Preface

Summary

THE PACE OF TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION has accelerated rapidly over time. In the beginning, human beings survived for 300,000 years by fashioning flint into tools used for hunting, preparing food, and building shelters. For another 10,000 years, metal tools primarily served the same purpose. The Industrial Revolution in Germany began more than 200 years ago sometime during the long reign of metal tools, marking in earnest the beginning of the relationship between humans and machines that continues to this day. Most recently, human-computer interaction, a refined version of human and machine interaction, has become the identifying characteristic of the information age — a fledgling and brief era compared with the long run simple hand tools have enjoyed, but also one marked by rapid growth. For example, on June 23, 2008, the world took note of the sale of the one billionth computer. It took more than fifty years to reach that milestone. By contrast, according to a BBC News report, the two billionth computer will be sold in the year 2014. Given that Germany ranks number four on the list of number of in-use computers in the world, Germans are not strangers to the effects of this rapid technological acceleration.

This astonishing growth rate, coupled with the remarkable capabilities of information technology (IT), has allowed denizens of the information age to co-opt the word “technology” in the seemingly exclusive service of the world of computing.