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Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing
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Author: Peter J. Denning, Robert M. Metcalfe
List Price: $17.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0387985883
Publisher: Copernicus Books (October, 1998)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 87,433
Average Customer Rating: 3.73 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 1 out of 5
Sample of a 1-star review (I'd otherwise give 0)
I attended ACM'97, the Conference for which this text is supposed
to the Proceedings. I've also signed non-disclosure agreements
with some of the firms of the attendees, and I am the pub. reviews
editor for an academic quarterly journal, and I know one of the
Editors (he was an Editor-in-Chief of CACM), and this text is a
real disappointment to me (back when it first came out). A few
of these people are friends.A more detailed personal set of reviews (chapter by chapter)
can be found on groups.google.com in comp.sys.super.
Editorially, 1st printings are particularly bad. The book and the
meeting reads and felt like "Bob Metcalfe and a few of his friends
get together to pontificate to the world." You can tell a 1st
printing by opening the cover to the Preface (so early?) and
noticing that 2 Roberts (should be a Peter and a Robert)
authored the Preface (corrected after I pointed this out to
Peter in subsequent printings [why?]). Unfortunately, this also
bodes the rest of the book, too. In the first chapter by Bell and Gray (2 of the most distingushed
computer scientists) there was a log-linear graph where the
left hand log scale was characterized by prefixes
([kilo, mega, giga, ...] with little base-10 exponents) where
the higher exponents had an error (one of the exponents was
repeated twice). These are merely the easiest to find and rememebr mistakes on
first glance of the book. Fortunately I was given a copy as
a member of the press. I can't recommend buying this book,
and I barely recommend institutinal purchases as an example of
how not to assemble a book. These are all basic copy editing mistakes which prevade the book.
I normally try to ignore these kinds of things to get to the
content because of my own poor writing skills (really).
Readers should also be aware that many of these authors
would not be working for companies like Microsoft and broadcasting
deep corporate secrets: this does not happen. The content is also
consistently shallow and inconsistently considered (sometimes
self-contridictory). Subsequent printings can get rid of the typographic errors
I reported to the Editors, but new printings can't change
the shallow content. I am amazed that this book is rated as high as it is. The other
1-star review is right.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Horrible Horrible Horrible
This is a horrible book and terribly boring! The whole time you are reading this book, you end up wondering what these people were smoking as they were writing these essays. It seems that most of them were under the influence of hallucinogenics when they wrote these essays. In my case, I had to read this book in an introductory graduate information science course, and had no choice but to read it. My advice, do not bother unless you have to.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Beyond Calculation: A Review
BEYOND CALCULATION was published in celebration of the golden anniversary of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). The twenty essays explore computing over the next fifty years in terms of the future consequences caused by the way computers are being used today in Part I, The Coming Revolution". The affect computers will have on our lives and identity is discussed in Part II, "Computers and Human Identity". This review will focus on Pare III, Business and Innovation". The writers who contribute to Part III look at the effects of "ubiquitous digital information" on leadership, business practices, innovation, and learning. The omnipresence of digital information is given artificial life in "Sharing Our Planet". Donald D. Chamberlin suggests that, like DNA, digital devices form an ecosystem or "digital habitat". Occupying the ecosystem are "digital individuals", the programs that give the devices function and personality. The "digital habitat" has grown into an interconnected global network. Chamberlin concludes that as a result of the "new digital inhabitants" information becomes free and ubiquitous. The leader that emerges in the year 2047 will be responsible for the articulation and rearticulation of a company's identity. In an environment where change may be the only constant, the leader takes a new approach to change viewing it as healthy and necessary. The leader must lead the reinvention of a company's identity over time to insure the company's survival. The impact of three decades of computers and information technology has transformed the computer from a calculator and storage device to a vital communication tool. The world becomes more fast pace as information technology reduces the time between innovation and effect. In "Information Warfare", Larry Druffel highlights the issues surrounding internet security. This essay places the responsibility for the protection of information with the individual or institution that owns it. In light of the recent security intrusions into some of internet's largest websites, security becomes an immense concern when we envision having all information in some electronic form fifty years from now. The learning institution will change to prepare knowledge workers for the workplace of the future. Environments of hyperlearning will replace classrooms with a linear model of learning. In the hyperlearning environment the student-teacher relationship as "apprentice-master" will be most effective. The job of the teacher will be to cultivate knowledge. The two forces that will drive change in the curricula, learning environment and the role of the teacher, reflect both student demand for a more "customer-orientated relationship with the university" and the affect of digital media and networking. The leadership of the future will be faced with all of these issues. The contributors to Part III, "Business and Innovation", agree on one point. They agree that predicting the future impact of computers, networks, and information and communication technology on business and learning five decades from now is a challenging task.
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