Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cybernetics—the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system—Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact—in effect, a third industrial revolution—that the computer has had on our lives.

Emerging technologies such as the Internet and biotechnology have the potential to create new industries and transform existing ones. Incumbent firms, despite their superior resources, often lose out to smaller rivals in developing emerging technologies. Why do these incumbents have so much difficulty with disruptive technologies? How can they anticipate and overcome their handicaps?
Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies presents insights, tools, and frameworks from leading busi-ness thinkers based on the research of Wharton's Emerging Technologies Management Research Program. This pioneering industry-academic partnership, established in 1994, is one of the longest and broadest initiatives on the management of emerging technologies. For the first time, this book distills the insights from the program into a single volume for managers, covering a wide range of issues related to the successful management of emerging technologies.
The editors contend that managing emerging technologies represents a "different game," requiring a different set of management skills, frameworks, and strategies than those used by established firms to manage existing technologies. In this book, experts from diverse fields examine key issues such as:
* Common pitfalls and potential solutions for incumbent firms in managing emerging technologies
* Strategies for assessing the potential of new markets and designing technologies to take advantage of market "lumpiness"
* The need for scenario planning and "disciplined imagination" to develop strategies under uncertainty
* The limits of patents in protecting gains from technology, and the use of lead time and other strategies
* The power of innovative financial strategies and the use of real options in making investments
* Using alliances and new organizational forms
* Developing a "customized workplace"
Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies represents a powerful survival kit for managers "dropped behind the lines" of these new technologies. The authors provide a comprehensive set of tools and insights that will help you understand the new challenges and develop effective strategies to succeed at this different game.
Praise for WHARTON on MANAGING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
"New technologies are transforming markets, businesses, and society at an ever-increasing rate. We have a critical need for better road maps for managing our way through this new terrain. This book offers critical insights and useful new models for thinking through these challenges."-Professor Thomas Gerrity, Director of the Wharton e-Commerce Forum
"Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies covers the emerging technology landscape-from strategy to finance to human resources-in a way that only a group of top scholars from many disciplines could do. Insightful, accessible, and smart ideas that make for 'must reading' for thoughtful executives in today's turbulent economy. The authors prove, once again, the power of research to yield deep insight into tough business problems."-Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Professor of Strategy and Organization, Stanford University and coauthor, Competing on the Edge: Strategy As Structured Chaos
"Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies provides those of us who live in the chaotic environment of 'discovery by the minute' many ways of thinking about how to make a new idea successful. The collective knowledge and personal wisdom represented in this book is like having a person with hundreds of years of learning and experience sitting on the business team. Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies is vital to anyone trying to develop new businesses in today's world."-Terry J. Fadem, Director, Corporate New Business Development, DuPont

Emerging technologies such as the Internet and biotechnology have the potential to create new industries and transform existing ones. Incumbent firms, despite their superior resources, often lose out to smaller rivals in developing emerging technologies. Why do these incumbents have so much difficulty with disruptive technologies? How can they anticipate and overcome their handicaps? Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies presents insights, tools, and frameworks from leading busi-ness thinkers based on the research of Wharton's Emerging Technologies Management Research Program. This pioneering industry-academic partnership, established in 1994, is one of the longest and broadest initiatives on the management of emerging technologies. For the first time, this book distills the insights from the program into a single volume for managers, covering a wide range of issues related to the successful management of emerging technologies. The editors contend that managing emerging technologies represents a "different game," requiring a different set of management skills, frameworks, and strategies than those used by established firms to manage existing technologies. In this book, experts from diverse fields examine key issues such as: Common pitfalls and potential solutions for incumbent firms in managing emerging technologies Strategies for assessing the potential of new markets and designing technologies to take advantage of market "lumpiness" The need for scenario planning and "disciplined imagination" to develop strategies under uncertainty The limits of patents in protecting gains from technology, and the use of lead time and other strategies The power of innovative financial strategies and the use of real options in making investments Using alliances and new organizational forms Developing a "customized workplace"Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies represents a powerful survival kit for managers "dropped behind the lines" of these new technologies. The authors provide a comprehensive set of tools and insights that will help you understand the new challenges and develop effective strategies to succeed at this different game. Praise for WHARTON on MANAGING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES "New technologies are transforming markets, businesses, and society at an ever-increasing rate. We have a critical need for better road maps for managing our way through this new terrain. This book offers critical insights and useful new models for thinking through these challenges."
—Professor Thomas Gerrity, Director of the Wharton e-Commerce Forum "Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies covers the emerging technology landscape-from strategy to finance to human resources-in a way that only a group of top scholars from many disciplines could do. Insightful, accessible, and smart ideas that make for 'must reading' for thoughtful executives in today's turbulent economy. The authors prove, once again, the power of research to yield deep insight into tough business problems."
—Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Professor of Strategy and Organization, Stanford University and coauthor, Competing on the Edge: Strategy As Structured Chaos "Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies offers valuable insight for large established companies seeking growth in a dynamic market of rapid technological advancement. The entertaining cases and thoughtful analyses help managers create strategies, select options, and organize to successfully manage the interface between imagination and knowledge."
—Jerry Karabelas, PhD, CEO, Novartis Pharma AG

