2030

摘要

This book is a flyover of the landscape of today's technology, at an interesting, intermediate altitude; say, 5000 feet: not high enough to see the shape of the continents, not low enough to see the most colorful bushes, but just right to see regions of swamp and plain and forest. It touches on an admirably broad range of topics—with major sections on "Needs" (water and food), "Earth" (climate, energy, materials, manufacturing), "Tools" (electronics, communications, cryptography, stability and failure in systems, robotics), "Humans" (medicine and health), and "Communities" (societies, megacities, disasters, financial systems). The breadth of the coverage defines the character of the book: one cannot go very deep if one goes for breadth.