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The ignorance explosion : understanding industrial civilization /
The author reveals the darker side of Western society's adoption of, and adaptation to, modern technology. Despite his portrayal of an increasingly complex, artificial and dehumanized technological environment, Lukasiewicz writes with humour and humanism and makes an enlightening contribution t...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Ottawa [Ont.] :
Carleton University Press,
1994.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Designation of references
- Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1. The paradox of human progress
- Notes
- 2. Humanities, social and physical sciences: the two cultures
- The cultural gap
- The issue of accessibility
- The psychological gap
- Traditional culture and education
- The inescapable predicament of social sciences
- The ineradicable gap
- Notes
- References
- Appendix: Some gems of obfuscatory (sociological and other) jargon
- 3. Technology: the land of many facesThe critics of technology
- Embracing the unknown
- The blessings and curses of industrial civilization
- Technology: a domain unique to the human species
- Extension of human capabilities
- People: the inhumane users of technology
- The dehumanizer and depersonalizer
- Technology the unforgiving
- The agent of constant change
- Population, environment and resources
- The causes of suffering
- The benefits of democratic industrialization
- The Third World and the West: the precarious gap
- Difficulties in the WestNotes
- References
- 4. The ignorance explosion
- Human intellectual capacity
- The growth of science
- Specialization
- The complexity of science and the environment
- The immediacy and obsolescence of information
- The vanishing grasp
- New tools and techniques
- Some future limitations
- Superhumans and superscience
- Notes
- References
- Appendix: On estimating the magnitude of complexity
- 5. The brave new world of globalization
- The origins
- A historical perspective
- Continental integration: the United StatesScience: a precursor of globalization
- Toward a voluntary federation of nations
- A rough road to European Union
- Globalization of industrial operations
- Internationalization of labour
- Environmental challenge to sovereignty
- The relentless progress of globalization
- Notes
- References
- 6. Language in the service of identity�or communication?
- Latin: a historical illustration
- The communication imperative: India and Africa
- The communication imperative: China and Japan
- Toward efficient spellingEnglish as the modern lingua franca
- The early imperatives of communication
- Science
- Diplomacy, international organizations, business and education
- Global audience and standards
- Internationalization of vocabularies and lifestyles
- Preservation of linguistic identity
- Toward a common language
- Notes
- References
- 7. Technology and war
- Nuclear weapons: what are they good for?
- The Maginot Line of the space age
- The missile systems game
- The supreme deterrent
- What makes deterrence effective?