For over thirty years David S. Landes's The Unbound Prometheus has offered an unrivalled history of industrial revolution and economic development in Europe. Now, in this updated edition, the author reframes and reasserts his original arguments in the light of debates about globalisation and comparative economic growth. The book begins with a classic account of the characteristics, progress, and political, economic and social implications of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, France and Germany. Professor Landes here raises the much-debated question: why was Europe the first to industrialise? He then charts the economic history of the twentieth-century: the effect of the First World War in accelerating the dissolution of the old international economy; the economic crisis of 1929-32; Europe's recovery and unprecedented economic growth following the Second World War. He concludes that only by continuous industrial revolution can Europe and the world sustain itself in the years ahead.

Henry Kissinger offers in
a deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder. Drawing on his experience as one of the foremost statesmen of the modern era—advising presidents, traveling the world, observing and shaping the central foreign policy events of recent decades—Kissinger now reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism.
There has never been a true “world order,” Kissinger observes. For most of history, civilizations defined their own concepts of order. Each considered itself the center of the world and envisioned its distinct principles as universally relevant. China conceived of a global cultural hierarchy with the Emperor at its pinnacle. In Europe, Rome imagined itself surrounded by barbarians; when Rome fragmented, European peoples refined a concept of an equilibrium of sovereign states and sought to export it across the world. Islam, in its early centuries, considered itself the world’s sole legitimate political unit, destined to expand indefinitely until the world was brought into harmony by religious principles. The United States was born of a conviction about the universal applicability of democracy—a conviction that has guided its policies ever since.
Now international affairs take place on a global basis, and these historical concepts of world order are meeting. Every region participates in questions of high policy in every other, often instantaneously. Yet there is no consensus among the major actors about the rules and limits guiding this process, or its ultimate destination. The result is mounting tension.
Grounded in Kissinger’s deep study of history and his experience as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State,
guides readers through crucial episodes in recent world history. Kissinger offers a unique glimpse into the inner deliberations of the Nixon administration’s negotiations with Hanoi over the end of the Vietnam War, as well as Ronald Reagan’s tense debates with Soviet Premier Gorbachev in Reykjavík. He offers compelling insights into the future of U.S.–China relations and the evolution of the European Union, and examines lessons of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking readers from his analysis of nuclear negotiations with Iran through the West’s response to the Arab Spring and tensions with Russia over Ukraine,
anchors Kissinger’s historical analysis in the decisive events of our time.
Provocative and articulate, blending historical insight with geopolitical prognostication,
is a unique work that could come only from a lifelong policymaker and diplomat.

Originally published in 1985, Neil Postman’s groundbreaking polemic about the corrosive effects of television on our politics and public discourse has been hailed as a twenty-first-century book published in the twentieth century. Now, with television joined by more sophisticated electronic media—from the Internet to cell phones to DVDs—it has taken on even greater significance. Amusing Ourselves to Death is a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment. It is also a blueprint for regaining controlof our media, so that they can serve our highest goals.

The 5th Edition of Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation by Burgelman, Christensen, and Wheelwright continues its unmatched tradition of market leadership, by using a combination of text, readings, and cases to bring to life the latest business research on these critical business challenges. Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation takes the perspective of the general manager at the product line, business unit, and corporate levels. The book not only examines each of these levels in some detail, but also addresses the interaction between the different levels of general management - for example, the fit between product strategy and business unit strategy, and the link between business and corporate level technology strategy. Each part of the book starts with an introductory chapter laying out an overall framework and offering a brief discussion of key tools and findings from existing literature. The remainder of each part offers a selected handful of seminar readings and case studies. Almost all of the cases deal with recent events and situations, including several that are concerned with the impact of the Internet. A few "classics" have been retained, however, because they capture a timeless issue or problem in such a definitive way that the historical date of their writing is irrelevant.

Awarded the Dexter Prize by the Society for the History of Technology, this book offers a comparative history of the evolution of modern electric power systems. It described large-scale technological change and demonstrates that technology cannot be understood unless placed in a cultural context.

A refreshing view of technology as a living force in the world.
This provocative book introduces a brand-new view of technology. It suggests that technology as a whole is not a jumble of wires and metal but a living, evolving organism that has its own unconscious needs and tendencies. Kevin Kelly looks out through the eyes of this global technological system to discover "what it wants." He uses vivid examples from the past to trace technology's long course and then follows a dozen trajectories of technology into the near future to project where technology is headed. This new theory of technology offers three practical lessons: By listening to what technology wants we can better prepare ourselves and our children for the inevitable technologies to come. By adopting the principles of pro-action and engagement, we can steer technologies into their best roles. And by aligning ourselves with the long-term imperatives of this near-living system, we can capture its full gifts. Written in intelligent and accessible language, this is a fascinating, innovative, and optimistic look at how humanity and technology join to produce increasing opportunities in the world and how technology can give our lives greater meaning.

