Who Gives a Gigabyte?: A Survival Guide for the Technologically Perplexed

By Miriam Lacob and Gary Stix

An exhilarating chronicle of the most revolutionary advancements in recent-and future-technology
Which new technologies are bound to have the biggest impact on our lives in the years ahead? This groundbreaking book looks at the latest technological superstars destined to reshape the upcoming century and offers easy-to-understand, engaging explanations of what they are, how they work, and how they will affect our lives. Written by a senior editor of Scientific American, the world's premier science magazine, and based on in-depth interviews with today's leading innovators as well as extensive research of the latest scientific literature, Who Gives a Gigabyte? takes you on a fast-paced tour into the brave new world of gene therapy, quantum computation, designer drugs, and recyclable cars.
Surveying the wide range of technological wonders, the authors investigate such diverse realms of scientific advancement as computing, telecommunications, laser beams, bioengineering materials, and alternative energy sources. From the Human Genome Project, which aims to spell out every letter of our genetic inheritance, to the implications of altering genes in important agricultural projects, to new strategies for attacking malignant cancer cells without the damaging side effects of traditional treatments, to the startling but still unsuccessful attempts to make computer software more like the human mind, Who Gives a Gigabyte? demystifies the technology of today and provides an enlightening glimpse into the limitless possibilities of tomorrow.
"An enjoyable and rewarding book." -Choice
"An informative overview of new and emerging technologies." --Booklist
"The reward for the reader is a solid grounding in technological literacy." --Scientific American

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471162930
• ISBN13: 9780471162933
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

I learned a Gigabyte!

Who Gives a Gigabyte? A survival guide for technologically Perplexed was a perfect book for me. It is immensely readable and takes the most profoundly sophisticated concepts such as the sequencing of the human genome and quantum computing, and allows the interested, but uninitiated reader, a cursory understanding of these new technologies and how they may affect our lives in this new century. Topics included in this book are - Computing and telecommunication, bioengineering, laser technology, alternate energy sources, advanced diagnostics and imaging, and technology and the environment. This book is packed with exciting, intriguing information and concepts; the future alone will allow us to know where these new products and possibilities will take us.For example; in the chapter on Lasers' The light Fantastic, the authors illuminate the technology of how lasers are able to provide science-fiction type warfare, optical communications, the ubiquitous bar-code scanner, DVD players and microscopic surgery. What an amazingly versatile technology!I remember going to Disneyland's Tomorrowland in the 1960s. It was full of "glimpses of the future" with robots, people movers, rocket packs to take you where you wanted to go, and a Voyage to Mars.... And the home of the future - with machines that washed, dried and pressed your clothes all in one! This was the world of 2000! Hardly! Who Gives a Gigabyte? A survival guide for the technologically perplexed concludes by reminding us of these whimsical views of the future shaped by Leonardo da Vinci, Jules Verne and Disneyland, and leaves us with the question of why has our future not kept pace with our dreams of it? The conclusion is that interest in ambitious technology has slowed due to the basic questions of cost and practicality. "To succeed, a good technology must be useful, and it must be able to survive the gauntlet of the marketplace as well as economic and social conditions and government policies". However, the authors are quick to admit that timing, luck and the vagaries of human opinion has just as big an effect on what makes it and what does not. Technology has gotten us into the world we have today, and it appears that only more technology can get us out. I recommend this book for those of us who are intrigued with technology of all sorts, but lack the technical expertise, vocabulary and content understanding to obtain this knowledge through journals and trade magazines. Read it! What an adventure we are in for!