Big Disconnect

Big Disconnect
Author: Giles Slade
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2012-08-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 161614596X

Smart phones and social media sites may be contemporary fixations, but using technology to replace face-to-face interactions is not a new cultural phenomenon. Throughout our history, intimacy with machines has often supplanted mutual human connection. This book reveals how consumer technologies changed from analgesic devices that soothed the loneliness of a newly urban generation to prosthetic interfaces that act as substitutes for companionship in modern America. The history of this transformation helps explain why we use technology to mediate our connections with other human beings instead of seeking out face-to-face contact. Do electronic interfaces receive most of our attention to the detriment of real interpersonal communication? Why do sixty million Americans report that isolation and loneliness are major sources of unhappiness? The author provides many insights into our increasingly artificial relationships and a vision for how we can rediscover genuine community and human empathy.

The Story of Technology

The Story of Technology
Author: Daniel M. Gerstein
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1633885798

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 should 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.

The Right Way to Select Technology

The Right Way to Select Technology
Author: Tony Byrne
Publisher: Rosenfeld Media
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2017-09-12
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1933820934

Why do half of all technology projects fail? A major reason is that organizations often pick the wrong tools, leaving them digitally hamstrung from the start. This book offers a modern alternative to traditional waterfall approaches to selecting technology. You’ll learn a practical, adaptive process that relies on realistic storytelling and hands-on testing to get the best fit for your enterprise.

The Technology Fallacy

The Technology Fallacy
Author: Gerald C. Kane
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2022-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 026254511X

Why an organization's response to digital disruption should focus on people and processes and not necessarily on technology. Digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and shape, leaving managers scrambling to find a technology fix that will help their organizations compete. This book offers managers and business leaders a guide for surviving digital disruptions—but it is not a book about technology. It is about the organizational changes required to harness the power of technology. The authors argue that digital disruption is primarily about people and that effective digital transformation involves changes to organizational dynamics and how work gets done. A focus only on selecting and implementing the right digital technologies is not likely to lead to success. The best way to respond to digital disruption is by changing the company culture to be more agile, risk tolerant, and experimental. The authors draw on four years of research, conducted in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte, surveying more than 16,000 people and conducting interviews with managers at such companies as Walmart, Google, and Salesforce. They introduce the concept of digital maturity—the ability to take advantage of opportunities offered by the new technology—and address the specifics of digital transformation, including cultivating a digital environment, enabling intentional collaboration, and fostering an experimental mindset. Every organization needs to understand its “digital DNA” in order to stop “doing digital” and start “being digital.” Digital disruption won't end anytime soon; the average worker will probably experience numerous waves of disruption during the course of a career. The insights offered by The Technology Fallacy will hold true through them all. A book in the Management on the Cutting Edge series, published in cooperation with MIT Sloan Management Review.

The Book

The Book
Author: Nicole Howard
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-11-16
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9780801893117

The printed book is one of life’s most frequently encountered technologies. Historian Nicole Howard provides a comprehensive survey of the evolution of this technology, tracing its development across many centuries and cultures. No other technology in human history, declares Howard, has had the impact of this invention. By examining the book as a technology, Howard reveals how profoundly information and media have shaped history and how vital the technology of the book has been to cultural and intellectual change. This engaging study extends from clay tablets and rolls of papyrus to bound folio sheets, from inks and scripts to lead type and printing presses, from the Linotype machine to the laptop. Cross-cultural in scope, it examines innovations in the production and manufacture of books from the Middle and Far East, Europe, and the Americas. Howard recounts printing techniques from Gutenberg’s first press to 21st-century electronic publishing. Howard’s broad overview and accessible writing style make this book ideal for students and bibliophiles alike. The volume includes a glossary of terms, a timeline of important events, and a selected bibliography of useful resources for further information.

Powering the Dream

Powering the Dream
Author: Alexis Madrigal
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2011-03-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0306819775

Few today realize that electric cabs dominated Manhattan's streets in the 1890s; that Boise, Idaho, had a geothermal heating system in 1910; or that the first megawatt turbine in the world was built in 1941 by the son of publishing magnate G. P. Putnam -- a feat that would not be duplicated for another forty years. Likewise, while many remember the oil embargo of the 1970s, few are aware that it led to a corresponding explosion in green-technology research that was only derailed when energy prices later dropped. In other words: We've been here before. Although we may have failed, America has had the chance to put our world on a more sustainable path. Americans have, in fact, been inventing green for more than a century. Half compendium of lost opportunities, half hopeful look toward the future, Powering the Dream tells the stories of the brilliant, often irascible inventors who foresaw our current problems, tried to invent cheap and energy renewable solutions, and drew the blueprint for a green future.

The Story of GN

The Story of GN
Author: Kurt Jacobsen
Publisher: Historika
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9788793229938

C.F. Tietgen and the Great Northern Telegraph Company made history when they set up telegraph cables in China and Japan in 1870-1871 and thus connected the two countries with the rest of the world through the worldwide communication network. Soon transatlantic submarine cables across the Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean followed. The book unfolds the history of Tietgen's company through the 19th and 20th century with rivals, revolutions, and civil wars in China and Russia, conflicts and wars in the Pacific Ocean and East Asia, the terror during Stalin's reign, and not least two world wars and the Cold War up until today's globalized and digitalized world. The story moves through government offices and imperial chambers in China, Russia, Japan, and UK, the construction of telegraph lines in Chinese paddy fields, and cable-laying in unknown waters, travels on horseback through the impassable Siberia, and seminal decisions in contemporary boardrooms. After the Second World War, GN Store Nord had to reinvent itself several times. The subsidiary STORNO became one of the world's biggest manufacturers of mobile phones, and the telecommunication company Sonofon was the first to challenge the state monopoly on telephony and network traffic in Denmark. For 150 years there has been numerous crises and downturns of which several have threatened the existence of GN Store Nord. The company recovered every time, and today GN Group - made up of GN Hearing and GN Audio - is a global leader in hearing aid technology and headsets. The book is based on archival research in Denmark, Russia, UK, and China.

Cars and Culture

Cars and Culture
Author: Rudi Volti
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2006-03-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780801883996

A succinct yet comprehensive history, Cars and Culture highlights the technical changes that altered the appearance and performance of automobiles, along with the myriad forces that have shaped the car's development.

American Military Technology

American Military Technology
Author: Barton C. Hacker
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2007-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0801887720

The growth of American engineering and science has affected military technology, organization, and practice from the colonial era to the present day—even as military concerns have influenced, and often funded, domestic engineering programs and scientific development. American Military Technology traces the interplay of technology and science with the armed forces of the United States in terms of what Hacker and Vining view as epochs: 1840–1865, the introduction of modern small arms, steam power, and technology, science, and medicine; 1900–1914, the naval arms race, torpedoes and submarines, and the signal corps and the airplane; and 1965–1971, McNamara's Pentagon, technology in Vietnam, guided missiles, and smart bombs. The book is an excellent springboard for understanding the complex relationship of science, technology, and war in American history.

High-tech Society

High-tech Society
Author: Tom Forester
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 326
Release: 1987
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9780262560443

High Tech Society is the most definitive account available of the technology revolution that is transforming society and dramatically changing the way we live and work and maybe even think. It provides a balanced and sane overview of the opportunities as well as the dangers we face from new advances in information technology. In plain English, Forester demystifies "computerese," defining and explaining a host of acronyms or computer terms now in use.Tom Forester is Lecturer and Director of the Foundation Programme in the School of Computing and Information Technology, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. He is the editor/author of five books on technology and society.