WHAT WILL BE: HOW THE NEW WORLD OF INFORMATION WILL CHANGE OUR LIVES

For two decades, technological oracle, entrepreneur, and consultant Michael Dertouzos has led cutting-edge research on information technologies and has advised policymakers and CEOs on the future course and impact of these technologies. In 1980 Dertouzos predicted today's world of information with stunning accuracy. Now, he charts a unique and richly detailed map of the ways information technology will alter every facet of our public and private lives, from a few years to a century hence.

Dertouzos heads the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science—home of the World Wide Web and birthplace of many of the high-tech products and processes that surround us today. In What Will Be, he offers the ultimate insider's preview of the inventions that will usher in a Third Revolution to rival the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. And in deft and detailed analysis, Dertouzos reveals the changes we will experience in everyday life, in the pursuit of pleasure, health, learning, office work, commerce, manufacturing, and governance. Debunking the starry-eyed view of new technology promoted by many commentators—while taking the Luddites firmly to task—Dertouzos unveils a crisp picture of the new century's global informaticn marketplace and shows how it will affect one-half of the world's industrial economies. He uncovers what's wrong with technology, explains how we can right the wrongs, and identifies the key trade-offs tomorrow will bring. Dertouzos even highlights what aspects of our society and ourselves will never be altered by technology and offers an inspirig blueprint for how new tech could bridge the centuries-old gaps between reason and the spirit.

Learned, accessible, clear-sighted, and fascinating, What Will Be is written for every reader affected by technological change—both the digital sophisticate and those still struggling to understand e-mail. Essential and riveting, detailed and incisive, this is the first thorough roadmap to the future.