Rating: 
Summary: The next 50 years look bright
Review: A compilation of 20 essays which speculate about the impacts of future technological advances on society. Divided into sections, the essays address three themes: The Coming Revolution (speculation about hardware, software and networks); Computers and Human Identity (the impact cheap computing may have in regard to the way people live and work); and Business and Innovation (the impact technology will have on business practices and on the process of innovation). The individual authors whose essays were included in the book are all members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The authors responded to a call, in 1997, for papers which would attempt to look 50 years into the future to, "...examine the current realities of how people are using computers and what they [authors] are concerned about, and then project the consequences over the next few decades." (xv) A 'futures' book, Beyond Calculation offers a positive look at how technology might interact with us in the not-so-distant future. The most impressive quality of the book is the grounded-ness of the essays. As readers, we are not presented with a mountain of pie-in-the-sky predictions that have no basis in reality, or Star Wars-like oohs and ahs. To the contrary, anyone with any knowledge of technology will see that these are serious essays, by qualified technologists taking care to work within a framework of common sense. The futures they paint seem plausible, yet are still surprising. I found myself saying, "of course" many times as I read through the scenarios. The book itself should be of great interest to anyone who is struggling to get a view of how technology will impact us in the future. Thankfully, these authors, save one, believe that if we can keep our perspective on the idea of technology serving and expanding us, the rush rush of today's hyperculture can subside. Educators, business people and those with an interest in learning what technology can (and might) do should definitely open and read this book. It is a hopeful look at a future too many are willing to paint in gray.
Rating:
Summary: The next 50 years look bright
Review: A compilation of 20 essays which speculate about the impacts of future technological advances on society. Divided into sections, the essays address three themes: The Coming Revolution (speculation about hardware, software and networks); Computers and Human Identity (the impact cheap computing may have in regard to the way people live and work); and Business and Innovation (the impact technology will have on business practices and on the process of innovation). The individual authors whose essays were included in the book are all members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The authors responded to a call, in 1997, for papers which would attempt to look 50 years into the future to, "...examine the current realities of how people are using computers and what they [authors] are concerned about, and then project the consequences over the next few decades." (xv) A 'futures' book, Beyond Calculation offers a positive look at how technology might interact with us in the not-so-distant future. The most impressive quality of the book is the grounded-ness of the essays. As readers, we are not presented with a mountain of pie-in-the-sky predictions that have no basis in reality, or Star Wars-like oohs and ahs. To the contrary, anyone with any knowledge of technology will see that these are serious essays, by qualified technologists taking care to work within a framework of common sense. The futures they paint seem plausible, yet are still surprising. I found myself saying, "of course" many times as I read through the scenarios. The book itself should be of great interest to anyone who is struggling to get a view of how technology will impact us in the future. Thankfully, these authors, save one, believe that if we can keep our perspective on the idea of technology serving and expanding us, the rush rush of today's hyperculture can subside. Educators, business people and those with an interest in learning what technology can (and might) do should definitely open and read this book. It is a hopeful look at a future too many are willing to paint in gray.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! What the future can hold...
Review: A compulation of essays by some awesome minds. This book examines the ideas of the future via a technique of developing scenarios. Each author was asked to predict what the next fifty years would bring. Some of the authors look at advancement of technology itself. Other authors review what some of those advancements might mean with regards to our living space. Additional essays explore what business will look like in the year 2047. A key theme running through the essays is the ubiquitious nature technology will have in years ahead. Having technology inter-woven and abundant in our lives will change many social and political institutions. "Beyond Calculation" depicts these ideas with both tactical information to consider as well as futuristic ideas of what might be possible. The book also works through ideas about how technology will become more user friendly and design simplificaton will become essential. All of the ideas are exciting and interesting. Great read if you like considering the unknown, the reachable, or endless possiblities. A BOOK TO REALLY MAKE YOU THINK!
Rating:
Summary: WOW! What the future can hold...
Review: A compulation of essays by some awesome minds. This book examines the ideas of the future via a technique of developing scenarios. Each author was asked to predict what the next fifty years would bring. Some of the authors look at advancement of technology itself. Other authors review what some of those advancements might mean with regards to our living space. Additional essays explore what business will look like in the year 2047. A key theme running through the essays is the ubiquitious nature technology will have in years ahead. Having technology inter-woven and abundant in our lives will change many social and political institutions. "Beyond Calculation" depicts these ideas with both tactical information to consider as well as futuristic ideas of what might be possible. The book also works through ideas about how technology will become more user friendly and design simplificaton will become essential. All of the ideas are exciting and interesting. Great read if you like considering the unknown, the reachable, or endless possiblities. A BOOK TO REALLY MAKE YOU THINK!
Rating: 
Summary: Living Beyond...
Review: Beyond Calculation is a collection of 20 essays by some of the cream of computing's top echelon. For the most part, these are not futuristic scenarios- the authors present fairly conservative observations regarding the future of computing. This circumspection is no accident - most of the authors have lived and worked through the full range of computing's evolutionary development and they are quite aware of the disjunction between earlier futuristic predictions and today's realities. On the other hand, they are also cognizant of the grand surprises in innovation and culture that have taken computing in directions that futurists of yore never foresaw. On another level, Beyond Calculation provides a fascinating view into a particular community of practice. For as one reads the individual essays, one encounters similarities in references that undoubtedly arise from the fact that many of these essayists have collaborated in a variety of ways over (in some cases) several decades. Many (all?) are associated with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) which published the compendium. What is a common conclusion drawn among these essayists? The message is clear- that this is an environment in which surprises have been and will continue to be the norm (Frankston, 56), and that "we should expect that our understanding is incomplete and wrong so that we can adapt to surprises" (55). The surprises in innovation and the social implications of these innovations preclude us from envisioning at this point whatever the full future of computing will bring. Winograd summarizes best this consensus when he writes: Imagine that on the 50th anniversary of the "Association for Automotive Machinery" a group of experts had been asked to speculate on the "next fifty years of driving". They might well have envisioned new kinds of engines, automatic braking, and active suspension systems. But what about interstate freeways, drive-in movies, and the decline of the inner city? These are not exactly changes in "driving" but in the end they are the most significant consequence of automotive technology (159-160). Perhaps, then, only through hindsight we will be able to identify `the most significant consequences of computing technology."
Rating:
Summary: Beyond Calculation: A Review
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Sample of a 1-star review (I'd otherwise give 0)
Review: 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:
Summary: Sample of a 1-star review (I'd otherwise give 0)
Review: 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:
Summary: Beyond calculation: The next fifty years of computing
Review: In the first fifty years of computing, the machine was center stage as we looked at ways the computer could resemble the human mind. In the next fifty years a shift of focus will occur to view the human element first in the design of computers. What will this shift bring into play? Representative authors foresee the onset of 'ubiquitous computing,' 'calm technology,' and a new field of 'interaction design.' The relationship between the individual and the institution will change dramatically, with most institutions ceasing to exist as we currently know them today. We will see profound change in the way we learn and innovate. Moreover, computers will become part of our individual identities. "We will have become the technology we have created." But, will 'smart machines' be able to advise us on how to improve our lives? Is computing helping us to advance our own humanness? Read on.
Rating:
Summary: We will publish its Chinese translation version in 1998
Review: This book gets you thinking about some of the possibilities of computing. I personally found the style too dry, which accounts for my low score. If the essays were all written in Sherry Turkle's style (one of the contributors), I would have rated the book higher. But the ideas are *GREAT*, and to have all these peoples ideas in one book is wonderful
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