Future Hype

““A must-read for those who think the Internet changes everything.” —Bob Frankston, VisiCalc developer and computer industry pioneer “This clear-eyed, level-headed, historically sophisticated view of the realities of technological change by a knowledgeable insider will be absorbing reading for early adopters, neo-Luddites, and everyone in between.” —Edward Tenner, author of Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences “Future Hype is a great antidote to the familiar boosterism about unprecedented technological growth. Seidensticker puts technological change into historical perspective, which enables us to measure progress against what we have known, rather than against what we are promised.” —Henry Petroski, Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History, Duke University, and author of Pushing the Limits “…. a wonderful compendium of the way the world works, and not just the way it should work. Future Hype reveals when we should be optimistic and when we should be skeptical…. An important contribution.” —Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic magazine and the "Skeptic" columnist for Scientific American ”