This book is about the future of technology. In it we will examine some of the many recent developments in a few key fields and try, in a limited way, to predict where they will take us in the next fifteen years or
31
.
If that sounds like a modest goal, it"s not. Technology is the
32
(dominate) force of our time and probably of all time to come. It appears in more varieties than we can count. It changes so rapidly
33
no scientist or engineer can keep up with his own field, much less with technology in general. It permeates and shapes our lives
34
every turn. We live in technology
35
fish live in the sea, and we have only a little better chance of f
36
the details of its future changes.
Yet the task is well w
37
undertaking. Whatever hints we can glean (一点点搜集) about the future will help us prepare for the changes to come. Modest forecasts, evidence of trends, a few concrete developments to be expected all are better than no warning at all. And th
38
technology has made the present much less stable than the past, and surely will make the future more disturbed still, there is good reason to hope that our lives,
39
sum and on average, will be better as a result. In an age of uncomfortable ch
40
, this is reassurance (保证) we all can use.