curios- ity value than genuine literary merit , rather like the famous novel that was written without the letter e . However , an english language with all of the irregular spellings ...
... Basic English . Any attempt would probably have more curios- ity value than genuine literary merit , rather like the famous novel that was written without the letter e . However , an english language with all of the irregular spellings ...
Page 191
... Basic English . The Reference Shelf , Vol . 17 , no . 1 . New York : H.W. Wilson . Pinker , S. 1994. The Language Instinct . New York : William Morrow & Co. Strunk , W. , Jr. , and E.B. White . 1979. The Elements of Style . 3d ed . New ...
... Basic English . The Reference Shelf , Vol . 17 , no . 1 . New York : H.W. Wilson . Pinker , S. 1994. The Language Instinct . New York : William Morrow & Co. Strunk , W. , Jr. , and E.B. White . 1979. The Elements of Style . 3d ed . New ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Theories of Everything | 37 |
in Science and Mathematics | 57 |
8 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
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