"More than any thing else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being," says W. Brian Arthur. Yet, until now the major questions of technology have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from -- how exactly does invention work? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Why are certain regions -- Cambridge, England, in the 1920s and Silicon Valley today -- hotbeds of innovation, while others languish? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? How do new industries, and the economy itself, emerge from technologies? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur sets forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology that gives answers to these questions. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. It achieves for the progress of technology what Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress. Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Conventional thinking ascribes the invention of technologies to "thinking outside the box," or vaguely to genius or creativity, but Arthur shows that such explanations are inadequate. Rather, technologies are put together from pieces -- themselves technologies -- that already exist. Technologies therefore share common ancestries and combine, morph, and combine again to create further technologies. Technology evolves much as a coral reef builds itself from activities of small organisms -- it creates itself from itself; all technologies are descended from earlier technologies. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, and writing in wonder fully engaging and clear prose, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives.

Technology matters, writes David Nye, because it is inseparable from being human. We have used tools for more than 100,000 years, and their central purpose has not always been to provide necessities. People excel at using old tools to solve new problems and at inventing new tools for more elegant solutions to old tasks. Perhaps this is because we are intimate with devices and machines from an early age--as children, we play with technological toys: trucks, cars, stoves, telephones, model railroads, Playstations. Through these machines we imagine ourselves into a creative relationship with the world. As adults, we retain this technological playfulness with gadgets and appliances--Blackberries, cell phones, GPS navigation systems in our cars.We use technology to shape our world, yet we think little about the choices we are making. In Technology Matters, Nye tackles ten central questions about our relationship to technology, integrating a half-century of ideas about technology into ten cogent and concise chapters, with wide-ranging historical examples from many societies. He asks: Can we define technology? Does technology shape us, or do we shape it? Is technology inevitable or unpredictable? (Why do experts often fail to get it right?)? How do historians understand it? Are we using modern technology to create cultural uniformity, or diversity? To create abundance, or an ecological crisis? To destroy jobs or create new opportunities? Should "the market" choose our technologies? Do advanced technologies make us more secure, or escalate dangers? Does ubiquitous technology expand our mental horizons, or encapsulate us in artifice?These large questions may have no final answers yet, but we need to wrestle with them--to live them, so that we may, as Rilke puts it, "live along some distant day into the answers."

With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in "The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings. First published in 1967, "The New Industrial State" continues to resonate today.

【《文明之光》系列荣获由中宣部、中国图书评论学会和中央电视台联合推选的2014“中国好书”奖】
吴军博士从对人类文明产生了重大影响却在过去被忽略的历史故事里，选择了有意思的几十个片段特写，以人文和科技、经济结合的视角，有机地展现了一幅人类文明发展的宏大画卷。
《文明之光 》系列大致按照从地球诞生到近现代的顺序讲述了人类文明进程的各个阶段，每个章节相对独立，全景式地展现了人类文明发展历程中的多样性。
《文明之光》系列第三册讲述了音乐、美术、计算机、互联网、金融、硅谷对世界科技发展的启迪、微粒子和宇宙天文学、环境保护等，共八个专题。
看完这个系列，读者朋友可以体会到，在漫长的历史长河中，人类社会虽然不断遇到一些困难和问题，但人类总是会有办法解决它们，我们要成为一个“理性乐观派”；其次是能够认识到普通人对文明发展的贡献，每个人都可以成为贡献者。
【编辑推荐】
一曲理性乐观者的牧歌 通俗易懂的世界通史入门读物
娓娓道来几十段精彩的文明史片段，闪耀人类文明的三卷赞歌！
作者以人文与科技、经济结合的视角，选取对人类历史发展产生重大影响的人或事件：大航海，文艺复兴，古代罗马，美第奇家族，瓷器，牛顿，爱迪生，航天飞机，原子能，绘画、音乐，计算机时代……透过有趣易懂的故事式的讲解，揭示人类文明不断解决问题、曲折前行的辉煌历程，以及平凡人等对社会进步的巨大贡献。在阅读过程中，读者既能够增长历史知识，也可以体会到人类文明发展历程的多样性。
在具体的讲述上，作者以科学的态度提及不同的观点，并不只执一家之言或是轻易给出一个结论，比如评价宋朝就提到了钱穆、陈寅恪、费正清的不同观点。正是这种贯穿始终的科学态度，让这本书给人启发的同时也令人信服。
万科集团董事长王石先生、美国著名华裔物理学家张首晟教授分别为《文明之光》作序，对本书给予了高度评价。