JTE v1n2 - Book Review- High-Tech Society: The Story of the Information Technology Revolution
Volume 1, Number 2
Spring 1990
FORESTER, TOM. (1989). HIGH-TECH SOCIETY:
THE STORY OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REVO-
LUTION. CAMBRIDGE, MA: THE MIT PRESS, $9.95
(PAPERBACK), 320 PP. (ISBN 0-262-56044-5)
Reviewed by Mark Snyder(1)
As we enter the final decade of the
twentieth century, we find ourselves in a
world of fierce competition to control the
accelerating technologies of the information
age. How did we arrive at this state of af-
fairs? What are these technologies that are
experiencing such immense growth and how do
they work? Will all of this technological
growth affect the way we live? Who will win
the race for control of information technol-
ogy? Such questions, which require answers
ranging from very broad concepts to highly
technical facts to predictions, are often
asked of technology educators and are an-
swered very effectively and perceptively by
Australian information-studies professor Tom
Forester in his book HIGH-TECH SOCIETY.
Forester has succeeded in meeting his
objectives of writing a readable, comprehen-
sive, and balanced book that describes the
many facets of the technology revolution.
His coverage of this topic provides an inter-
national schema from the outset by comparing
how the high-tech snowball started rolling in
the United States, Britain, Europe, and
Japan.
Defining the "laws of microelectronics"
in an intelligible manner, Forester explains
how microchips are made and the impact that
new chip manufacturing technologies have had
in the development of computers. He further
describes the role of microchips in the
growth toward supercomputers, the forecasted
fifth-generation computer, and artificial in-
telligence.
Other technologies about which Forester
reports include digital technology and its
various spinoffs in the "information-
processing" industry, which are the result of
combining computers, office products, and
telecommunications systems. He also dis-
cusses facsimile, fiber optics, cellular ra-
dio, satellite communications, electronic
mail services, videoconferencing, videotex,
interactive video, personal computers, soft-
ware, and a variety of potential technologies
for the future.
Technology educators might feel threat-
ened when they discover that a computer sci-
ence professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology feels that computer literacy is
"pure baloney" and that those "who use a com-
puter only for the applications never need to
learn how the technology works." However, in
the section "Computers in the Classroom"
Forester provides an array of opinions and
viewpoints on the future of computer applica-
tions in education and reports on how the
computer revolution has been handled in edu-
cation by the United States, Great Britain,
and France.
Forester continues by predicting the
outlook for "factories of the future," "the
electronic office," and the effect of infor-
mation technologies on banking and retailing.
He recognizes that "the Great American Job
Machine... has created 20 million jobs in the
service industries in the past 10 years" but
is skeptical in regard to the number of ser-
vice jobs that will be generated in the fu-
ture. According to one source, "technology
has a place - but by no means a dominant one
- in the job market of the future." Forester
points out that there will be other "key
problems for high-tech society" such as high-
tech crime and invasion of privacy.
The author concludes with his point of
view on the international competition for su-
premacy in information technologies.
Forester pictures the United States at a
point where it must change its focus from
service industries back to manufacturing so
it may redevelop its once strong industrial
base and maintain itself in the world market.
He also points out that Japan and Europe have
serious internal problems that make the
imminence of a United States decline ques-
tionable.
Forester offers a wealth of background
information for all of the subtopics which he
has chosen. He employs an impressive variety
of secondary sources and includes a few se-
lective technical illustrations and cartoons
which contribute agreeably to the test.
HIGH-TECH SOCIETY is exceptionally inform-
ative and provides an overview of the Tech-
nology Revolution that is nearly definitive
and quite comprehensible when explaining
highly technical information. This book will
provide technology educators with answers to
broad questions through detailed information
presented in manageable terms.
----------------
1 Mark Snyder is a doctoral student, Technology Education,
Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg,
Virginia.
Permission is given to copy any
article or graphic provided credit is given and
the copies are not intended for sale.
Journal of Technology Education Volume 1, Number 2 Spring 1990