J A P A N
The Land of the Rising Sun... is rising again
[ photos by : David Fanning ]
Japan was one of the success stories of the twentieth century. Just over 150 years ago it was a closed society with little or no contact with the outside world. Since the 1600s the country had been dominated by a single family of Shogun feudal lords. In 1868 a new Emperor came to power who felt it was time that Japan joined the modern world. Faced with a long and ultimately self-defeating civil war, the Shogunate stepped down and handed power over to the Emperor who began a process of modernisation. The capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and except for the ravages of World War II Japan has taken the fast track to prosperity ever since -- dominating global industries such as cars and consumer electronics. Now the question on everyone's lips is whether or not Japan can replicate this success in the Internet age... READ ON
ENTHUSIASM AND CONCERN:
Results of a new U.S. Technology Poll
A review of the recent U.S. national survey sponsored by National Public Radio, The Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Professor of Political Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and author of Autonomous Technology and editor of Democracy in a Technological Society.
Everywhere one looks these days there's giddy excitement about technology, a sentiment so common it often verges on mass ecstasy. In the media as well as in conversations of everyday folks, "technology" is praised as the fount of everything that is new and promising in the world, a cornucopia of fabulous jobs, higher incomes, better health, longer lives, and more satisfying ways of living. Improvements that people once attributed to modern civilization or perhaps to science, are now widely believed to flow from "technology," especially the realm of digital electronics and computer networks.
But does the insistent buzz of news stories and personal anecdotes reflect what the great majority of people are actually thinking? Is the ardor for computers, cyberspace, and dot com enterprise displayed in tacky Super Bowl ads also common in the populace at large? A poll released this week strongly suggests the answer is "yes.".... READ ON
"The Frustrating Future of New Technology"
Head of the Mathematics and Cryptography
Research Departments at AT&T Labs
The future is said to belong to information appliances.... The paradox is that while they are presented as products for a mature market, their main effect will be to unleash a tidal wave of innovation.... creating new frustrations.... READ ON
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