The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization [Hardcover]

Douglas S. Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 1998

The 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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Douglas Robertson knows perfectly well that trying to predict the future is difficult enough at any time. In a period of extreme technological change, with great social change fast on its heels, accurate prediction is a dice toss at best. But that doesn't stop him from trying to convey the scope of changes coming.

In The New Renaissance, Robertson begins by looking at how previous, pivotal communications advancements have remade society. He considers, for example, the revolutions that came about with the creations of language, writing, and printing. He argues that advances in scientific theory--from mathematics to cosmology--have transformed our world. He then demonstrates the increasing rate of transformation brought on by computers and concludes that the computer revolution may be the most dramatic of them all. Finally, he looks at some of the potential problems tomorrow's civilization may have to solve, while admitting that some of his speculations should be taken with a grain of salt. Will the world of dance, for example, ever be dominated by computer-generated performers of infinite grace? Perhaps not. But Robertson's goal is not to showcase the true future so much as to demonstrate the level of change coming. In that regard, he provides ample food for thought. --Elizabeth Lewis

From Publishers Weekly

So much printer toner has been spilled on the computer revolution that no one should be surprised to find that the future has arrived, its little green LCD eyes gleaming. We're reminded that microprocessors are found in dishwashers, VCRs and wristwatches, and that home banking, cellular phone communication and inventory control at the grocery check-out counter are electronically mediated. Good stories could certainly be found in the details?growth of computer crime, use of computers in dance, computers as aids to the handicapped and much more, but University of Colorado geologist and environmentalist Robertson doesn't really flesh these topics out, preferring to spend more time on theory. He divides civilizations into five levels based on how they handle information (0 is pre-language; 1, language; 2, writing; 3, printing; and 4, computers) and draws comparisons. For example, modern accelerator experiments in high-energy physics generate in five minutes as much data as was in the whole Library of Alexandria in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. He also discusses mathematical paradoxes and the limits to scientific knowledge, advocates the use of "quartal" rather than our out-moded decimal number system, and lays out requirements for a stripped-down "universal language." He believes that instructional computer games will revitalize education, and that famine, pestilence, poverty, war, illiteracy and tolerance can be reduced with a massive influx of information. Which would be nice, but seems a little naive.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1ST edition (September 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195121899
• ISBN-13: 978-0195121896
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,327,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Nontechnical Book for Exploring Computer Potential, November 13, 1999

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization (Hardcover)

As a nonscientist who is deeply interested in how computers will advance our ability to lead productive, meaningful, and rewarding lives, I found this book to be very provocative and helpful. Instead of looking only at business or computer science, the author extends in many different directions to consider how computers could change the potential, fabric, and value of our lives. Not being knowledgeable in some of the fields, I found it helpful to have a tour guide who could explain what remains to be done in terms of problem solving and creating better mouse traps. While no one person can be expected to anticipate such an exciting and unpredictable future very well, the author does a great job of referring to many of my favorite works on how computer technology can transform the way we do things like education, entertainment, and so forth. Anyone who has ever enjoyed reading science fiction to help imagine what could come in the future will find this book rewarding. I found the work solid except with regard to population growth, where the author failed to put two and two together. The rise of education and income has a very depressing effect on the birth rate, so much so that demographers argue that the economically developed countries should have declining populations by the middle of next century. Eventually, this trend will spread more broadly to the rest of the world, and should be complete before the end of the next century. But I leave that for you to consider. I strongly urge you to read and enjoy this outstanding book. The excerpt that you can access by clicking on the excerpt button above on the left of this page on Amazon.com is well worth your time, and you will want to read the whole book after you have looked at that chapter. I thought that this exerpted chapter was the best multidisciplinary description of the implications of computers compared to past information explosions that I have seen. One of the strengths of this book is that it points to the untapped potential of computers rather than just focusing on what the best practices of the past have been. The woods are full of the later, and they are dated by the time they are published -- especially most of the Internet books. You have a real treat in front of you, which should inspire you to make more practical use of computers to advance what you care about.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An upbeat preview of a world transmuted by computers., November 18, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization (Hardcover)

To live at the beginning of a new era is exciting; to do so and understand what is happening is a rare privilege. Douglas Robertson offers to share this privilege with us by presenting his vision of a world transformed by computers in the not-too-distant future. It is an upbeat peek at the future, devoid of the gloomy forecasts of some "future shock" science fiction adventures. As with all penetrating portrayals of the future, The New Renaissance is provocative and draws controversial conclusions. I often found myself arguing with the book -- and not always winning, as I read the elaboration of one of the book's more surprising assertions. For example, I could accept "synthespians" figuring importantly in future entertainment (p 157), but I could not believe they would be an acceptable replacement for athletes. Yet, what if the real competition were at a different level, and the synthespian athletes were used to provide visualization?

The author brings to this work the unusual combination of scientist-technologist and historian-philosopher. His future-world view is upliftingly optimistic about the triumph of the human spirit. By virtue of his education, Dr. Robertson is comfortable with a professional mathematical approach to problem solving. But he keeps this well in the background, using only high-school mathematics in the discussion, and even that quite sparingly. In an engaging and accessible style, he examines several aspects of the human enterprise and projects their restructure based on the emerging ability of ordinary people and specialists alike to access and manipulate vast amounts of information with ease. The restructuring he describes is deep and pervasive, yielding a world as different from ours as was the previous turn of the millennium. He uses historical precedent to motivate and justify his vision of the immensity of the changes he sees coming.

In the final chapter, Robertson rejects the notion put forth by others -- some quite prominent, whom he names -- that we will run out of frontiers. He puts the case in historical perspective and then makes a logical argument about a future in which humans have universal freedom from "tedious and mindless labor" and are able to spend their lives exploring the marvels of the universe, the arts, mathematics, and science. He calls this a minimal list; to it I would add philosophy, sports, adventure, and possibly new classes of activities not yet dreamt of in our transitional world. This portion alone of Robertson's vision of the future makes the book worth reading. For the totality of his projection, the book is an important experience for any open minded person.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at a major revolution in progress, October 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization (Hardcover)

A significant amount of the material in this fascinating new look at a historical-revolution-in-the-making was used in a course that Dr. Robertson and I taught to beginning, non-mathematical students here at the University of Colorado. It quickly became apparent that one of the students favorite parts of the course was the material upon which Dr. Robertson lectured, primarily because the students could clearly see his main points in their evaluations of the world around them. As the Director of the Colorado Center for Chaos & Complexity, I am certainly persueded that the advent of the computer may well mark a turning point in human history, the likes of which we have not seen before. As the invention of language and writing in ancient times heralded the onset of human culture, and in Bronowski's words, "the ascent of man", so too did the printing press allow the dissemination of information to a far wider audience than had then been possible. And now comes the computer, combining far more efficient communication, information archival and processing, together with perhaps the beginnings of true artificial intelligence. We can only begin to speculate at the impact these developments will have on future history -- surely they will be of major importance. I have personally recommended this book to a number of my colleagues and friends who are interested in the impact that computers are having on contemporary society.