cover image The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization

The New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization

Douglas S. Robertson. Oxford University Press, USA, $25 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-19-512189-6

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. (Sept.)